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SeaLion - Web browser for 10.7 - 12.6

wicknix

wicknix

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 4, 2017
2,639
5,328
Wisconsin, USA
SeaLion is based on the unified XUL platform (UXP) and the UI resembles the old SeaMonkey.

Included in the download are a few basic add-ons and themes.

If you're looking for a resource friendly browser for your old machine, this might be it.

Download link available here: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion

Edit: Most major sites work, including tubi.tv, twitch.tv, discord, github, youtube, etc.

SeaLion.png


Cheers
 
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wicknix said:
I just got the itch today to do it. Lol. I actually use Lion quite a bit, and while chromium-legacy is great, it's a resource hog that slows anything with 4gb ram or less to a halt.
Click to expand...

Also, correct me if I'm wrong here - Chromium-Legacy exhibits the same data gathering traits as Google Chrome. I'm sure that others are fine with that situation (and will inform me of this in their replies) but it's not something that I'm keen on.

wicknix said:
I also really like the old SM user interface.
Click to expand...

There's something to be said for simple and functional. :)
 
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Is there a more native-looking theme available?

Also put together with chromium-legacy and palemoon, that makes 3 modernish browsers for 10.8+. Not too bad!
 
Yeah, there are 2 themes built in, and a few in the download archive in the themes directoy. The classic firefox theme looks good, as does pinball.

Tip: right click on the stop icon and select small icons for a better look.
 
wicknix said:
SeaLion is based on the unified XUL platform (UXP) and the UI resembles the old SeaMonkey.

Included in the download are a few basic add-ons and themes.

If you're looking for a resource friendly browser for your old machine, this might be it.

Download link available on my blog (see signature).

Edit: Most major sites work, including tubi.tv, twitch.tv, discord, github, youtube, etc.

View attachment 2189742

Cheers
Click to expand...

I’ll have to side-by-side this with FF ESR on High Sierra, as HS is the only other macOS iteration I have lying about here after Snow Leopard.
 
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New build is now available (32.1.1). The unified XUL platform just released a new version the other day, so i rebuilt SeaLion to have all the current goodies it offers. Also included a few more extensions and a readme.txt with some tips. Same link (and filename) to download.

Edit: It's also now available on github: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/

Cheers
 
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Yeah, not quite as fast to render as FF/Chrome, but not horrible.
I'm all set up, extensions configured, and have my favorite theme pinball in use. The nostalgia is real.

pinball.png
 
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TheShortTimer said:
One issue is that it's noticeably slower than Firefox
Click to expand...
Rebuilt 32.1.1 with some extra optimizations and enabled av1 and jxl support which i forgot in the last 2 builds. You should notice a nice speed improvement. https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases

If that doesn't help, try a clean profile but use ematrix instead of noscript. Apparently noscript is known to be problematic with UXP based browsers from what i've read.

Cheers
 
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Having issues with discourse websites? Here is the fix:

Common discourse issue:
Screen Shot 2023-04-30 at 10.45.47 AM.png


Install the modhresponse.xpi that's included in the sealion-extras.zip and add this line:
Code: 
[["/discourse|^discuss|^community\\.|^forum\\.|resource\\.dopus\\.com/",["/browser-detect-/",["/.*/g",""]],["/vendor-/",["/(t\\.discourse\\.hoisted|t\\[e\\]|r)(\\?\\?|\\|\\|)=(\\{\\}|\\[\\])/g","$1$2($1=$3)","n??=[]","n||(n=[])"]],["/discourse-/",["e.draft||=t.draft","e.draft||(e.draft=t.draft)","/(t\\.__registry__\\._typeInjections\\.service|[ne]|[fm]\\[e\\])(\\?\\?|\\|\\|)=(\\[\\]|\\{\\})/g","$1$2($1=$3)","(s||=","!s&&(s=","this._details??=","this._details=this._details??","this._similarTopicsMessage||=","this._similarTopicsMessage=this._similarTopicsMessage||","this._applicationElement??=","this._applicationElement=this._applicationElement??"]]]]

Then enable it:
Screen Shot 2023-04-30 at 10.47.08 AM.png


Final result rendering properly:
Screen Shot 2023-04-30 at 10.46.28 AM.png


You enable/disable easily by clicking the scissors icon on the toolbar.

Cheers
 
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@wicknix you deserve a medal for all these efforts. This version of SeaLion is shaping up to be the best one yet. I had to disable eMatrix for YouTube before the videos would play but beyond that I'm delighted. Thanks once again. :)

RcgJPac.png
 
Thanks. It's really the UXP devs doing all the heavy lifting. I just wrapped it all up in to a different user interface.

As for YouTube (and many other sites) you will have to enable certain scripts for pages to display / work properly. By default ematrix will block most everything. You'll need to enable those scripts on a site by site basis. Once saved you'll never have to adjust them for that site again.

Example:
Here are my settings for YouTube.
Screen Shot 2023-05-13 at 8.35.29 PM.png

Green is enabled. Red is blocked.

Cheers
 
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Correct. 10.7 up to 10.14 for 32-bit.

I am trying to backport it to 10.6, but I'm running in to many obstacles. Like the lack of avfoundation in 10.6. I removed all that code and now it builds, but i run in to problems with XUL missing symbols due to threads in libSystem.B.dylib. I'll keep poking at it, but no guarantee.
 
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Hi,
I have been using SpiderWeb browser on 10.8.5 for several years but seems there is less support for it now. I've been looking for a better browsing solution for my 2012 MacBook Pro. I have not tried SeaLion yet. How do you install it? Is there a dmg installer? Thx!
 
Amethyst1 said:
Nope, just a zip. Unzip, move to /Applications (or where you want it) and go.
Click to expand...
"..and go." Care to elaborate? Not sure what to do after. I didn't see any installation info in the readme file or on github. Thx!
 
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