Firefox "Quantum" ported to 10.7 - 10.8

[maverick28]

Ethan Nelson-Moore (known on this forum under the nick parrotgeek1, a collaborator of Collin Mistr, the latter known as Dosdude1) has successfully undertaken the job of porting Firefox "Quantum" to some older unsupported versions of Mac OS X, namely, Lion and Mountain Lion, lowering the min sysreqs bar from 10.9 to 10.7. It's a genuine port - not a fork - based on a Firefox 67 build. The download is available on Ethan's site (parrotgeeks) at https://parrotgeek.com/fxlegacy.html. The speed is comparable to that of the latest browsers beating alternatives still aiming to provide support for older Mac OS X systems.

Firefox 67, aka "Firefox Legacy", running in Lion.

 

[AtaruBarreau]

I've tried out this on my Mac Mini 2,1, and I must say, it's impressive! I'll stick to Pale Moon 'cause it's less RAM hungry, but I'm sure it'll come in handy one day.

 

[maverick28]

I've tried out this on my Mac Mini 2,1, and I must say, it's impressive! I'll stick to Pale Moon 'cause it's less RAM hungry, but I'm sure it'll come in handy one day.

On MBP mid2012 (model 9,1) running Lion it flies as much as every other current gen browser leaving behind the rest of the browsers that still support this OS X. In fact, even its original counterpart - a genuine Firefox Quantum - in Mavericks is faster and smoother than Chrome, a beast itself. In High Sierra (still talking about the same machine) Firefox Quantum with regard to speed and performance is more robust than the latest Safari (and I don't use Chrome in High Sierra, so can't make a comparison). Go figure.

 

[AtaruBarreau]

On MBP mid2012 (model 9,1) running Lion it flies as much as every other current gen browser leaving behind the rest of the browsers that still support this OS X. In fact, even in Mavericks it's faster and smoother than a beasty Chrome. In High Sierra (still talking about the same machine) its speed and performance are more robust than those of the latest Safari (and I don't use Chrome in High SIerra). Go figure.

Interesting stats aha

 

[Argyboy]

This is a brilliant project. This is absolutely flying on my MacBook 4.1 running Lion. Excellent!

 

[retta283]

I'll check this out. Will a Snow Leopard version be released?

 

[maverick28]

I'll check this out. Will a Snow Leopard version be released?

No, it won't be. The developer stated that explicitly. Only Lion and Mountain Lion.

 

[retta283]

No, it won't be. The developer stated that explicitly. Only Lion and Mountain Lion.

I haven't had time to look at site yet. at least new support for these old systems that is not a Forked browser

 

[Argyboy]

I'll check this out. Will a Snow Leopard version be released?

No, due to technical limitations unfortunately. Arctic Fox is a fine option for Snow Leopard though.

 

[wicknix]

You may want to check this out as well. Supports 10.7 and up.
https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/spiderweb-browser.html

Cheers

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Wicknix, could you provide more detail on SpiderWeb?

Is it using an up-to-date Firefox renderer, or TenFourFox's renderer, or something else?

 

[wicknix]

It's backend is using the unified xul platform designed by the folks behind Pale Moon. It's on par with FF60.9esr (or better) with their JS improvements, and is current with security updates, backported patches etc.

Cheers

 

[wicknix]

Here's another: https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/interweb-browser.html
Based on https://basilisk-browser.org/features.shtml

Cheers

 

[maverick28]

Here's another: https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/interweb-browser.html
Based on https://basilisk-browser.org/features.shtml

Cheers

I'm just now testing it and posting this in Interweb. It opens pages nicely, it even loads iCloud/Notes as opposed to FF Legacy. However, both iCloud and GitHub complain that it's "unsupported", thought, as I said it has no issues loading and logging me into iCloud.

One problem with it, though: it fails to properly run installed extensions, although I downloaded the catalogue: I see Adguard listed but it won't show up in the application strip and so would
Send2prowl.

Update. It loads only the lists of iCloud notes but not their content.

 

[wicknix]

If they are webextensions, it's only partially implemented. There is full support for classic xul extensions however. The official supported ones are found here: https://addons.basilisk-browser.org/extensions/ and *most*, but not all, from the classic addons archive should work.

I'll check in to icloud. It might just require a simple useragent override.

Cheers

 

[maverick28]

The extensions are xpi

 

[wicknix]

Again, can't guarantee non official extensions will work. Why not use ublock origin or adblock latitude that are supported?

At any rate, I simply just rebranded and built basilisk for Mac since the main devs didn't want to release an official Mac version.

Cheers

 

[wicknix]

@maverick28 : Adding general.useragent.override.icloud.com in about:config and setting it to firefox 68.9 worked for me. Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:68.9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.9
I'm able to download from my icloud drive with no unsupported browser warning.

Cheers

Notes works too.

 

[maverick28]

@wicknix, are you going to continue this project of yours?

 

[wicknix]

Yeah. Will probably build updated releases every 3 months or so.

 

[wicknix]

Both SpiderWeb and InterWeb have been updated. Same links as posted above or the link in my signature.

Cheers

 

[rampancy]

Woo-hoo!

 

[TimmuJapan]

Hi, I tried your Firefox browser, as I also sometimes use a Macbook 2,1 running OS 10.7.5. The browser works great except for that I can`t get netflixs to play. Youtube, news videos, other SNS work great, but netflix remains a conundrum on the legacy 67.0.4 edition uploaded above. Interestingly and strangely, netflix will play on Firefox 48.0.2 in OS Lion.... and about the ONLY thing that safari 6.1.6 in OS Lion does well is play netflix. (LOL) Go figure?..... SpiderWeb and Interweb both will NOT play netflixs without tweaking that I haven`t yet discovered.

I think that it is great that you are patching these browsers to give old computers new lives. I love Apple and mac computers, but it`s terrible that the company won`t make just 1 legacy browser or just 1 legacy OS for all of their customers who use older hardware. Especially in the time of the coronavirus, a lot of students would benefit from that.

In any case, it would be great to have one browser on OS 10.7.5 that can do just about everything, so if anyone has any advice about how to get netflix going on the above legacy firefox, I`m all ears. Otherwise, wonderful browser.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Netflix's HTML5 player uses Encrypted Media Extensions and might be very difficult to get working.

However, Netflix actually still supports Silverlight according to https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742. So what I would do—assuming Netflix's own documentation is actually accurate—is install Silverlight and then use an old browser that supports NPAPI plugins, such as the Lion version of Safari.

If it works, you may want to use Fluid 1.x to create a dedicated "Netflix app" version of Safari, so you're not switching between browsers all the time.

 

[parrotgeek1]

Netflix's HTML5 player uses Encrypted Media Extensions and might be very difficult to get working.

However, Netflix actually still supports Silverlight according to https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742. So what I would do—assuming Netflix's own documentation is actually accurate—is install Silverlight and then use an old browser that supports NPAPI plugins, such as the Lion version of Safari.

If it works, you may want to use Fluid 1.x to create a dedicated "Netflix app" version of Safari, so you're not switching between browsers all the time.

I am attempting to fix EME but may only be able to do so on ML.

Edit May 2021: I know what was causing the problem (missing function mach_port_construct on <= 10.8) but I suspect there is protection that would make it extremely challenging to get a Widevine CDM dylib that has been patched in any way to function.

Furthermore, I have no personal interest in fixing DRM because the only thing I use that requires it is Spotify, and a 10.6/10.7 compatible version of the desktop app still works decently.

EDIT 2: As of 2021-10-24, Firefox Legacy is no longer supported, and there will be no further updates.