If you are really that concerned about security, you wouldn't be running 10.7 Lion in the first place.
Firefox Legacy 67 is a good balance between security, modern interface, and website compatibility.
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What web browser to use on old iMac OS 10.7.5??
- Thread starter Mikebike125
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Firefox Legacy 67 is a good balance between security, modern interface, and website compatibility.
I agree with this logic, fwiw. You need security somewhere in the chain between you and untrusted web code, so if it's not the OS it has to be the browser.
With that restriction, your options are either Intel builds of TenFourFox, or one of WickNix's browsers.
Random idea:
Has anyone tried using the Windows version of Google Chrome inside of Wine? I'm on Mavericks, and I just set up Slack inside of Wineskin, and it's working pretty well. Slack is an electron app, so if it works, Chrome should work, in theory.
The modern version of Wineskin requires Mountain Lion (otherwise I would share my wrapper), but I think you can still use bog standard Wine. Little trick, you'll want to launch Chrome with the EXE flag
Has anyone tried using the Windows version of Google Chrome inside of Wine? I'm on Mavericks, and I just set up Slack inside of Wineskin, and it's working pretty well. Slack is an electron app, so if it works, Chrome should work, in theory.
The modern version of Wineskin requires Mountain Lion (otherwise I would share my wrapper), but I think you can still use bog standard Wine. Little trick, you'll want to launch Chrome with the EXE flag
--disable-gpu.
Firefox Legacy for 10.7.5 Lion is now on 68.12 ESR, which is up-to-date as of August 25, 2020, including the latest security updates.
It's a very interesting approach that parrotgeek1 is taking, patching the prebuilt Firefox.app binary to make it possible to run on an older version of macOS.
It's quite possibly more time efficient than trying to produce separate builds directly from patched source code. (...which appears to be what he had to do in order to produce something for Snow Leopoard.)
Sounds like paranoia to me. And you are planning to do serious stuff on such ancient machine?
That post was from a little while ago and now is no longer relevant, since Firefox Legacy was updated this week to 68 ESR, which is up to date as of August 25, 2020.
I'm only moderately concerned about security on these old machines. I'm mostly concerned about what the banks think about the security of these browsers, and AFAIK typically they will support browser versions at least 2-3 years old. That means my 2008 MacBook4,1 running 10.7 Lion is probably good until 2022 or so. That is the extent of the "serious stuff" I'm personally interested in on these old machines.
Meanwhile, I'm typing this post on a 2007 MacPro2,1 which is officially supported on 10.7 Lion, and unofficially supported on 10.11 El Capitan. On this machine, I have full Chrome support, and full support for Firefox 78 ESR which is the latest ESR version. I suspect Firefox 78 ESR will continue to be supported until mid to late 2021, which means this machine is good for bank access until at least 2023 or so, and probably much longer if ParrotGeek brings the future 88 ESR version to El Capitan. I suspect 88 ESR (or whatever the number will be) will be available in mid 2021, and will be supported until mid to late 2022, meaning this machine could still be viable with the banks until 2024-2025
if ParrotGeek can continue its excellent work with these browser backports. 👍OTOH, both my 2008 MacBook5,1 and my 2009 MacBookPro5,5 are running Catalina.
Too bad Apple didn't support these Mac Pros longer, because this Mac Pro is literally 4X as fast as those laptops, and I've got a glorious 30" Cinema Display hooked up to it too.
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I just discovered that this exists. Up-to-date with the latest version of Chrome! https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy
Anyone tried it? It's crashing for me on Mavericks, but the readme appears to indicate that it's targeting Lion and Mountain Lion specifically, so it might work there!
Anyone tried it? It's crashing for me on Mavericks, but the readme appears to indicate that it's targeting Lion and Mountain Lion specifically, so it might work there!
Thank you, Wowfunhappy!
I tested Chromium 80 yesterday. It's really works on Mac 10.7.5
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Hi
I have a similar issue but with browsers compatible with Snow Leopard (both my notebook are limited to SL).
I dunno if it is worth opening a new thread or if I can ask here. Feel free to move this if it is not correct.
My problem is that since this morning my FFox seems no more fully compatible with Coursera and (since some time) with EDX. I can open the page but the authentication process doesn't work (login button is not responsive)
I tested some of the browser you suggested but (to my knowledge) only Arctic Fox works in SL. Any hint?
I have a similar issue but with browsers compatible with Snow Leopard (both my notebook are limited to SL).
I dunno if it is worth opening a new thread or if I can ask here. Feel free to move this if it is not correct.
My problem is that since this morning my FFox seems no more fully compatible with Coursera and (since some time) with EDX. I can open the page but the authentication process doesn't work (login button is not responsive)
I tested some of the browser you suggested but (to my knowledge) only Arctic Fox works in SL. Any hint?
You have a few different options for Snow Leopard in addition to Arctic Fox:
Interweb: https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/interweb-browser.html (Make sure to download the 10.6 version)
Spiderweb: https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/spiderweb-browser.html (Make sure to download the 10.6 version)
Intel TenFourFox: https://sourceforge.net/projects/tenfourfox/files/unstable/contrib/ (Choose the latest version; don't ask the developer for support on Intel machines.)
I would probably try Interweb first, it has the most "modern" engine of all of them.
Thanks a lot for your advice.
Just a question. Guess it is naive but I try.
In the very last week I suddenly discovered that quite a number of websites became "out of reach" for my browser (namely Firefox ESR, the most robust until now) meaning than either I cannot properly load the page or I cannot login (besides Coursera ... Github, Nextdoor, Edx, facebook (forced to the mobile version but way more simplified than the previous m.facebook version).
That's to say that it seems that there was some massive recoding of many important web sites. Are you aware of anything like that (BTW, my home banking from 2 mayor international banks are perfectly working ... so the "recoding" is not security related)
I am going to test now the link you kindly shared
Thanks
Which Firefox ESR are you running?
Cuz Firefox Legacy 68 ESR is still my browser of choice on OS X 10.7.5:
Firefox Legacy
A modern version of Firefox modified to work on older Mac OS X versions, including 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.
GP said they're on Snow Leopard
I guess it's possible some underlying NPM package broke support for very old Firefox. I think it could also just be a coincidence though. We'll never know!
Ah. Makes sense then.GP said they're on Snow Leopard
OTOH, it is possible to upgrade some of the Snow Leopard machines to Lion.
Which Firefox ESR are you running?
Cuz Firefox Legacy 68 ESR is still my browser of choice on OS X 10.7.5:
Firefox Legacy
A modern version of Firefox modified to work on older Mac OS X versions, including 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.parrotgeek.com
Sorry for my delayed answer but ... I missed your reply.
45.9.0
that is the latest compatible with SL
yep but in my case Lion was fit only for my macbook white (MBP and mac mini, both 2006) are stucked with SL. Never upgraded the MB white because at that time everyone told me it was a bad version ... and infact they released Mountain Lion quite faster.Ah. Makes sense then.
OTOH, it is possible to upgrade some of the Snow Leopard machines to Lion.
I wouldn't even know today where to find a legitimate/safe (non hacked) Lion version if I ever decide to try.
Not a huge problem because at home I have a mini 2012 that is still fully functional (BTW, the latest Mini totally upgradable ... SIGH) but it would have been much easier to keep using a laptop for basic task as following a course. I understand that for most people (especially PC) does not make sense to keep using this old notebooks but, hey, they are still well and alive
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GP said they're on Snow Leopard
I guess it's possible some underlying NPM package broke support for very old Firefox. I think it could also just be a coincidence though. We'll never know!
Actually I have experienced the lost of some compatibility, happening every 6 months.
Besides Safari (one of the firsts to surrender), Dropbox died out few years ago (but SYNC is even better, so I don't care).
A curious event happened last year when I realized that the two mac mini (2006 and 2012, both on the same LAN) couldn't connect anymore "bidirectionally". Meaning, they still can see other but if I want to connect them (see/modify/transfer any file btwn them) I have to start the procedure from Mojave's and grant the permission from SL's. If I do the opposite I got an error message. At the very end the result is identical and fully functional but this is an example of the "lost ability of the old one to interact with what's new outside@
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Yes, since posting I put a more complete version with versions for different browsers here: https://jonathanalland.com/quick-actions.html
I think the version of ffmpeg it will offer to download is only compiled for 10.9 and above, but it should work if you install ffmpeg from MacPorts, or manually download an older ffmpeg binary.
Web browsers of my OSX Lion 10.7.5 that support YouTube video playing:
Firefox 48.0.2,
FirefoxESR 45.9.0,
Firefox Legacy 68.12.0,
Google Chrome 49.2623.112,
Chromium 99.0.4809.0,
Waterfox Classic 2021.10,
New Moon 28.9.1,
ArticFox 27.11.0,
SpiderWeb 2.2.4,
InterWeb 32Bits,
Opera 37.0.2178.54,
SeaMonkey 2.40,
Opera Beta 37.0.2178.31,
Tor 4.5.3
I hope this information helps you.
Keep browsing the web...
Firefox 48.0.2,
FirefoxESR 45.9.0,
Firefox Legacy 68.12.0,
Google Chrome 49.2623.112,
Chromium 99.0.4809.0,
Waterfox Classic 2021.10,
New Moon 28.9.1,
ArticFox 27.11.0,
SpiderWeb 2.2.4,
InterWeb 32Bits,
Opera 37.0.2178.54,
SeaMonkey 2.40,
Opera Beta 37.0.2178.31,
Tor 4.5.3
I hope this information helps you.
Keep browsing the web...