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Best Browser for OS X Mountain Lion in 2016?

redheeler

redheeler

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 17, 2014
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A question for anyone with a Mac running Mountain Lion: What browser do you use?

The reason I ask is I have an old late 2006 24" iMac running 10.8.5. Firefox, Chrome, Opera all give me issues. I primarily use Firefox but it's a memory hog and also fairly crash-happy. To make matters worse Firefox will drop support next year and the other two already have. Safari works but is old at this point and needs a Webkit update.
 
logicstudiouser

logicstudiouser

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Feb 4, 2010
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You really are stuck with one of the 'big 4' (Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari), unfortunately. Since Apple officially dropped Mountain Lion support last fall, software developers drop testing on older operating systems. This comes as more and more people upgrade their systems and the market left for mountain lion is niche.
I work with wordpress a lot and my main mac runs on mountain lion still. My browser choice when I am plugged into a wall is Chrome, as I find it is best optimized for work on wordpress, but since it is such an energy drain, I prefer to just use it when I am plugged in.
I agree, Firefox does crash often, but is still my surfing browser of choice. The more plugins you use, the more likely crashes will happen. I have minimized the number I have and I get less crashes.
 
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redheeler

redheeler

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So this is something that really surprised me - all I had to do was change the minimum version string from 10.9 to 10.8.5 and Firefox ESR 52 runs fine! This means Mountain Lion will be able to run an updated browser into 2018!
ESR52-10.8.5.png
 
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redheeler

redheeler

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ypsi7267 said:
Where do you change the minimum string?
Click to expand...
Right-click on the application and click "Show Package Contents". Then in the Contents folder there will be an Info.plist file, open it with a text editor, find the string "10.9.0" and change to "10.8.5".
[doublepost=1493586807][/doublepost]Should look like this:
LSMinimumSystemVersion-10.8.5.png


Edit: Additional steps for Firefox 56, 57:

If you try to run Firefox 56 or 57 on a Mountain Lion system just using the method above, you'll get nothing but crashed tabs. However, @GoopnyPants has posted a very simple fix to get it working perfectly.

1. Go to about:config and accept the warning prompt.
2. Paste autostart in the search bar.
3. Change the setting highlighted below in my screenshot to false (as pictured):
FF57-Fix.png

4. Restart Firefox.
 
Last edited:
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Y

ypsi7267

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Apr 30, 2017
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redheeler said:
Right-click on the application and click "Show Package Contents". Then in the Contents folder there will be an Info.plist file, open it with a text editor, find the string "10.9.0" and change to "10.8.5".
[doublepost=1493586807][/doublepost]Should look like this:
View attachment 698002
Click to expand...
Thanks
[doublepost=1493603356][/doublepost]I did that. At first it wouldn't let me. Said t was locked. Copied it to the applicartions folder, edited it and it said the program was corrupted and said I had to delete it.
 
Y

ypsi7267

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2017
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0
ypsi7267 said:
Thanks
[doublepost=1493603356][/doublepost]I did that. At first it wouldn't let me. Said t was locked. Copied it to the applicartions folder, edited it and it said the program was corrupted and said I had to delete it.
Click to expand...
Okay, so I had to change the security settings to "Allow applications downloaded from Anywhere". Now it works.
 
redheeler

redheeler

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Oct 17, 2014
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Stanick said:
The newly released Firefox 54 runs without a hitch on ML, just change the Minimum System version in info.plist to 10.8.0
Click to expand...
That's good to know, thanks. I've been sticking with ESR 52 on my 10.8.5 iMac just to be safe, just updated to 52.2.0 (updates have to be downloaded manually as the in-app updater says the system isn't supported and refuses to work).
 
AmazingHenry

AmazingHenry

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Jul 6, 2015
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redheeler said:
So this is something that really surprised me - all I had to do was change the minimum version string from 10.9 to 10.8.5 and Firefox ESR 52 runs fine! This means Mountain Lion will be able to run an updated browser into 2018!
View attachment 697312
Click to expand...
Stanick said:
The newly released Firefox 54 runs without a hitch on ML, just change the Minimum System version in info.plist to 10.8.0
Click to expand...
Tried with 54.0.1, and it begins opening but I get a message saying the file is damaged and should be moved to the trash. :confused:

Any other modifications besides changing 10.9.0 to 10.8.0 to do?

EDIT: Yes, I am on 10.8.5, not 10.8.0.
 
U

UL2RA

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May 7, 2017
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AmazingHenry said:
Tried with 54.0.1, and it begins opening but I get a message saying the file is damaged and should be moved to the trash. :confused:

Any other modifications besides changing 10.9.0 to 10.8.0 to do?

EDIT: Yes, I am on 10.8.5, not 10.8.0.
Click to expand...
Open Terminal and type this:

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine (leaving a space at the end of quarantine)

Then drag the app in question into the Terminal window ... then press enter/return.
 
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KawaiiAurora

KawaiiAurora

macrumors 6502
Dec 16, 2016
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Hmm, Firefox 52,54 and 55 work on ML but I have an odd issue. WaterFox too

When you first open FF, videos such as YT work just fine. Then, after reopening FF, it doesn't work. To get it to work, you have to refresh FF every time... Anyone else had this issue?

EDIT: I went ahead and investigated some more and every version till FireFox 52 Beta 9 doesn't have the issue. FireFox 52 does have it tho..

Any ideas?

I have fixed it for ESR 52.. All I had to was to change "esr" to "beta" in the /Contents/Resources/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js file. Quite an odd fix.. It doesn't work for FireFox 54 tho
 
Last edited:
AmazingHenry

AmazingHenry

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Jul 6, 2015
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KawaiiAurora said:
Hmm, Firefox 52,54 and 55 work on ML but I have an odd issue. WaterFox too

When you first open FF, videos such as YT work just fine. Then, after reopening FF, it doesn't work. To get it to work, you have to refresh FF every time... Anyone else had this issue?

EDIT: I went ahead and investigated some more and every version till FireFox 52 Beta 9 doesn't have the issue. FireFox 52 does have it tho..

Any ideas?

I have fixed it for ESR 52.. All I had to was to change "esr" to "beta" in the /Contents/Resources/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js file. Quite an odd fix.. It doesn't work for FireFox 54 tho
Click to expand...
I also have this problem in 54. I just use Safari for YT.
 
redheeler

redheeler

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 17, 2014
8,419
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Colorado, USA
Trying out the latest version of Seamonkey, which will also run with the MinimumSystemVersion change. It's less resource-intensive compared to Firefox 52 on this Late 2006 iMac, so I might just make the switch over to it.
Seamonkey-10.8.5.png

philgxxd said:
Don't know but doesn't roccat just act like a different front-end for the systemwide installed WebKit framework?
Click to expand...
That's right. The rendering engine is no more current than the one in the Mountain Lion version of Safari, because it is the one in the Mountain Lion version of Safari. Last updated in 2015.
 
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