Mac OS 9 Web Browsers
19 October 2021
Connectivity problems on classic Mac OS
Most modern websites are no longer accessible to early Mac OS internet browsers. This is a result of the rapid advancement of web/web development standards, many of which which were not present in browsers during their time of release. Modern websites are usually served through the HTTPS protocol, which is incompatible with many older browsers that only support the insecure HTTP protocol. For more information on this issue, you can read about HTTPS and why it's a problem for early Mac OS.
There's still hope!
Websites that have been designed with older browsers in mind, or ones that have remained online since the early 2000s can still be accessed on most browsers.
There has been an effort to compile a directory of modern and existing websites that are accessible to older web browsers. See the Sloop Website Directory.
Which Browser should you use?
Classilla was the last web browser that received recent updates and was maintained regularly until 2021 by Cameron Kaiser. The only downside to using Classilla is that it is resource hungry and requires later Mac OS versions. Classilla requires a G3 Processor, 64MB ram (minimum) and Mac OS 8.6.
Internet Explorer 5 is the next best browser for older Macintosh systems. During it's time IE5 for Mac was one of the best web browsers available, and was still relatively usable throughout the 2000's. IE5 uses minimal system resources and runs on Systems 7 - 9.2.2.
Classilla 9.3.3
Internet Explorer 5.1.7
Internet Explorer 4.5
Internet Explorer 4.0.1
iCab 3.0.5
Wamcom 1.3.1
Netscape 7.0.2
Netscape Communicator 4.8
Netscape Navigator 4.0.5
Netscape 3.0.4 Gold
Opera 6.0.3
Opera 5.0
Wannabe
Comments
KevynR
20 September 2023
Having much fun revisiting my G4 Quicksilver 2001 vintage. Hoping to set it up with an old SCUSI scanner. It's a bit of a noisy beast but I've erased the drive and partitioned it to dual boot into OS9 and 10.4 with fresh OS installs which worked well.. eventually! No problems with 10.4 but the icing on the cake would be internet connectivity in OS9, so thanks for this it'll be a great help knowing what is possible.
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
20 September 2023
No problem! I love the G4 Quicksilvers, they're still so useful!
Permalinkbamdad
17 August 2023
i'm using icab 3 in 2023 as it displays some SSL but not as bloated as classilla.. tbh classilla was the best, but since it's no longer maintained, i wanted to go with a leaner and more stable option. we should get a bounty together for someone to port amiSSL to mac os 9..
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
21 August 2023
Nice, yes iCab is much more performant than Classilla, I mostly stick to IE5 now for the speed. I find myself visiting modern websites less since the rendering continually gets worse.
It's an ambitious project, I wonder if anybody has started looking at this already?
PermalinkGordon
19 June 2023
Thank you for this, manybe there is still use for my old G3 in 2023 !!
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
20 June 2023
You're welcome!
PermalinkJackH7159
28 April 2023
so helpful!
PermalinkCarola
09 April 2023
Hi, and thank you for this page! Just decided to turn on my old PowerBook G3 and this page is so useful. Have a great day!
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
09 April 2023
Hi Carola, that's great to hear! Thanks for visiting and enjoy the PowerBook!
PermalinkIlikemacsalot - No user information has been added yet.
14 February 2023
thanks
PermalinkJürgen Witte
16 June 2022
Hello, I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8, which is the latest system for my hardware (a mac mini & and a mac pro notebook). For browsing the net I use the last compatible version of Opera (25.0), and alternatively I sometimes also fall back on Firefox 48.0.2. Though my dated hardware is running perfectly, I found no browser version on the net, that allows access to the latest "modernized" versions of more and more websites. Is there anybody out there, who did develop an up to date browser for all of us, who believe in working with appliances, as long as those are working fine. Maybe, during your research you came up with a solution for this problem also.
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
22 June 2022
Hi Jürgen, sorry for the delayed response. I've been in the same situation as you and still use Snow Leopard often. The best browser I have found is Nightly which is a modified legacy version of Firefox by ParrotGeek Software. Nightly will load the majority of modern websites with no issues. Unfortunately development was discontinued last year but it's still totally usable. Otherwise I would recommend TenFourFox (which was also discontinued last year), and then Leopard WebKit.
PermalinkPlease send another message through if you come across any other browsers which are still maintained. Good luck!
Steve Smith
13 June 2022
Wonderful article and resource. I'm very glad my iMac G3 can be used for more things now. I have nostalgia eyes for OS9.2 for certain games. Thank you.
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
13 June 2022
Thank you and thanks for visiting! I have an article in the works regarding the iMac G3 that you may be interested in, I should be able to get it out this week so stay tuned :)
PermalinkIrene
01 June 2022
WoWoW Thank you :) ! - Irene Clamshell
PermalinkGreystash - Admin
10 June 2022
Thanks for stopping by!
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