what really is the best web browser for the G4 running Leopard?

[Dronecatcher]

here is lots of good advice here which I am going to try out, and ive used tff on a 600mhz g3 (brutal slow) and asked the question to see how much worse it is as most people have 333mhz to 500mhz g3s and 600mhz up g3s were generally the "high end" models and people opted for the 400,500mhz cheaper imacs. my point is, I have experienced tff on a high end g3 and its not usable.

Generally, to get by online with a PPC you have to work with a few browsers to achieve certain tasks - they all have their merits.
If you state what Mac you're using and what you need to do with it you'll have a better chance of having a constructive dialogue in here.

 

[Appleuser201]

Generally, to get by online with a PPC you have to work with a few browsers to achieve certain tasks - they all have their merits.
If you state what Mac you're using and what you need to do with it you'll have a better chance of having a constructive dialogue in here.

I am buying the g4 ibook, white, 1.33ghz 1gb of ram off of craigslist. the reason I dont care about runnin youtube in a browser anymore is because the designed apps for yt playback work great and allow 720p video which is what I was suggested. with these specs, what would you use, which browser for which task? you have the same ibook im getting.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I am buying the g4 ibook, white, 1.33ghz 1gb of ram off of craigslist. the reason I dont care about runnin youtube in a browser anymore is because the designed apps for yt playback work great and allow 720p video which is what I was suggested. with these specs, what would you use, which browser for which task? you have the same ibook im getting.

I use Leopard Webkit mostly and use the Develop menu to change user agents when necessary and selectively turn off javascript. ArcticFox and TFF are always there for websites that wont work properly in Webkit.
I also use a modified Hosts file to prevent unwanted ads.

 

[sawpits]

I am buying the g4 ibook, white, 1.33ghz 1gb of ram off of craigslist. the reason I dont care about runnin youtube in a browser anymore is because the designed apps for yt playback work great and allow 720p video which is what I was suggested. with these specs, what would you use, which browser for which task? you have the same ibook im getting.

For easy surfing and not doing any banking or buying give Demeter a spin.

Since Leopard WebKit has not been updated in going on a year I would only use TFF for monetary/secure transactions.

 

[1042686]

If YouTube access is such a high-ranking necessity, why not reserve a modern device just for that purpose? That way, the PPCs don't have to choke doing something they weren't meant to do, and you get the best experience out of both worlds.

By all means, push these machines as hard as they can muster; but at the same time know when to fold.

Indeed.

You have to know when to hold em. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away.

And most important: know when to run.

 

[z970]

Indeed.

You have to know when to hold em. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away.

Which in my book is the exception, which makes watching YouTube in-browser an exception.

Otherwise, they're happily humming along, doing all they need to do. Great machines.

I'm glad this forum exists.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Indeed.

You have to know when to hold em. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away.

And most important: know when to run.

Also important: telling Ruby not to take her love to town.

I'm sorry what were we talking about?

 

[1042686]

I dunno who this Ruby is but I was preaching the esteemed PPC wisdom of Kenny Rogers.

Speaking of YouTube & PowerPCs, he speaks so eloquently of the woes of ppc collecting on YT in the Gambler.

 

[Raging Dufus]

I dunno who this Ruby is but I was preaching the esteemed PPC wisdom of Kenny Rogers.

Speaking of YouTube & PowerPCs, he speaks so eloquently of the woes of ppc collecting on YT in the Gambler.

So true. I was also referencing Mr. Rogers, though not nearly so applicable a tune as you chose.

But here, broaden your horizons:

A poor attempt at humor. In my defense, my options from Kenny's catalog weren't all that great. It was "Ruby", "Reuben James", or "Coward of the County". Sigh...

 

[Appleuser201]

Which in my book is the exception, which makes watching YouTube in-browser an exception.

Otherwise, they're happily humming along, doing all they need to do. Great machines.

I'm so glad this forum exists.

ive realized that watching youtube in browser on any ppc less than a g5 just isnt really possible anymore but mac apps do exist for that task, and it pushes g5s to their full power when trying to run even low res online video in mac os x (linux being an exception). these machines are great for reddit, and browsing these forums, but I was trying to do stuff on them they werent meant to do and surprised when they couldnt do it, but I will have a good set up now when I get my 1.33 g4 ibook.
[doublepost=1563400313][/doublepost]

I use Leopard Webkit mostly and use the Develop menu to change user agents when necessary and selectively turn off javascript. ArcticFox and TFF are always there for websites that wont work properly in Webkit.
I also use a modified Hosts file to prevent unwanted ads.

havent heard of arctic fox, how supported is it compared to tff?

 

[Dronecatcher]

ve realized that watching youtube in browser on any ppc less than a g5 just isnt really possible anymore

No, Youtube in browser on Webkit draws about 70% CPU on a 1.33Ghz G4.
ArcticFox has a whole thread dedicated to it on here.

 

[AnonMac50]

My go to browsers are Leopard Webkit as #1, and TenFourFox as a close second (be it on a single G4 or a Dual G5). However, YouTube performance...well, the less said the better.

 

[Appleuser201]

My go to browsers are Leopard Webkit as #1, and TenFourFox as a close second (be it on a single G4 or a Dual G5). However, YouTube performance...well, the less said the better.[/QUOTE
I found this video of a 1.42ghz emac g4 playing youtybe smoothly.. in tenfourfox... and I saw another video of laggy youtube on a 1.67ghz pb g4.
not that it matters, as we have better options, but why is this emac able to play youtube in full speed using tenfourfox?

 

[Dronecatcher]

1. The video was fully buffered
2. It was a simple animation so less frame to frame work being done
3. If you look the frame rate wasn't consistent at all

 

[laylow]

IceWeaselPPC and ArticFox are my daily browsers on PPC machines.

 

[z970]

Alright people, settle down.

Wrong as it is, that's his opinion and he's allowed to express it. To someone with a low-end G3 on an unoptimized OS/TFF install, it could very well be expressed that TFF (let's not forget its insane bloat and slow-nature even on high-end G4s) was not "meant" for G3s at all. Does it allow G3s to browse the Web securely? Yes. And does it display the Web as originally intended? Yes. However, this does not at all mean that the G3 version was tuned specifically for optimized browsing on G3s, minus the AltiVec removal and attached "G3" logo.

But frankly, even I am surprised that the G3 variant does not already ship with the useless services and surface-level junk stripped down to better accommodate G3 systems, and maybe already come with a couple preferences pre-tweaked for optimal G3 usage.

@Appleuser201, your best bet would be to optimize your OS, optimize TFF with eyoungren's tweak thread, and use a separate client for watching YouTube, like YewTube, or TigerTUBE. And don't forget that maxxing out your machine always helps. Lightweight surfing can also be accomplished with older, lighter browsers, like OmniWeb or Camino. Similar to TFF, there are also processor specific revisions of Camino available online. And on that note, this may prove useful.

Well, for the first time, I've been able to browse some Web with an optimized TFF with the iOS Safari UA on a 400mhz G3. With a 16mb GPU. So now I can practice what I've preached above.

I have to say, it's not premium, but damn, it got the job done far more than I thought it would. You could certainly get by on this if you had to.

Just make sure you have at least 1gb RAM and a good video card...

PS: I haven't even tried Iceweasel.

 

[Appleuser201]

1. The video was fully buffered
2. It was a simple animation so less frame to frame work being done
3. If you look the frame rate wasn't consistent at all

Well, for the first time, I've been able to browse some Web with an optimized TFF with the iOS Safari UA on a 400mhz G3. With a 16mb GPU. So now I can practice what I've preached above.

I have to say, it's not premium, but damn, it got the job done far more than I thought it would. You could certainly get by on this if you had to.

Just make sure you have at least 1gb RAM and a good video card...

PS: I haven't even tried Iceweasel.

well thats quite impressive, a 600mhz imac g3 should be slightly better. what g3 model did you use for that?

 

[z970]

well thats quite impressive, a 600mhz imac g3 should be slightly better. what g3 model did you use for that?

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g3/specs/powermac_g3_400_bl.html

 

[Appleuser201]

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g3/specs/powermac_g3_400_bl.html

ill have to try that out. cant you upgrade the graphics card memory?

 

[sparty411]

Well, for the first time, I've been able to browse some Web with an optimized TFF with the iOS Safari UA on a 400mhz G3. With a 16mb GPU. So now I can practice what I've preached above.

I have to say, it's not premium, but damn, it got the job done far more than I thought it would. You could certainly get by on this if you had to.

Just make sure you have at least 1gb RAM and a good video card...

PS: I haven't even tried Iceweasel.

Not surprising. Even my dual USB iBook G3 800MHz gets by ok with its lowly 640MB of RAM. I can only imagine how much smoother it would be with a full 1GB. I’m curious if an SSD would make much of a difference, considering how often it’s swapping.

 

[Dronecatcher]

My 600Mhz G3 iBook can get by for Youtube (see video) but general browsing is not great without mobile UA and javascript off - and ArcticFox is definitely preferable over TFF..

 

[z970]

ill have to try that out. cant you upgrade the graphics card memory?

Nope. For Power Macs, you will need to upgrade the entire card. For iMacs, iBooks, PowerBooks, etc. you are unfortunately stuck with the GPU and its VRAM soldered on the board.

That said, your iMac Summer 2001 (I'm assuming) is a better machine than the Power Mac G3 B/W I've got. It's got a 600mhz PowerPC 750cx as opposed to a regular 400mhz 750, has a better AGP-enabled GPU, and can max out at the same amount of RAM.

Maybe TenFourFox wasn't explicitly created for G3s, but it could be worse.

Not surprising. Even my dual USB iBook G3 800MHz gets by ok with its lowly 640MB of RAM. I can only imagine how much smoother it would be with a full 1GB. I’m curious if an SSD would make much of a difference, considering how often it’s swapping.

I would imagine swappiness to be a large factor in slow down. Definitely get an SSD, especially for a portable.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Leopard WebKit is my choice. TFF is way too heavy even though it opens more sites than LWK. Roccat only opens about 50% of pages, even when “linked” against LWK.

The G4 DLSD can handle leopard WebKit pretty well. The 1GHz TIBook struggles more.

 

[Dronecatcher]

That said, your iMac Summer 2001 (I'm assuming) is a better machine than the Power Mac G3 B/W I've got.

Don't underestimate your L3 cache

 

[z970]

Don't underestimate your L3 cache

I thought it was an L2...

That must be the B/W's secret weapon against newer G3s. Well, that and extreme modularity, of course.