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Other InterWeb (née Nightly55) Web Browser for Mac OS X 10.6

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Jazzzny

Jazzzny

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 23, 2021
163
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Screen_shot_2024-03-14_at_7.12.36_PM.png


Hello everyone,
I'm proud to announce a new web browser for 10.6 which I am tentatively naming "Nightly55" (will probably change once I settle on a name I like.)
It's based on upstream code from Roytam1's Basilisk 55, which itself is based on Firefox 55/Moebius/UXP. The codebase is quite modern, with a Javascript engine new enough to run stock Discord (see screenshots).

Download a copy from here and let me know how it goes!

Source code: https://github.com/Jazzzny/basilisk55-snowleopard
 

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Last edited:
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Crashed at launch - I guess a library is missing?

Code: 
Process:         basilisk [153]
Path:            /Applications/Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/basilisk
Identifier:      org.mozilla.nightly
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [101]

Date/Time:       2024-01-29 21:41:03.663 +0000
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Report Version:  6

Exception Type:  EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread:  0

Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/basilisk
  Reason: image not found

Binary Images:
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe4163b  dyld 132.1 (???) <4CDE4F04-0DD6-224E-ACE5-3C06E169A801> /usr/lib/dyld
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Crashed at launch - I guess a library is missing?

Code: 
Process:         basilisk [153]
Path:            /Applications/Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/basilisk
Identifier:      org.mozilla.nightly
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [101]

Date/Time:       2024-01-29 21:41:03.663 +0000
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Report Version:  6

Exception Type:  EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread:  0

Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/basilisk
  Reason: image not found

Binary Images:
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe4163b  dyld 132.1 (???) <4CDE4F04-0DD6-224E-ACE5-3C06E169A801> /usr/lib/dyld
Click to expand...
If you have MacPorts installed, run `port install libcxx`. If you don't, unzip and copy the attached files to `/usr/lib/`.

Jazzzny
 

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Jazzzny said:
If you don't, unzip and copy the attached files to `/usr/lib/`.
Click to expand...

This worked for me. Perhaps it could be set to auto-install in future versions. :)

Jazzzny said:
Download a copy from here and let me know how it goes!
Click to expand...

YouTube worked straight out of the box, which is already a winner! :D

Though I did notice some audio glitching.

PWSONG3.png


Videos on iPlayer do not play properly. They suffer from a combination of stuttering or complete stalling - plus audio glitching...

IxjbUnW.png


...in full-screen or otherwise.

VkqvRPW.png


I couldn't access the cookie settings for this site. Refreshing made no difference - the window wouldn't open fully.

0SEzrvZ.png


There's great potential here and this will be an awesome browser once the issues are ironed out over time.
 
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Jazzzny said:
If you have MacPorts installed, run `port install libcxx`. If you don't, unzip and copy the attached files to `/usr/lib/`.

Jazzzny
Click to expand...
That did the trick :)
Fullscreen 1080P Youtube plays perfectly for me and that's with the vanilla prefs.js before any tinkering.
One bug I found is the advanced tab is not available in Preferences - this is no deal breaker though as I like to customise the prefs.js file manually.

Great work @Jazzzny - you've breathed a little more life into Snow Leopard!
 
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Jazzzny said:
Hello everyone,
I've published a new release of the Nightly55 browser.
You can directly download the new release from https://github.com/Jazzzny/basilisk55-snowleopard/releases/tag/2024-01-30.

View attachment 2343185

Jazzzny
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. :)

Bizarrely, the no-entry sign appeared when the program was copied into the Applications folder but it ran nonetheless and the sign vanished after a reboot. It would seem that Nightly requires some optimising or tweaking for video playback on lower specced machines that can't pull through on sheer Ghz grunt.

On my 2010 C2D MBA, YouTube at 1080p is choppy in full screen and iPlayer is basically a slideshow - even with the lowest resolution selected. As a test, I rebooted into Catalina and faultlessly played the exact same content in full screen with Safari and the highest resolution selected. I did the same using Firefox version 122.0 with more or less identical results.

Again, with a few improvements this will be an awesome browser and look forward to seeing these issues being addressed over time.
 
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I’m loving this so far, though the advanced tab in the preferences still seems to not work. I use the HTTPS proxy fix to get apple music working and you would have to disable the proxy in firefox but i’m unable to do that without the advanced tab :/// otherwise it’s great!
 
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Posting from Nightly now (2009 Mac Mini, 2.0GHz C2D). Feels slower than Arctic Fox, but it seems to feel more compatible with the modern web. Good job.
I suppose it would run faster on an i5 or i7 on Snow Leopard?
 
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mectojic said:
Posting from Nightly now (2009 Mac Mini, 2.0GHz C2D). Feels slower than Arctic Fox, but it seems to feel more compatible with the modern web. Good job.
I suppose it would run faster on an i5 or i7 on Snow Leopard?
Click to expand...

Having yet to test it on my Sandy Bridge i7 MBP, I can infer, in Snow Leopard, this version of Nightly will, yes, run markedly faster than on the C2D 2.0GHz — Penryn or otherwise.

Insofar as Snow Leopard on non-Xeon Macs, a Sandy Bridge dual-core or quad-core i5/i7 is going to be where we’ll see this browser shine at its brightest. :)
 
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Now that I have it working correctly, i’ve been using it on my 24” white iMac. it works fantastic, and as for the others having issues with video playback I haven’t been experiencing any of this. I have been watching youtube full screen at 720p and there’s no stuttering, just buffering which is expected. As long as I let the video fully buffer I have no issues.
 
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Unfortunately, video playback requires a strong processor as hardware acceleration isn't available at all on 10.6. In my testing, 720p YouTube just about runs well enough on my 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook, so I'd assume that 2GHz would be a good minimum. It also might be worth testing out some lightweight YouTube frontends such as invidious, as they have no heavy javascript eating up CPU time.
 
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Jazzzny said:
Unfortunately, video playback requires a strong processor as hardware acceleration isn't available at all on 10.6.
Click to expand...

That explains why I'm able to achieve 1080p with YouTube in full screen under Catalina with a 1.4Ghz C2D machine but not with Snow Leopard.

At what point was hardware acceleration introduced within the Intel macOS timeline? Mountain Lion, Mavericks?
 
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