Really Fast Browser for PPC Macs

[AmazingHenry]

I know all of the PPC users are using TenFourFox, as it's the only browser still updated. But there's another good option: Camino (caminobrowser.org). It hasn't been updated since 2012, but I find that it works fine with most websites. And it fast, especially on a G5. It totally beats TenFourFox in speed. And YouTube. Camino can play YouTube using Flash, and as much as I hate Flash Player, I think it's better than HTML5 for watching YouTube on PowerPC. It plays great with 360p, even on my 1.33GHz G4 (I'll test my 700MHz later). I can watch 720p smoothly using my Dual 2GHz G5, and 1080p will sort of play. It skips a lot but gets better as the video plays. I imagine that you might even be able to watch 4K on a G5 Quad. Just thought I'd let everyone know that Camino is sill a great alternative to TenFourFox if you need speed over compatibility. I'm typing this in Camino now. I hope you try it!

 

[eyoungren]

Camino is ancient. That said, it will works and I'm glad it's doing fine for you.

As far as sheer speed however…you want Demeter

Demeter was based on the Shira browser and is faster than any Webkit based browser out there including Stainless and Sunrise.

Try it.

 

[AmazingHenry]

Camino is ancient. That said, it will works and I'm glad it's doing fine for you.

As far as sheer speed however…you want Demeter

Demeter was based on the Shira browser and is faster than any Webkit based browser out there including Stainless and Sunrise.

Try it.

Thanks! I'm typing this in Demeter now but looking at the dates in the About box is looks older than Camino, yet it seems to perform better, even with YouTube. How is this so?

 

[Hrududu]

Stainless still renders pages well and is about as lightweight as it gets. Not a lot of features, but Stainless really makes me happy on multi-CPU systems since each tab/window is running its own process and RAM. Really hand if you have a video playing on one window while browsing in another, no stutter in the video.

 

[bunnspecial]

I find Leopard Webkit to be one of the faster browser options.

There was also running 10.2.7 on my single 1.8 G5. IE5 was FAST on that

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks! I'm typing this in Demeter now but looking at the dates in the About box is looks older than Camino, yet it seems to perform better, even with YouTube. How is this so?

Because Shira, the browser it's based on, has a better engine.

 

[hellothere231]

If you want an all around fast web browser; I would go with Leopard-Webkit (plus GlimmerBlocker if you can), I've had much better web browsing performance under this than TenFourFox, even with tweaks. For quick searches and the like, I would probably use either Stainless or Demeter.

 

[headsh0t95]

IE5 was FAST on that

Sure, a browser that can't render any modern page and gives up is faster than one that actually loads the page...

 

[tevion5]

Camino is ancient. That said, it will works and I'm glad it's doing fine for you.

As far as sheer speed however…you want Demeter

Demeter was based on the Shira browser and is faster than any Webkit based browser out there including Stainless and Sunrise.

Try it.

Faster than Stainless? This I must see..

 

[eyoungren]

Faster than Stainless? This I must see..

Demeter was created before Stainless.

Try it.

 

[internetzel]

Demeter, Shiira, Sunrise, Roccat, Stainless and Safari are all WebKit based browsers and will use the version of WebKit that is currently installed (normally the one that came with the currently installed version of Safari) for processing andy web content; that means that WebKit is responsiblye for nearly anything that is happening in the content part of those browser's windows; the "browser" is essentially a web browser user interface for WebKit. The browser shell can also change how much caching WebKit will be doing - this is what makes the biggest part of difference in speed. Some people determine the speed of the browser mainly by its launch time - Leopard WebKit will not perform as well as older versions of WebKit in that discipline.

That said you can "upgrade" any browser or application (like Apple Mail) that uses the currently installed version of WebKit with the upgraded WebKit frameworks that are provided by Leopard WebKit.

I test Leopard WebKit with Roccat, Stainless, Safari and Mail and those work well together.
The benefits of Leopard WebKit are currently a browser engine up to date with Safari 10 (lacking only some of the not so commonly needed features) and very importantly also upgrade HTTPS/TLS secured connections in order to fix all widely known security issues present in 10.5.8 .
In order to get an upgraded version of your WebKit based application just drag its icon and drop it on "Relink against Leopard WebKit" (comes with Leopard WebKit) and wait for the process to finish (that black and white wheel will disappear when relinking is finished).
Safari can be relinked as described above but it can also be used with upgraded WebKit by simply launching the "WebKit" application that comes with Leopard WebKit.
Relinking of Stainless will be possible with the next release of Leopard WebKit (available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/leopard-webkit/files/602/Leopard/PowerPC/). Until then you can copy the "WebKit" application to your Applications folder and enable "Load frameworks from WebKit nightly build" on the "Advanced" tab in the Stainless preferences.

HTML5 video playback speed on youtube should also be quite good with Leopard WebKit - 720p playback works well on a 2.1 GHz iMac G5 as well as 480p on a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4. Installing Perian might also make a difference - I always had it installed and don't know how playback performs without it.

 

[128keaton]

Demeter, Shiira, Sunrise, Roccat, Stainless and Safari are all WebKit based browsers and will use the version of WebKit that is currently installed (normally the one that came with the currently installed version of Safari) for processing andy web content; that means that WebKit is responsiblye for nearly anything that is happening in the content part of those browser's windows; the "browser" is essentially a web browser user interface for WebKit. The browser shell can also change how much caching WebKit will be doing - this is what makes the biggest part of difference in speed. Some people determine the speed of the browser mainly by its launch time - Leopard WebKit will not perform as well as older versions of WebKit in that discipline.

That said you can "upgrade" any browser or application (like Apple Mail) that uses the currently installed version of WebKit with the upgraded WebKit frameworks that are provided by Leopard WebKit.

I test Leopard WebKit with Roccat, Stainless, Safari and Mail and those work well together.
The benefits of Leopard WebKit are currently a browser engine up to date with Safari 10 (lacking only some of the not so commonly needed features) and very importantly also upgrade HTTPS/TLS secured connections in order to fix all widely known security issues present in 10.5.8 .
In order to get an upgraded version of your WebKit based application just drag its icon and drop it on "Relink against Leopard WebKit" (comes with Leopard WebKit) and wait for the process to finish (that black and white wheel will disappear when relinking is finished).
Safari can be relinked as described above but it can also be used with upgraded WebKit by simply launching the "WebKit" application that comes with Leopard WebKit.
Relinking of Stainless will be possible with the next release of Leopard WebKit (available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/leopard-webkit/files/602/Leopard/PowerPC/). Until then you can copy the "WebKit" application to your Applications folder and enable "Load frameworks from WebKit nightly build" on the "Advanced" tab in the Stainless preferences.

HTML5 video playback speed on youtube should also be quite good with Leopard WebKit - 720p playback works well on a 2.1 GHz iMac G5 as well as 480p on a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4. Installing Perian might also make a difference - I always had it installed and don't know how playback performs without it.

Exactly. Thank you! the OP of the thread is developing a web browser, which won't make a difference or not on speed unless he's just doing caching magic...

 

[AmazingHenry]

Exactly. Thank you! the OP of the thread is developing a web browser, which won't make a difference or not on speed unless he's just doing caching magic...

I clearly explained what the browser was, and asked if I thought there would be interest. My original plan was to not develop the browser but people wanted me to keep going and make it. You could've just told me what you think. And I have tested this browser and it really does make a speed difference when I take out all of the features.

 

[internetzel]

If you want an all around fast web browser; I would go with Leopard-Webkit (plus GlimmerBlocker if you can), I've had much better web browsing performance under this than TenFourFox, even with tweaks. For quick searches and the like, I would probably use either Stainless or Demeter.

Because GlimmerBlocker is a Java application, causing it to be rather slow and use lots of memory, I'd rather recommend using Privoxy which should be pretty fast and use very few memory. Privoxy is not as easy to configure as GlimmerBlocker but the performance gains seems more important to me.

 

[MysticCow]

Exactly. Thank you! the OP of the thread is developing a web browser, which won't make a difference or not on speed unless he's just doing caching magic...

Our last stand will be with the mobile web. Find the mobile version of the site and it strips all the crap code out because people would really complain about data rates otherwise.

Our problem on the web is the extra crap, not the meat/potatoes of the page itself.

 

[internetzel]

Find the mobile version of the site and it strips all the crap code out because people would really complain about data rates otherwise.

That's easily by the web sites themselves if you modify you browser's "user agent" to the one of a mobile browser; in Roccat you just choose one from the Roccat menu (for example, iOS 10 Safari should be fine if Roccat was relinked against latest Leopard WebKit), in Safari you can choose or enter one in the developer menu (available after enabling the developer menu in the preferences).

 

[AmazingHenry]

Thanks everyone, I've learned a lot about PowerPC browsers in this thread.

 

[mrkapqa]

if you use WebkKit you can try oiut ClickToPlugin and QuickTimePlugin for Leopard - it needs Safari 5.0.6 though (Leopard) - and then you should set ClickToPlugin for Quicktime in Setting - and this is very nice for Youtube et.al!