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Lowest resource web browser for g4 running Tiger?

0

01mggt

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 23, 2010
309
11
Ok guy, so I am waiting on my new Retina Macbook Pro to be delivered. I had to sell my 2008 Macbook to help pay for it and am now left with only an iBook g3 600mhz 640mb ram and also a Powerbook g4 867mhz with 1.2gb ram and a SSd that is 64GB. I downgraded the Powerbook to tiger to get a better speed boost. I am not really planning to do anyhting flash related and need a good fast browser to last me the 3-4 weeks wait time on my rMBP. what do you guys reccomend? I am currently running TenFourFox Camino and Omni with the respective adblock and flashblock add-ons. But of course they all seem painfully slow with alot of sites and anything mroe than 2 tabs running.

I have already disabled dashboard and all animation efects in Tiger. What do you guys reccomend to make this wait less frustrating? :) I booted the ibook g3 into os 9.2.2 and used classilla some. It's fast as can be but most websites require Java and once you turn Java on it kills performance as expected.
 
estrides said:
tenfourfox is pretty awesome.
Click to expand...

Yeah it seems pretty good, but is there any optimization to increase performance when running it? Such as turning off smooth scrolling and stuff? Maybe I just need to experiment. Tiger seems very well optimized and uses almost no CPU or ram beyond the basics. TFF can someones be taxing 30% cpu maybe even more at times. Seeing as how I have a crappy GPU in the powerbook would turning off hardware acceleration in TFF help?
 
I kind of prefer Stainless on my PowerBook, I feel it's a little snappier than the others. Also, it seems to separate the tabs because if one of them slows down to almost a complete stop the other ones are not affected what so ever.
 
Starfighter said:
I kind of prefer Stainless on my PowerBook, I feel it's a little snappier than the others. Also, it seems to separate the tabs because if one of them slows down to almost a complete stop the other ones are not affected what so ever.
Click to expand...

I will look into that for sure :)

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VanneDC said:
i actually just prefer safari that comes with tiger. its fast enough. :D
Click to expand...

do you just update safari to the latest supported build?
 
You should try processor optimized Camino, when I use it the fan on my PowerBook hardly turns on.
 
Starfighter said:
I kind of prefer Stainless on my PowerBook, I feel it's a little snappier than the others. Also, it seems to separate the tabs because if one of them slows down to almost a complete stop the other ones are not affected what so ever.
Click to expand...

OP - Bear in mind that Stainless only runs on Leopard

But +1 for Stainless, it's my secondary browser to Safari 5 on my Leopard machines.
 
I am pretty sur eI am running the Camino thats built for my model of g4 if I remember right. It sucks that stainless won't run on Tiger. I don't think it would help me much if I install Leopard just for Stainless. I am pretty sure even optimized by turning off animations and such Leopard will run pretty terrible on my ole g4.
 
Opera 10.10. Any version higher than that was where Opera started developing for Intel and problems started to creep in. 10.5x was especially bad and each higher version started to get slower.
Opera 10.10 is fast and light. You have access to Opera skins (themes) and you can place your toolbars anywhere. Web panels, Opera Unite (which Opera is closing, but right now you can still use), Opera Turbo (for slow connections) and access to sync data on Opera's servers (bookmarks, settings, etc). If you download the Opera Unite apps so you can reinstall if you need then you can still keep using Opera Unite when Opera finally closes it.
Opera has mouse gestures and you can modify keyboard shortcuts directly. I use the Opera Unite feature to run two apps in the browser. One is a Userscript Manager and you can use it to run any Userscripts you want. Userstyles.org has styles for Stylish, the Firefox addon, but if you aren't using Firefox/TenFourFox you can install it as a userscript which the UJS Manager (in Opera Unite) can manage. You can also use Greasemonkey scripts. Many of the scripts have adblockers. Combine that with Glimmerblocker and you can block ads. If there is something you don't want on the screen you can also tell Opera to hide it. There is also a way to force Opera 10.10 to use the latest Opera related javascript code. And Opera is FAST at rendering javascript.
Opera also has widgets which you can download direct from Opera. These are on screen little apps that do various small tasks.
The downside to Opera 10.10 is that it's not current. Many sites might not render the way you want. You only have a few choices for User Agents and they are all outdated. Also, no extensions. That only came to Opera in Opera 11 and that's Intel only. That's why I user Opera Unite and the userscript engine app to run user javascripts.
But if speed and low resources is what you are ultimately looking for Opera is excellent.
Oh yeah. I'm also using Fluid 0.9.6 which is the last PowerPC version of Fluid. I don't know if that is Leopard only or not but it lets you make one browser for any site you want. The resultant app uses Webkit and is thus fast. I've used it to make three apps for the three major sites I visit.
 
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I've tried TenFourFox, but the latest versions have became more resource-heavy. Mozilla's on a rapid-release cycle, so they're putting out new versions really, really fast. However, they're all based on FireFox 4, which means it'll still render webpages well, so a version of TenFourFox based on FireFox 4 instead of a newer release should work fine. I've heard iCab is great, you might want to try that. Here's a list of faster web browsers:

http://lowendmac.com/ed/royal/08sr/9-mac-browsers-compared.html
 
Demeter makes my head spin. But its too unstable for daily use for me, and hasn't been updated in donkey's years.
 
TenFourFox works great for me on my eMac with 10.4. It does tend to slow down quite a bit after you get 7 or 8 tabs open, but as long as you're not trying to run multiple applications alongside with it, it does just fine.
 
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