Other Web browsers for early Intel Macs

[Amethyst1]

Can I a) get a free version of Linux to download, and b) create a VM within Parallels 11 running in Mavericks? If the answer to both is yes, would the Linux OS be in a form that Parallels can recognise, i.e. a kosher installer?.

a) Linux is free as in free beer, and there's hundreds of distributions available for free download. If you're new to Linux, I'd suggest something like Ubuntu as it's quite straightforward to set up and use.
b) Yes. The download will be an ISO image, ready to be written to a DVD or a USB flash drive. But just point Parallels' VM creation wizard to it and off you go.

You mean I could create a Linux VM via Parallels and it would use current browsers?

Yes, you can use current software, including browsers, within the VM.

 

[MacBiter]

a) Linux is free as in free beer, and there's hundreds of distributions available for free download. If you're new to Linux, I'd suggest something like Ubuntu as it's quite straightforward to set up and use.
b) Yes. The download will be an ISO image, ready to be written to a DVD or a USB flash drive. But just point Parallels' VM creation wizard to it and off you go.


Yes, you can use current software, including browsers, within the VM.

I've just realised - there is no point to this exercise. I need Snow Leopard to run the software I use, so if I have to then upload it to OneDrive via a Linux VM, that's even more faff than using my Mavericks host.

There's no way round this - I need a working browser in Snow Leopard's VM. As I say, ArcticF does 95% of the lifting but one crucial thing , just one button in OneDrive, doesn't work anymore.

I'm stuffed, aren’t I?.

 

[B S Magnet]

Question about the family of legacy Mozilla browsers like Interweb, Spiderweb, Arctic Fox, Pale Moon, etc. which someone might or might not be able to speak to:

Would DoH, or DNS-over-HTTPS, work with this class of browsers if one manually were to enter the handful of configuration parameters in about:config, or would the browser simply ignore the configuration settings because it wouldn’t know what it is (i.e., a build module which didn’t exist in the source)?

(On newer browsers, there are three settings in particular one needs to worry about to get it working: network.trr.mode (integer); network.trr.custom_uri (string); and network.trr.uri (string). There are others, but those are the three which get changed when one uses the feature on, say, the more recent Firefox ESRs.)

 

[wicknix]

Wouldn't work unfortunately. DoH was enabled in firefox in early 2020. These browsers newest base (52.9) is from 2018. There may be some code in these as i guess they started working on DoH back around 2015, but i wouldn't hold my breath. Though there is no harm in trying it. Add them to about:config and see what happens.

Cheers

 

[Jack Neill]

I took the MB 7,1 back to its roots and installed 10.6.8. I just tried Arctic Fox. Its working great.

 

[rampancy]

Sorry for the bump, but for anyone using TenFiveTube or TenSixTube, how on earth do you get volume controls in YouTube? Even on my systerm's lowest volume setting (10.6.8) videos seem unnaturally loud.

 

[wicknix]

InterWeb for 10.6+ has been slightly updated. Added support for nullish coalescing in the JS parser.
Download: https://github.com/wicknix/InterWebSnow/releases/tag/60.9.9

Cheers

 

[B S Magnet]

InterWeb for 10.6+ has been slightly updated. Added support for nullish coalescing in the JS parser.
Download: https://github.com/wicknix/InterWebSnow/releases/tag/60.9.9

View attachment 2092596

Cheers

Outstanding! Thank you!

(What was, might I ask, the most recent test compliance score for 60.9.8?)

 

[wicknix]

I believe it was 473. Baby steps. Baby steps.

 

[wicknix]

For those that requested it...
SpiderWeb has been updated as well.
Same backend updates as InterWeb, and i also edited the SSL preferences dialog and added a checkbox to enable/disable TLS 1.3.
Download here.

Cheers

 

[B S Magnet]

For those that requested it...
SpiderWeb has been updated as well.
Same backend updates as InterWeb, and i also edited the SSL preferences dialog and added a checkbox to enable/disable TLS 1.3.
Download here.

Cheers

I noticed on your Interweb blog entry that 64-bit is available for 10.7:

32-bit Mac OS X 10.6 and 64-bit 10.7. (updated 10/10/2022) Download here

As you know, I like to run the 64-bit version on 10.6.8, and 60.9.9 is no exception.

It might help to remind folks how a Mac running SL in 64-bit mode does well with the 64-bit version of Interweb (to distinguish from, say, iterations of Chromium Legacy browsers for 10.7 which will not work at all in 10.6.8 — no matter in what bit mode the system is booted).

 

[wicknix]

Both versions should run on 10.6 and above.

Cheers

 

[B S Magnet]

Both versions should run on 10.6 and above.

Cheers

I mean, you and I both know that, but for a new user who finds IW on your blog page, they may not know the 64-bit version will also run on 10.6.8.

Something like…

32-bit Mac OS X 10.6 and 64-bit 10.7 (will also run on 10.6.8 in 64-bit mode). (updated 10/10/2022) Download here

…might make that clearer.

Thanks, as always, for doing the amazing work.

 

[wicknix]

Fixed.

 

[bobesch]

@Ryan Bremer posted the latest FireFox for OSX 10.5 here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-on-mac-os-x-10-5-intel.2373936/post-31812548

 

[wicknix]

I find it kind of funny after the way they acted and ripped Mac code from pale moon not that long ago, but a new milestone was released with Mac support once again. The new v32 has some nice improvements in web compatibility as well. Good lightweight general browser for 10.7 - 12.6.

 

[f54da]

@wicknix Pale moon still supports down to 10.7? Good to know, I was thinking that SeaMonkey was the last xul based browser that still supported anything less than 10.12.

Are there any themes for palemoon to make the window chrome... chrome colored (i.e. silver, like rest of osx toolbars) instead of white?

 

[wicknix]

Sure. Try the xmoon theme. Its the closest you'll get to that Safari look/feel.

Pale Moon Add-ons - XMoon

addons.palemoon.org

 

[rampancy]

I find it kind of funny after the way they acted and ripped Mac code from pale moon not that long ago, but a new milestone was released with Mac support once again. The new v32 has some nice improvements in web compatibility as well. Good lightweight general browser for 10.7 - 12.6.

Yes, for 10.7 and up I've found that Pale Moon/White Star has become my browser of choice -- it's the only browser left that (a) doesn't get tripped up by GitHub and (b) actually plays YouTube videos.

My former browser of choice, Waterfox Classic, puts up the Spinning Ring of Death on GitHub, and Arctic Fox simply doesn't want to play anything on YouTube regardless of whether I'm on the desktop or mobile version.

I'd really love to see a browser plug-in that fixes the PolyFill problem that seems to be affecting most/all of the legacy Firefox-based browsers out there (in my experience). The only plug-ins I know of are either exclusive to InterWeb/SpiderWeb or Pale Moon.

 

[MBAir2010]

well El Capitan on safari won't tweet as of today, spinning ball.
I'm typing this on my macbook air 2010 running, el Capitan.

 

[f54da]

@rampancy
> PolyFill problem that seems to be affecting most/all of the legacy Firefox-based browsers out there (in my experience)

Maybe this? https://github.com/martok/palefill

Edit: Oh I see you already mentioned that you're aware of pale-moon specific solution.

You can do pure JS polyfill for any browser relatively easy, but IMO the real killer is syntax changes which you can't really polyfill. Things like arrow notation if your browser is stuck on ES5, or the null coalescing/chaning stuff. I also don't think even XUL plugins are powerful enough to hook into JS parser to fix this.

Probably the best solution might be to write some sort of caching proxy which will transpile down to es5 syntax on the fly. I know that JS transpilers exist already, so it shouldn't be too hard to hook one up with a reverse proxy to do it transparently.

 

[rampancy]

@rampancy
> PolyFill problem that seems to be affecting most/all of the legacy Firefox-based browsers out there (in my experience)

Maybe this? https://github.com/martok/palefill

Edit: Oh I see you already mentioned that you're aware of pale-moon specific solution.

You can do pure JS polyfill for any browser relatively easy, but IMO the real killer is syntax changes which you can't really polyfill. Things like arrow notation if your browser is stuck on ES5, or the null coalescing/chaning stuff. I also don't think even XUL plugins are powerful enough to hook into JS parser to fix this.

Probably the best solution might be to write some sort of caching proxy which will transpile down to es5 syntax on the fly. I know that JS transpilers exist already, so it shouldn't be too hard to hook one up with a reverse proxy to do it transparently.

Well, thanks - that's probably the first explanation I've seen of this issue; the only other discussions I've seen of this issue have been a bug report for Waterfox Legacy that wasn't seemingly clear on what was actually causing the problem, and why it couldn't be fixed.

This issue really sucks because there's so much legacy software (like Arctic Fox) and legacy software extensions (like uBlock Origin Legacy) that are available almost exclusively on GitHub. At least some people like rmottola have been thoughtful enough to provide download links that don't rely on GitHub's typical formatting for downloads.

 

[wicknix]

At least some people like rmottola have been thoughtful enough to provide download links that don't rely on GitHub's typical formatting for downloads.

Heh. I did that.
Same for interwebppc.
All you have to do is replace the /tag/ in the url with /expanded_assets/

 

[TheShortTimer]

well El Capitan on safari won't tweet as of today, spinning ball.
I'm typing this on my macbook air 2010 running, el Capitan.

Run Catalina - I do on my 2010 MBA, as you know.

 

[davigarma]

well El Capitan on safari won't tweet as of today, spinning ball.
I'm typing this on my macbook air 2010 running, el Capitan.

It works without any problem. Sometimes twitter crashes. Although with Chomium 110 it goes much better