Best Browser for OS X Mountain Lion in 2016?

[redheeler]

Seamonkey is the best up-to-date browser I have tried on this 11-year-old iMac. Yes the UI is a little outdated, but well worth the efficiency improvement over standard Firefox on this hardware.

Now running the latest Nightly build of it, which appears to be based on prerelease Firefox 56.

 

[philgxxd]

So i tried to install the Firefox 52.3.0 (64-bit) ESR and Chrome
Version 52.0.2743.116 (64-bit) with the min. version trick but i can't get to load youtube videos with firefox. i had ublock origin and umatrix as add-ons running then disabled them, then removed them, restarted firefox but it was still the same. vimeo behaves the same so i wanted to know if you are having the same issue ?
Chrome looks kinda alien because the traffic lights are missing.
A feature or an issue?

Beside that Chrome seems to work fine with video.

 

[redheeler]

So i tried to install the Firefox 52.3.0 (64-bit) ESR and Chrome
Version 52.0.2743.116 (64-bit) with the min. version trick but i can't get to load youtube videos with firefox. i had ublock origin and umatrix as add-ons running then disabled them, then removed them, restarted firefox but it was still the same. vimeo behaves the same so i wanted to know if you are having the same issue ?
Chrome looks kinda alien because the traffic lights are missing.
A feature or a issue?

Beside that Chrome seems to work fine with video.

In Seamonkey it seems YouTube videos will play, as long as the quality is not set to 1080p 60fps or higher (although on a more powerful Mac the quality probably wouldn't be an issue). That being said, when I watch YouTube on the '06 I usually do it through Kodi or PPC Media Center/Quicktime Player and not embedded in the browser (the HTML5 engine is not very efficient).

 

[philgxxd]

Will give seamonkey a try. So far i like to use safari for YouTube watching over any other browser in osx 10.8 on my early 15" 2008 MBP but it seems there are kind of problems with videos what makes bright backgrounds flash sometimes. I'm fine with 720p resolution as I don't have a higher screen resolution neither.

I'm just trying to find the least taxing YouTube watching experience temperature wise as my MBP has gone already through two repairs of the graphic card.

 

[redheeler]

Will give seamonkey a try. So far i like to use safari for YouTube watching over any other browser in osx 10.8 on my early 15" 2008 MBP but it seems there are kind of problems with videos what makes bright backgrounds flash sometimes. I'm fine with 720p resolution as I don't have a higher screen resolution neither.

An Early 2008 MBP will handle OS X 10.9+ (which runs the current version of Chrome, Firefox will full support) just fine, while my Late 2006 iMac will not. Is there a reason you're still on Mountain Lion?

 

[philgxxd]

I was using osx 10.9 before during long time but it wouldn't recognize the apple remote I have (old white one) though it had no problems in 10.6 nor 10.10 which I had installed on the old harddrive (mechanical) before I put an owc ssd into it.
I just tried booting from that old harddisk put onto an usb-sata adapter and it worked in both os.

I also couldn't run the cubase 5 installer in mavericks (it can be run by copying an install of it from another partition, using a timemachine backup or migration assistant but I wanted to start fresh).
I didn't want an dualboot approach the last time I did an reformat on that MBP (only 120gb ssd) so Mountain Lion seemed like a good compromise to get an still supported OS from the browsers (at least it was still valid when I installed it) and would let me natively install Cubase 5.

 

[philgxxd]

I forgot to add the issue I have with chrome.

It seems no login data gets saved meaning that I always have to login at Google itself and every website I'm visiting where I have an account so that's really annoying.

 

[redheeler]

I was using osx 10.9 before during long time but it wouldn't recognize the apple remote I have (old white one) though it had no problems in 10.6 nor 10.10 which I had installed on the old harddrive (mechanical) before I put an owc ssd into it.
I just tried booting from that old harddisk put onto an usb-sata adapter and it worked in both os.

I also couldn't run the cubase 5 installer in mavericks (it can be run by copying an install of it from another partition, using a timemachine backup or migration assistant but I wanted to start fresh).
I didn't want an dualboot approach the last time I did an reformat on that MBP (only 120gb ssd) so Mountain Lion seemed like a good compromise to get an still supported OS from the browsers (at least it was still valid when I installed it) and would let me natively install Cubase 5.

Can't comment on Cubase 5, but I never had any issues with the old white Apple remote in 10.9+.

 

[thewonders]

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".

How do you change the plist when it is locked?

 

[redheeler]

How do you change the plist when it is locked?

Drag the Firefox.app to your desktop, edit the plist while it is there, then drag it into Applications.

 

[thewonders]

Drag the Firefox.app to your desktop, edit the plist while it is there, then drag it into Applications.

Oh, that's simple. I thought a plist file needed a special tool - I thought that editing a plist with Text Edit changed the properties of the file, but I guess not. Thanks.

 

[grec101]

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

Have the same problem with Waterfox 55 (did not have the issue with Waterfox 52-54). I noted that it is just the prefs.js file in the profile causing the problem i.e. when you delete the file Waterfox plays YT fine again. prefs.js is written everytime you close Waterfox and it seems that one can determine in about:config what is written in the prefs file. Thing is when going into about:config in Waterfox (or firefox) there are many! variables. Does anyone has any suggestions what one could try changing in order to solve the problem?

Update: in Waterfox 55.2.2 the problem is solved. Thank you Alex Kontos!

 

[redheeler]

It looks like Firefox 57 is the end, at least for now. Trying to load any webpage just results in this happening:

The latest version of Seamonkey (2.49.1) continues to work fine, but is based on the version of Gecko found in Firefox 52.4 (according to the release notes).

Edit: A solution has been found! See this post.

 

[Tom80112]

I am currently using Chrome Version 49 because it's the last version that will install for me.

What are the security risks for me using this version of Chrome? I was told Macs are not susceptible to viruses like PC's are.

Thanks..

PS: sorry for the duplicate thread I entered earlier today. I tried to delete the post once I saw this thread but I didn't see a way to do it.

 

[redheeler]

I am currently using Chrome Version 49 because it's the last version that will install for me.

What are the security risks for me using this version of Chrome? I was told Macs are not susceptible to viruses like PC's are.

Thanks..

PS: sorry for the duplicate thread I entered earlier today. I tried to delete the post once I saw this thread but I didn't see a way to do it.

Technically there are almost always known security holes in older unsupported web browsers; these have nothing to do with viruses, but can potentially be exploited to install malware or mine personal data. That being said, I doubt there's much actual risk in using the old Chrome 49, especially if you don't visit shady websites.

If you're still concerned, I recommend running a current patched version of Firefox on your Mountain Lion Mac using the method I detailed in this thread (even the latest version 57 can be made to work). Chrome 49's support of modern web standards is already a year and a half behind, so that'd be another reason to try Firefox instead.

 

[Tom80112]

I recommend running a current patched version of Firefox on your Mountain Lion Mac using the method I detailed in this thread (even the latest version 57 can be made to work). Chrome 49's support of modern web standards is already a year and a half behind, so that'd be another reason to try Firefox instead.

Thanks redheeler! Now if someone can tell me if there is a way to force install Mountain Lion on a 2014 Mac Mini. I've tried Mavericks and Sierra on my 2013 MacBook Pro Retina and keep going back to Mountain Lion because I honestly feel that Mountain Lion feels quicker and smoother.

 

[qqurioustiger8945]

If theoretically I didn't care about security and all I was looking for was the smoothest experience possible (least memory consumption etc.), which browser should I use? I mean, whether it's through legit installing or modifying plist files.

Thanks.

 

[grec101]

If theoretically I didn't care about security and all I was looking for was the smoothest experience possible (least memory consumption etc.), which browser should I use? I mean, whether it's through legit installing or modifying plist files.

Thanks.

Try Waterfox. Performance on old machines (I am using a 2009 mini) is amazing in my experience, close to what I am used to with my 2014 Air with 10.11 and the 64 bit firefox. At one point (e.g. the early 55 versions) it was a bit buggy, but since a couple of months I could not find any issue any more. It gets regular updates based on firefox so safety should be ok

 

[UL2RA]

Try Waterfox. Performance on old machines (I am using a 2009 mini) is amazing in my experience, close to what I am used to with my 2014 Air with 10.11 and the 64 bit firefox. At one point (e.g. the early 55 versions) it was a bit buggy, but since a couple of months I could not find any issue any more. It gets regular updates based on firefox so safety should be ok

Yep ... Waterfox is awesome and works great on older machines.

 

[redheeler]

Unfortunately, it looks like versions of Firefox Quantum after 60 ESR crash on launch in Mountain Lion. Still much better than being stuck on 45 ESR or 48, the last versions officially supported by Mozilla.

 

[swamprock]

Unfortunately, it looks like versions of Firefox Quantum after 60 ESR crash on launch in Mountain Lion. Still much better than being stuck on 45 ESR or 48, the last versions officially supported by Mozilla.

Yep. They use a newer version of Xcode nowadays, that no longer supports Mountain Lion. The old minimum version trick no longer works.

I use Arctic Fox, which is a rebranded Pale Moon (a Firefox fork) with updated security patches. The browser works in OS X all the way back to 10.6, as long as you're running the 64-bit kernel. Check this thread out for more information: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/arctic-fox-web-browser-for-10-6-64bit.2133051/

The GitHub page is here: https://github.com/wicknix/Arctic-Fox

 

[redheeler]

I'm now convinced Waterfox is the best option for Mountain Lion. It uses the older (pre-Quantum) Firefox wrapper but the newer Gecko rendering engine, reminiscent of Leopard Webkit using the old Safari wrapper with a newer version of Webkit.

Not sure how much longer he plans to support Mountain Lion, but the newest version works fine and performs better than Firefox 60 ESR, other than a couple crashes I had while playing a YouTube stream (Firefox 60 ESR has crashed while playing YouTube as well).

 

[MBAir2010]

Waterfox dropped some important java script on some websites (MtLoin) recently, i found an old copy of Opera and will dust off the MBA and see if that copy works better than waterfox this weekend and report here

 

[parrotgeek1]

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[ZStech]

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.

Honestly I like to use some old os's. And the only browser I can think of is Google Chrome. Used it even on Lion and Snow Leopard.