AquaWeb micro - A Stupidly Fast Minibrowser for PPC OS X

[z970]

Introducing AquaWeb micro, an all-in-one adaptation of TenFourFoxPEP built into a heavily modified TenFourFoxBox in order to bring extremely high performance browsing to Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, and Sorbet Leopard.

TenFourFox is required; Quartz Extreme graphics are recommended; Core Image graphics are suggested.

Usage Tips:

o Select Home under the Box menu within the Menu Bar to return to the home page.

o Press Command + Shift + U to copy the current page URL to the system clipboard.

o Press Command + R to reload the page, press Command + Left to go back a page, and press Command + Right to go forward a page.

o Because AquaWeb uses the DuckDuckGo search engine, utilizing "!bangs" to jump straight into a site instead of searching for it first can save time. Instead of searching for 'YouTube', simply preface a query with '!yt', followed by whatever phrase you wish to search for. The same applies to Yahoo! (!y), Bing (!b), Startpage (!sp), Wikipedia (!w), old reddit (!oldreddit), and so on.

o To finely scrub through videos in YouTube, double-click the left or right side of the video to reverse back ten seconds, or skip ahead ten seconds.

o In YouTube, click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the video, and set the video quality to 144p for the best playback performance. This setting will be saved, so it should only have to be done once.

o While streaming audio or music playlists via YouTube, click the yellow "-" button in the top-left corner of the browser window to minimize the video window into the Dock to reduce background resource usage.

o In lieu of full screen browsing, click the green "+" button in the top-left corner of the browser window to maximize the browser window. Note that this will reduce performance, but can be useful in websites that temporarily require a larger viewing area. Click it again to return to the prior state.

o In lieu of tabbed browsing, open a locally saved website link (webloc file, for example on the Desktop) while AquaWeb is active to open a new window. Opening certain links within certain webpages will also provide this result.

AquaWeb micro is available on Macintosh Garden:

AquaWeb / AquaVid - Macintosh Garden

AquaWeb and AquaVid are heavily modified foxboxes designed to bring maximum browsing speeds and efficiency to OS X Tiger / Leopard.

macintoshgarden.org

 

[Dronecatcher]

The Foxbox by itself will only use the vanilla TFF prefs file. As it is, AquaVid is unusable on my 1.33 Powerbook.

 

[z970]

The Foxbox by itself will only use the vanilla TFF prefs file. As it is AquaVid is unusable on my 1.33 Powerbook.

Right, foxboxes come with the vanilla prefs files. AquaWeb/Vid have been altered so that they come with the super prefs built-in. The performance difference between them and a stock foxbox is extreme.

My 1.33 iBook plays 240p video no problem. Make sure a palettable resolution is selected, and allow videos to buffer before playing. Turn annotations off, and resize the window to a smaller size if necessary. The less to render, the better. - Even my R128 G3 can play buffered 144p video!

 

[sparty411]

Good work; I haven't had a chance to try AquaVid yet, but AquaWeb works really well! Any chance you would be willing to share the prefs file you concocted?

 

[z970]

Good work; I haven't had a chance to try AquaVid yet, but AquaWeb works really well! Any chance you would be willing to share the prefs file you concocted?

It's available in the package contents. As mentioned above, it's all built-in.

I originally wanted to offer the prefs file as an optional add-in to TenFourFox, but getting the browser to acknowledge its validity (tried via multiple methods) was a nightmare. Ultimately, it's probably going to come down to manually translating everything to a user edit in about:config, but I just wanted to get this out at that point. However, it may be a future endeavor, potentially not even by me.

On AquaVid; at one point, my DC G5 was even comfortably streaming 1080p...though your mileage may vary...

 

[sparty411]

On AquaVid; at one point, my DC G5 was even comfortably streaming 1080p...though your mileage may vary...

Based. That is impressive. I really love Tiger, and stuff like this makes it all that much more usable for me. I just wish it was possible to build a few newer GNU programs.. Anyway, would you mind testing my prefs file? I'm not quite done tweaking it yet, but I would like some input.

prefs.js

drive.google.com

 

[z970]

AquaWeb/Vid have been updated to include spellcheck functionality.

Based. That is impressive. I really love Tiger, and stuff like this makes it all that much more usable for me. I just wish it was possible to build a few newer GNU programs.. Anyway, would you mind testing my prefs file? I'm not quite done tweaking it yet, but I would like some input.

prefs.js

drive.google.com

What's different about that prefs from stock?

 

[sparty411]

What's different about that prefs from stock?

I used some of @eyoungren 's tweaks, and added some of the UOC patch tweaks. Does it look stock? I might have uploaded the wrong file.

 

[z970]

I used some of @eyoungren 's tweaks, and added some of the UOC patch tweaks. Does it look stock? I might have uploaded the wrong file.

For ease, I would recommend working backwards from the super prefs in AquaWeb, as it's all already there, complete with prior trial / error.

You'd probably get a lot farther in terms of 1:1 translation a lot quicker, too.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Right, foxboxes come with the vanilla prefs files. AquaWeb/Vid have been altered so that they come with the super prefs built-in. The performance difference between them and a stock foxbox is extreme.

Right, I assumed the prefs was missing as the performance is so bad. I've been using FoxBoxes with tweaked prefs files for years and I'm not seeing any improvement here - for me, stopping the video, changing the resolution, then allowing it to buffer while the CPU is choking is not ideal - my version streaming 180P instantly uses a quarter of the CPU.
An ideal would be the options @wicknix 's YewTube offers but I've yet to get that working in Tiger with a FoxBox.

 

[Appleuser201]

Right, I assumed the prefs was missing as the performance is so bad. I've been using FoxBoxes with tweaked prefs files for years and I'm not seeing any improvement here - for me, stopping the video, changing the resolution, then allowing it to buffer while the CPU is choking is not ideal - my version streaming 180P instantly uses a quarter of the CPU.
An ideal would be the options @wicknix 's YewTube offers but I've yet to get that working in Tiger with a FoxBox.

How do the other YouTube options hold up compared to AquaVid? Can you post CPU usage for each working YouTube application?

 

[Dronecatcher]

How do the other YouTube options hold up compared to AquaVid? Can you post CPU usage for each working YouTube application?

On my 1.33 Powerbook on Tiger
AquaVid 95-100%
TFFB+Realplayer 25-30%

 

[Appleuser201]

On my 1.33 Powerbook on Tiger
AquaVid 95-100%
TFFB+Realplayer 25-30%

This means any G4 below that won't stand a chance with AquaVid at the moment. I wouldn't want to watch 240p on a machine of those specs anyways... I'd rather download and watch 360p or 480p. No need to make these machines choke over a 240p video...

 

[Dronecatcher]

This means any G4 below that won't stand a chance with AquaVid at the moment.

Why not try it and see? I haven't because I've done this before - hence switching to 3gp files on low end G4s and G3s.

 

[z970]

Why not try it and see? I haven't because I've done this before - hence switching to 3gp files on low end G4s and G3s.

I had a 3gp version going that used QuickTime to play video, but that was so consistently low quality you could count the individual pixels, and was prone to skipping. So I figured the quality-adjusting, setting-tweaking, video-buffering way would at least allow for finer control, and then AquaVid could at least be used for music / audio playback, which it does fine even on a G3 (that bodes well for the iMac / Power Mac G3's built-in speakers )

I don't know, I'm fine with the pause, tweak, play method. Doing all that puts slightly less demand on the CPU and allows the video to buffer at the same time, all the better if it's < 5 min.

If you all can find a way to make foxboxes effortlessly download 360p / 480p video, go for it. We've already got the ultimate prefs combination, a pretty icon, and altered branding, so we can release it as AquaVid 2.0 no problem. It can be another testament to the power of the community.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I had a 3gp version going that used QuickTime to play video, but that was so consistently low quality you could count the individual pixels, and was prone to skipping.

But with your method for G3 playback you have to drop down to 144P - lower than 3gp at 180P ?

Maybe it's a regional thing but buffering is a no go for me - I gave up waiting for a 4 minute clip to buffer, it got to about 40% - I clicked play and it was 85% CPU for a few seconds then back up to 92-100% with the fans blasting (Powerbook 1.33)
Since I started down this path around 3 years ago, I must've tried over 50 user agents - some worked effectively but the recent changes at Youtube have cancelled many out - and of course we've lost Safari, Omniweb and Camino as browsers that can work with Youtube. Tonvid still works but presents a delivery system that doesn't favour previously available options.
Because TFF only offers either HTML5 playback or 3gp passed to another application we're limited there too.

 

[z970]

But with your method for G3 playback you have to drop down to 144P - lower than 3gp at 180P ?

Amazingly enough, the 144p option in the HTML5 player appeared to be higher quality than the 3gp videos, at least when I tested them. - I'm not claiming anything, they just looked that way.

At least there's no skipping in the HTML5 player. Video may be out of commission, but that was what killed it for me with the 3gp videos. Borderline unwatchable video, plus inconsistent audio. - Perhaps it's a preferential issue, but just change the UA if you want the option.

We're limited in a lot of areas in this stuff. Worst case scenario, at least it's another video option for Tiger, which previously only had full TFF and the complex setup of SMTube. Plus, AquaVid has the advantage of plug-and-play functionality and far lighterweight usage than full TFF. Especially when considering all forms of TenFourTube are now dead (thanks YouTube), it gets the job done. And at the end of the day, perhaps it simply summarizes to that.

 

[Appleuser201]

But with your method for G3 playback you have to drop down to 144P - lower than 3gp at 180P ?

Maybe it's a regional thing but buffering is a no go for me - I gave up waiting for a 4 minute clip to buffer, it got to about 40% - I clicked play and it was 85% CPU for a few seconds then back up to 92-100% with the fans blasting (Powerbook 1.33)
Since I started down this path around 3 years ago, I must've tried over 50 user agents - some worked effectively but the recent changes at Youtube have cancelled many out - and of course we've lost Safari, Omniweb and Camino as browsers that can work with Youtube. Tonvid still works but presents a delivery system that doesn't favour previously available options.
Because TFF only offers either HTML5 playback or 3gp passed to another application we're limited there too.

I usually just download videos at 360p on any machine running Tiger, I prefer the higher quality video.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I usually just download videos at 360p on any machine running Tiger, I prefer the higher quality video.

Same here - with TonVid/Youtube-dl/Mplayer the file's downloaded and playing with no hassle.

 

[sparty411]

For ease, I would recommend working backwards from the super prefs in AquaWeb, as it's all already there, complete with prior trial / error.

You'd probably get a lot farther in terms of 1:1 translation a lot quicker, too.

I'll do that. But even with the user prefs I have set, I can notice an enormous difference in terms of scrolling fluidity, speed of image loading, and fluidity of animations (front page of ebay was a big one). Do you not notice these things as well? I don't believe I'm imagining things.

 

[z970]

I'll do that. But even with the user prefs I have set, I can notice an enormous difference in terms of scrolling fluidity, speed of image loading, and fluidity of animations (front page of ebay was a big one). Do you not notice these things as well? I don't believe I'm imagining things.

Yep, they're noticeable...

 

[sparty411]

Yep, they're noticeable...

Great, I'm not crazy lol.

 

[z970]

The AquaWeb prefs have been adapted to a TenFourFox prefs.js file! Plus, it's universal, so it will work in both Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Just replace your current prefs.js and enjoy the speed.

 

[z970]

Public Service Announcement:

The Ultimate FF45 Prefs have been adjusted to fix an issue with image rendering on sites like eBay.

 

[looking4awayout]

Hello everybody, I am Looking4awayout of L4Soft, the creator of the UOC Patch.

I'm writing this post to make some clarification about the patch itself and its extension, the UOC Enforcer.
The UOC Patch and the Enforcer are two essential components that must be used together, in order to bring Mozilla-based browsers to the best performance they can achieve.

So, by using just the UOC Enforcer (aka the user.js file) in the profile folder, the browser won't be fully optimized.

You need both the UOC Patch (which must be put in the \defaults\pref directory of your Mozilla based browser) and the Enforcer (that you must put in your profile folder) in order to enjoy the fully optimized experience.

While I appreciate @z970mp 's to port it to the PowerPC, I have been investigating his prefs.js, and I noticed that he is using a very outdated version of the UOC Patch! 😛
I have rewritten the entire Patch + Enforcer file from scratch during this week, so please re-download it and test it with TenFourFox to see if it makes a difference and if so, please update accordingly!

I unfortunately do not have a Power Macintosh, so the Macintosh version of the UOC Patch has been developed on a "Macintel" Mac Mini 1.1 running System 10.6.8. @sparty411 seems that has either got only the UOC Enforcer or he has forgot to update. Considering what I have seen in z970mp's file, I think he might have even used the wrong version, the Windows one, since the Macintosh version of the UOC Patch has absolutely no reference to DirectX and the other Microsoft APIs. So please re-download the UOC Patch and the Enforcer, test it out on your PowerPC Macintoshes and if the patch does not optimize the system as it should (I do not have a Power Macintosh, so I need your help for that!), feel free to tweak it to suit your needs.

The Macintosh version of the UOC Patch only uses OpenGL. WebGL is not fully enabled by default, only some components are. But that's because on my Mac Mini, enabling those seem to speed up the browser, unlike enabling full fledged WebGL. On the other hand, full WebGL seems to bring benefits on a PC instead, at least on my Tualatin RDD.

The way I have made the UOC Patch is pretty much to tweak the browser to work as good as possible on a Pentium III system with at least a 128 bit graphics card and 768MB of memory, upwards. I do not know how it performs on a PowerPC Macintosh, but I would like to know, since I do not have beta testers for the Patch.

P.S. A prefs.js file for tweaks is not the ideal way to implement the tweaks. I have found that out in the alpha version of the UOC Patch: many of my entries simply would be ignored by the browser. So, I found out that the best way is to do it through a defaults replacement file, which is how the UOC Patch is structured. Even after doing that, there might be some "stubborn" entries that just get ignored by the browser, and in that case, in order to implement those, you will need to use a user.js file that must be put into the profile folder.

The user.js will take care of the stubborn entries, but in order to edit those, you will have to edit the user.js file itself.