Web Browsers

[malachite]

Hello!  I'm new here, so I hope I'm posting in the right place~

What are the best web browsers to use in 2018? Y'know, for optimal use. Well, to the best of the computer's abilities, that is! Hehe.

I bought an AirPort card for my iMac G4 and it's coming on Thursday, I'm really excited! Thanks for the help~! 

[ovalking]

There are no good web browsers for OS9 IMO. Try them out for yourself to see what you like.

I use Classilla 9.3.3, Netscape 4.8, IE 5.1.7 & iCab 2.9.9.
My selection depends on which machine I'm using and which websites I plan to visit.

Classilla is by far the most modern and its slow speed & system requirements won't be such a problem on an iMac G4.

Oh, and use an ethernet cable for best results

[Metrophage]

+1 Classilla - But good luck making practical use of any web browsers in OS 9 these days. It was decent until a few years ago. Whereas it is generally A Good Thing that websites are using https these days, they are also using newer kinds of security protocols that even the most current OS 9 browser is (currently, at least) incapable of using. It's a drag when most of the pages I visit won't load.

I wonder if there's a secure work-around that can be done, like some kind of proxy in the router that does the security checks and sends everything to the browser.

[GaryN]

+1 Classilla - But good luck making practical use of any web browsers in OS 9 these days. It was decent until a few years ago. Whereas it is generally A Good Thing that websites are using https these days, they are also using newer kinds of security protocols that even the most current OS 9 browser is (currently, at least) incapable of using. It's a drag when most of the pages I visit won't load.

I wonder if there's a secure work-around that can be done, like some kind of proxy in the router that does the security checks and sends everything to the browser.

…and then you'd have to have a team working all the time to keep the "proxy" up-to-date.
The security protocols are only part of the problem. the other (possibly bigger) part is that almost all webpages today use and rely on Javascript routines and decryption libraries and fonts and multi-threaded routines and, and and ALL of which didn't exist when the older browsers were built.
Some things you can add.
Some thing you can work around.
Some things simply cannot be processed without throwing out the whole obsolete underpinnings of the browser and starting over.

Even if you were to start from scratch and build a new OS9 browser, it would probably have to be limited to G4 PPCs and even those would slog through the mush of today's web. Cameron Kaiser works constantly on TenFourFox just to keep it functional. Even so, he has had to abandon "source parity" with Firefox and go to a "feature parity" because the code they use simply won't run on old Macs anymore Just today2018-08-21 they've announced they're removing all legacy add-ons as of October - which will force him to maintain an independent archive of them…at least until theybecome so obsolete they won't function either.
Just imagine Google Maps in OS9…
There is simply NO way to keep up using an old OS code base. The web is simply a place where you'll have to have a newer computer to go to. Personally, I gave up on using OS9 on the web years ago. I run 9.2.2 & 10.5.8 on one computer, and 10.13 on another. My best friend is a KVM switch.

[Syntho]

I use Classilla but as mentioned it's tough browsing the modern web with it. I'm thankful that I can at least get to this website as well as Macintosh Garden though. That's all I really need it for anyway though.

[ovalking]

I've got no problems with new technologies providing new stuff and only working on new machines.

But what bugs me, is that I can't do things I used to do. Where's the progress in that?

Of the websites I use, many have changed over the years, but not for the better. And you've got some that are pretty simple in terms of content, but have decided to use techniques to make them incompatible.
Why would you do that?

[macStuff]

shouldnt this be moved to : http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,137.0.html
moderators are off in deep space