Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9

[Wowfunhappy]

I know we already have a thread for Early Intel Mac web browsers, but frankly I think this one deserves its own thread. It's just so great.

I haven't used Google Chrome for years. I don't like Google's dominance over the web, and besides, there are two other excellent, mainstream browser engines. Back when I used modern versions of macOS, I used Safari, and when I decided to downgrade all of the computers in my life to OS X 10.9 a year ago, I switched to Firefox.

Unfortunately, the web is increasingly a Chromium-only domain. I am very much trying to make Mavericks work for every computing task in my life, and that means answering work calls in Slack and Microsoft Teams. And for better or worse, this can only be done in Google Chrome and its derivatives.

Up until now, I've been using VMWare for Slack and Teams calls, but waiting for VMs to start up is annoying, and the whole thing is a tad too error-prone in a professional setting. Complicating matters, I strongly dislike keeping more than one web browser installed at a time, because I'll sometimes forget which browser I'm in, and it gets confusing.

Enter Chromium Legacy, by the fantastic Bluebox. I have it working in Mavericks now via some code injection, and I've officially switched to it as the one browser installed on my computer. And I have to admit, Chromium really is just a damn good browser. Pages do seem to load more quickly than in Firefox, and Chromium does a (relatively) better job of playing with native Mac features, like Applescripts and custom keyboard shortcuts.

Official builds of Chromium Legacy can be downloaded from here.

Alternately, because Chromium lacks an auto-update mechanism, I've created a Preference Pane which makes it easier to download new releases. It will also replace the icon with Chrome's classic 3D version, set a flag to not use any system proxies (for compatibility with Squid), and change some default settings which I just find aggressively obnoxious, like hiding URLs in the address bar. Download from https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/chromium-legacy-downloader.dmg. Note that this PrefPane is designed for 10.7 – 10.9, I don't test more recent versions of macOS.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Woo, this works fully on Mavericks now, no odd memory workarounds needed!

And, the developer made a fix for App Mode, which means I get to talk about the other reason I love this browser...

It goes without saying that a lot of modern apps are not available for old versions of OS X. But if there's a web version, you can go to the website in Chromium Legacy, and in the menu select More Tools > Create Shortcut... and check "Open as Window". Boom, now that website is an app. Chromium will probably give it a dumb icon, but you can change it to something better!

Now, you might respond "I don't want a crappy website that looks like its an app! I want a real, native Mac app!" Unfortunately, modern apps are increasingly just websites packaged inside custom versions of Chrome, so this is basically the same thing.

 

[wicknix]

I just stick to using good old fashioned bookmarks or pinned tabs. Not a fan of this "feature". I average roughly 10 tabs always open, which is nothing compared to some people, but i cant see replacing 1 window that holds those 10 tabs vs launching 10 extra "apps" every day cluttering my desktop.

Cheers

 

[Wowfunhappy]

That's fair enough! I don't use it all the time, but where I find it super helpful is for things like Slack and Figma, which really are apps in their own right! (And while there are better chat and design apps, other people chose these ones, so I need to use them to collaborate.)

The one thing that's bothering me right now is that notifications still show up as coming from "Chromium" in Notification Center, which makes Notification Center less useful and just generally breaks the veneer.

 

[otetzone]

Just curious.. Not that I want to uninstall it but if I would then how do I do it? First uninstall the app itself with AppCleaner or the like and then the Preference Pane would go by itself?
Another question, is it worth it to give the app access to the keychain?
By the way, as I use Chromium Legacy the Little Snitch reports a bunch of attempts to connect to all kinds of google addresses. It even bothers me when I want to install some extension which never happened with Firefox

 

[Wowfunhappy]

The Preference Pane isn't part of Chromium Legacy, it's a separate thing I wrote in Applescript which downloads Chromium Legacy and moves it to the right place. So, no, I don't think AppCleaner would catch it.

But, AppCleaner + Uninstalling the PrefPane + a reboot should remove everything. The reboot is just to clear out previous Chromium downloads, which are stored in the temporary items folder.

By the way, as I use Chromium Legacy the Little Snitch reports a bunch of attempts to connect to all kinds of google addresses. It even bothers me when I want to install some extension which never happened with Firefox

I mean, it's Google's web browser... ? Firefox definitely has advantages for privacy.

Another question, is it worth it to give the app access to the keychain?

What's going on here is, Chromium encrypts many of its preference files with a key saved in Keychain Access, called "Chromium Safe Storage". But when you replace an older version of Chromium Legacy with a newer version, OS X sees the newer one as a different application, and doesn't automatically grant it access to the "Chromium Safe Storage" key created by its predecessor. I don't think there's a way to resolve that without code-signing Chromium Legacy with a paid Apple Developer account.

So, yes, you'll want to answer "Always Allow" so you won't be bothered again until the next update.

Edit: You could also open Chromium Safe Storage in Keychain Access and enable "Allow all applications to access this item", but I'm not sure what the implications would be for security. Presumably Chromium encrypts these preferences for a reason.

 

[otetzone]

I mean, it's Google's web browser...

I might be wrong but Chrome is Google's browser. For what I know Google Chrome was based on Chromium which was open-source and had nothing to do with Google

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I might be wrong but Chrome is Google's browser. For what I know Google Chrome was based on Chromium which was open-source and had nothing to do with Google

Chromium is open source but the vast majority of the code comes from Google. Mainline Chromium and Google Chrome are practically identical.

The only difference is that Google leaves a handful of things out of Chromium which they want to keep secret. API keys, Widevine DRM, that sort of thing. And, Chromium lacks automatic updates and has an uglier gray logo.

 

[wicknix]

When Google first introduced Chrome back in 2008, they also released the Chromium source code on which Chrome was based as an open-source project. However, Chromium does include many features that depend on Google’s servers, and those features are enabled by default. They include a web service that helps fix mistyped web addresses, a prediction service, Google’s anti-phishing feature, and more.

Cheers

 

[otetzone]

Ha, and I believed Chromium was so much different in terms of privacy from Chrome. It's even funny how naive I have sounded.
Thank you guys for opening my eyes and please excuse my ignorance. I keep learning.

 

[Strategia]

Ha, and I believed Chromium was so much different in terms of privacy from Chrome. It's even funny how naive I have sounded.
Thank you guys for opening my eyes and please excuse my ignorance. I keep learning.

You can try out ungoogled-chromium. It may not support these older versions of OS X, but it is the most private version of Chromium possible.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

You can try out ungoogled-chromium. It may not support these older versions of OS X, but it is the most private version of Chromium possible.

Yeah, that's going to be the problem. Blueboxd is basing his Chromium Legacy branch on mainline Chromium.

If anyone feels so inclined, it should be possible to use Git to merge the changes and create an Ungoogled Chromium Legacy branch of some sort—the list of changes between Blueboxd's branch and mainline isn't all that large, at least relative to the insane size of the Chromium project.

The issue is that you'd have to actually recompile Chromium, not just once but again and again as it gets updated. Part of what's great about Chromium Legacy is that Blueboxd appears to have set up some sort of automatic build system.

 

[otetzone]

You can try out ungoogled-chromium. It may not support these older versions of OS X, but it is the most private version of Chromium possible.

True, I actually use it when at work when Firefox fails at something. But there are Windows computers. There probably is a version that would run on Mavericks but the thing is that Wowfunhappy made his version work with Squid and made it possible to update itself. Oh well.
When I first ran across ungoogled-chromium I thought it was "ungoogled" because you couldn't install extensions from the google store as with regular Chromium. I remember that it is possible to download them first and then install. Even though it clearly says Ungoogled chromium by its own name, it never occurred to me that regular Chromium actually was googled.

 

[Strategia]

When I first ran across ungoogled-chromium I thought it was "ungoogled" because you couldn't install extensions from the google store as with regular Chromium. I remember that it is possible to download them first and then install.

For this, I use chromium-web-store (also on GitHub). It enables you to install extensions "directly" from the Web Store (it downloads the .crx for you when clicking "Add to Chrome") and allows you to update extensions easily.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

the thing is that Wowfunhappy made his version work with Squid and made it possible to update itself. Oh well.

Just want to make it clear that BlueBoxd created and maintains Chromium Legacy, not me. I did provide code to fix the UI, and helped figure out what was breaking Mavericks compatibility. And of course I made the updater.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Minor issue when displaying certificate information · Issue #16 · blueboxd/chromium-legacy

This is pretty minor, but a little odd: Go to any website that uses https (e.g. example.com) Click the 🔒 icon in the address bar. Click "Certificate" This will bring up a Cocoa dialog. So far so go...

github.com

Others (on Mavericks?) are able to replicate this, right? It’s really odd that it doesn’t happen inside Virtual Machines; I really hope I’m not sending the developer on a goose chase for something specific to how I set up my computers.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

Just want to make it clear that BlueBoxd created and maintains Chromium Legacy, not me. I did provide code to fix the UI, and helped figure out what was breaking Mavericks compatibility. And of course I made the updater.

Just wanted to say “thank you” to you and @BlueBoxd for your work - keeping the rest of us online!

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Bluebox found a way to get Widevine DRM working on Mavericks! If you use an updated copy of my downloader Preference Pane, it should set everything up for you.

 

[davigarma]

Bluebox found a way to get Widevine DRM working on Mavericks! If you use an updated copy of my downloader Preference Pane, it should set everything up for you.

Everything works perfectly. Now Mavericks is 100x100 functional, if modern programs are not needed, of course :-:

 

[Maudlynne]

Bluebox found a way to get Widevine DRM working on Mavericks! If you use an updated copy of my downloader Preference Pane, it should set everything up for you.

Could you elaborate on this for a GitHub newbie? I've been beating my head against a wall for week, and am about to cancel all my streaming services, since they won't - you know - play movies. I don't know what your downloader Preference Pane is, but I'm educable...

Thanks!

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I don't know what your downloader Preference Pane is, but I'm educable...

This thing: https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/chromium-legacy-downloader.zip

 

[MacBiter]

Could you elaborate on this for a GitHub newbie? I've been beating my head against a wall for week, and am about to cancel all my streaming services, since they won't - you know - play movies. I don't know what your downloader Preference Pane is, but I'm educable...

Maudlynne - see my reply below if you're still puzzled:

This is fantastic! For a year or two, the only way I've been able to stream Netflix, ITV, or Channel 4 in Mavericks is with Firefox. However, the recent failure to update Widevine in FF 78 meant I had to use my Sierra VM, and being a VM it didn't use the host Mac graphics card and video was 'choppy'.

Now, using Chromium 92 (via the link above), I find all three video services work fine in Mavericks.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Just don't get too used to it—it could break at any time, since no one outside of Google can actually modify the Widevine library. It's complete chance that it happens to still work under Mavericks.

(If it does eventually break, and you're willing to use a VM, I suspect you'll have more success with VMWare Fusion 8 + a Windows guest, which does provide a sort of graphics acceleration. But Chromium Legacy is obviously better for the moment!)

 

[MacBiter]

Just don't get too used to it—it could break at any time, since no one outside of Google can actually modify the Widevine library. It's complete chance that it happens to still work under Mavericks.

(If it does eventually break, and you're willing to use a VM, I suspect you'll have more success with VMWare Fusion 8 + a Windows guest, which does provide a sort of graphics acceleration. But Chromium Legacy is obviously better for the moment!)

Noted (though how come the latest Widevine works in LegacyC in Mavericks but not in Safari/Firefox/Chrome, or even iCab?).

I'm using Parallels 11 for the VM - and for Snow Leopard and Mavericks also. If Legacy Chromium breaks in the future, I may finally upgrade to Sierra and use it for browsers / email, and run my Mavericks VM for everything else.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Well it works in Chromium Legacy because it's still a fully up-to-date Chromium codebase. Safari doesn't even use Widevine, they have their own DRM system, which I don't even think even existed in Safari 9. (But some sites, including Netflix, let you use Silverlight.)

I'm using Parallels 11 for the VM

Parallels is fine too, I just recommend a Windows guest rather than a Mac guest. It'll be much faster, especially for graphics. Not because Windows is better or anything, but because the Parallels and VMWare developers have invested millions of dollars in making Windows guests perform well, including a sort of graphics acceleration.

Nothing to worry about right now, anyway!