Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

Anything not about Mac emulation.

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ClockWise
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Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

Post by ClockWise »

Classilla is coming July 1:

http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/

A "new" Gecko based browser for Mac OS 8.6 and later.

I'm very excited! Something new to test out in SheepShaver!
..::| Dave89 |::..
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Post by ..::| Dave89 |::.. »

Is this a free or paid for browser? If it's free or shareware, I might give it a try under OS 8.6.


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Post by ClockWise »

Yes, all free. It's a Mozilla thing.
kikkoman
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Yeah... well, what about unicode?

Post by kikkoman »

What about the unicode problem?

The only problem I can think of regarding this browser is the fact that even if it will run on older Mac OSes, there is the inescapable fact that those old Mac OSes can't display the modern range of unicode characters properly, no matter what browser you'd use, be it WaMCoM, iCab, the old Netscape, or even the most recent Internet Explorer....... and perhaps even Opera.

So whenever you visit a site that has characters from that unicode range, they'll most likely show up as hollow blocks instead of the actual, intended characters.

Lets just hope that the authors can provide us with a new unicode system extension or patch or something that will either fix this or just provide a suitable workaround.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Well, possibly the available range of languages and characters is not as extensive as in MacOSX, but MacOS versions 8.5 and later do support Unicode.

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/macbrowsers.html
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Post by emendelson »

Classilla sounds terrific. Will it work with Gmail, Google Docs, and similar services??
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Post by ClockWise »

Classilla has arrived:

http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/

I'm going to check it out as soon as I can!
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

First impression in 9.0.4 in SS MacOSX: Remarkably fast.
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Post by SSS »

First impression - awesome! :mrgreen: Posting in it under Mac OS 8.6 in SheepShaver right now, under Windows 7. Seems to work quite well so far - will definitely be playing with it for a while. 8)
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Post by kikkoman »

damnit...... if only there was a Flash alternative for OS 8.6/9.x.

Microsoft made one for their IE browser (Silverlight).

Yes, I'm very surprised at how well it runs..... but it does tend to slow down on maps.google.com and youtube.com

Why? Stupid Java, JavaScript, and Flash. But overall, i like this very much!

I tried it in OS 8.6 from within SheepShaver on Windows Vista.
Maybe over the weekend, I'll try it on my G3-upgraded PM 6100 with OS 9.1.
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Post by kikkoman »

It works on my 6100! Slow as hell, anywhere where Flash and/or JavaScript are involved, but at least it is good to know that there is some effort from good people that want to extend the useful -ONLINE- lives of older Macs.

I only hope that future versions of Classilla will include more up-to-date methods of rendering JavaScript and CSS content, since a lot of the stuff online right now doesn't show up (or line up) properly on it still.

What'd be cool is if they back-ported a portion of the current version of Firefox that'll allow for compatibility with Firefox add-ons such as Gmail Manager (to handle multiple Gmail accounts).
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Post by ClockWise »

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

I'm using SLIRP to get online in SheepShaver for Windows and with Java turned off I have not yet had a crash! With Java turned on, only one site brought down the browser and emulator in the usual way.

And this forum renders beautifully!
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Post by ClockWise »

Here are some screenshots:

http://www.emaculation.com/sheepshaver/classilla1.png (a big screenshot showing the modern skin and also showing off how well the browser renders this forum)

http://www.emaculation.com/sheepshaver/classilla2.png (tabs!!)

http://www.emaculation.com/sheepshaver/classilla3.png (showing off the classic skin that resembles old Macintosh versions of Netscape.

BIG THANKS to Ronald, who did some repairs to the forum earlier this week. His repairs probably made this site easier for Classilla to handle.
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Post by kikkoman »

If my main PC and my back-up iMac G3/600 ever craps out on me (God forbid........ and most especially God forbid the iMac will ever crap out on me), its very good to know that I will still be able to keep in touch on Facebook, get maps/directions, and still be able to order stuff online................ all on my trusty, G3'd PowerMac 6100, all thanks to Classilla!
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Post by ClockWise »

Can I use Flash with this browser?
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Post by yksoft1 »

ClockWise wrote:Can I use Flash with this browser?
Flash Player 7 should work. However don't expect good CJK browsing on OS9 because WorldScript II is crap from its birth to death.
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Post by ClockWise »

How do I go about installing Flash 7 in Mac OS 8.6?

The download on the official site seems to use Netscape to install. Which is okay, but Netscape tries and fails to install it. Classilla doesn't know what to do with it.

Is there some easier way to install Flash? How can I make Classilla know that I have installed it? Is that automatic?
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Post by yksoft1 »

ClockWise wrote:How do I go about installing Flash 7 in Mac OS 8.6?

The download on the official site seems to use Netscape to install. Which is okay, but Netscape tries and fails to install it. Classilla doesn't know what to do with it.

Is there some easier way to install Flash? How can I make Classilla know that I have installed it? Is that automatic?
just drop the Shockwave Flash NP-PPC file into classiczilla:Plug-ins folder and Classiczilla will see it.
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Post by ClockWise »

Thank-you!! I'll try that out tonight...
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Post by ClockWise »

Not quite as simple as that to get Flash working in Classilla, but just about.

I've only gotten Flash 7 to work. Here's an installer for Flash 7:

http://emaculation.com/classilla/flashp ... macppc.hqx (right click to download in Firefox for Windows)

Click to install Flash for Mozilla, and the installer will detect Classilla and it should work right away.

Here's a screenshot:

http://www.emaculation.com/classilla/ho ... ssilla.png

But Flash 7 is unfortunately buggy in the modern world. :(

If anyone needs it, here's a link to Flash 6. It can be hard to find an archive with an installer:

http://www.emaculation.com/classilla/fp ... lassic.hqx
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Post by drmoss_ca »

I'm having a problem expanding the .bin for Classilla. I have Stuffit Expander 4.5 in Sheepshaver with Mac OS 9.0.4, but it gives a disk related error part way through (-39). So I found an old copy of SE 5.5 and got the same error. I tried expanding it in OSX with Stuffit Expander 10.0.2 and with the Archive Utility but these both give errors (#17999 and Error 29 - Illegal Seek respectively). How do I go about getting around these? I'm currently downloading SE2009 to try again in OSX.

Chris

Update: Stuffit Expander 2009 gave the same error. I'm now trying downloading the classilla9.0.smi.bin again with Firefox in OSX to see if that helps, and also downloading it with IE 4.5 in Sheepshaver to see if that will do any better.

Success: the new copy of the Classilla9.0.smi.bin downloaded with Firefox expanded without error with Archive Utility. Curiously the resulting .smi wouldn't self-mount in SS, but did in OSX, so I just copied the Classilla folder to my Shared folder and all is well. Now for Flash 7!
Last edited by drmoss_ca on Sat Jul 18, 2009 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Clearly a corrupted file. Simply download it again, does not matter which browser you use.

BTW: Which build of SheepSaver do you use? (I mean the build date NOT the version number!) File corruption can happen with the use of Unix Root/shared folder in earlier builds.
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Post by drmoss_ca »

I'm using 090319, and greatly enjoying the Shared folder. With the version I had before I had a shared disk image, and had to use FileBuddy to correct the screwy file attributes after they were transferred to SS. I have already used ResEdit to install some of my old favourites, like Cmd-T to empty the trash. I must say I am very pleased to have easy file shares across the two systems, as to get paid I have to bill our provincial government, and I use an old Omnis database app to do so. When my office's G5 croaks I shall be doing it with SheepShaver rather than buy a PC and spend a few thousands on the Windows billing software.

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Post by ClockWise »

Hidden away in the Classilla wiki:

Q: "Any chance we'll see Clasilla for 68k Macs running 7.5.x and up?"

A: "Regrettably not without a lot of work. The main problem is that major portions of the Mozilla runtime depend on major OS features such as Unicode support, which would have to be written from scratch for 8.1 or earlier. Similarly, Mozilla code is notoriously memory hungry, so impaired systems such as Performas would barely be able to squeeze it into RAM. It's something I've thought about, though.

On the other hand, I do have a little gift for 68K Maccies which I'll try to get to after 9.0.4 is out. That'll be announced separately. :)"

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/wiki/AAATheFAQ
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Post by ClockWise »

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/wiki/Roadmap

On the Classilla page, someone wrote:

"Hi, I was thinking about trying to build swfdec aka a flash imitator and newer than flash 7 (although not completely up to date but perhaps some). there is a mozilla plug in in the sources. "

Exciting!!!
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