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Optimization for Webkit

CYB3RBYTE

CYB3RBYTE

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 2, 2014
454
293
Midwest
Hello all,

It's been a minute since I last posted here, but I've decided to get back into PowerPC macs using one of my most recent finds, a 1.25 GHZ iMac G4 17"! It's such a cool little machine, and I'd like to use it for some light schoolwork (browser work, and iWork). I have a 2GB RAM kit coming, currently on 1.25GB of RAM.

I've been messing around with webkit, and it's miles faster than tenfourfox for me. Does anyone know how to optimize it better or am I just missing a thread with everything I need?

Excited to get back into things.
 
You didn't say, but I presume you're talking here about Leopard Webkit. It's pretty well optimized as it is, although you could add functionality through the use of extensions. Someone more familiar with that could advise you better, but since Leopard Webkit has been updated with the latest Webkit frameworks, many current Safari extensions probably work.

Another vote for Roccat, it's fast and slick. I've found it to be the best in-browser YouTube solution, even with its default user agent. One caveat, you'll need to be on 10.5 Leopard to be able to use it (doesn't work on Tiger). Also, you'll want to relink against Leopard Webkit in order to use the most updated Webkit frameworks; otherwise Roccat relies on the very outdated and insecure version of Webkit that is native to Leopard.
 
Just to be clear, I don't prefer Roccat to Leopard Webkit. I'm not fond of Roccat's interface, but it does serve its purposes for me - mainly for YouTube and sometimes certain social media. If I'm choosing a Webkit-based browser for other things on a PPC Mac, I'm much more likely to use Leopard Webkit.

It's just a fact of life on PPC for many years now that in order to be efficient on the web, you need multiple browsers. Some do certain things better than others. If I'm online banking, for instance, I'm not using Roccat or Leopard Webkit - that duty falls to TenFourFox on my systems, for security reasons. I'm just saying, be flexible, every browser has its advantages and drawbacks on PPC OS X.

EDIT: Since we're talking browsers, I'd be remiss not to mention ArcticFox for PPC OS X. It's just fantastic, though a bit unstable. It's become my go-to browser for general web browsing.
 
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Raging Dufus said:
otherwise Roccat relies on the very outdated and insecure version of Webkit that is native to Leopard.
Click to expand...

And it is this reason why I see Roccat as totally redundant. If it's using the same engine and version as an old and inferior application, then why bother? If you can make it great by relinking to LeoWebkit, why not simply use LeoWebkit?

I've never understood this. That, along with the fact that it depends on Leopard Rebirth to be installed so as not to look completely out of place. Plus, why they've decided to plaster cats all over the branding and authors is beyond me, when some people might not at all be fond of cats.

Rant over. Carry on...
 
ScreenSavers said:
I thought Leopard WebKit was outdated... at least compared to TFF
Click to expand...
Yes and no. FF45 is older than Leopard-webkit. Spring of 2017 vs fall of 2018. Leopard webkit is equivalent to Safari 11. TFF even with updates is still FF45.9 at its core. You have newer web technologies in webkit. For instance try to going to github.com and looking at a projects source tree in TFF. You can't. It's broken. In leo-webkit it's fine. Even though TFF gets regular security updates, it's still not as "new" as webkit under the hood in terms of web compliance.

Cheers
 
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z970mp said:
And it is this reason why I see Roccat as totally redundant. If it's using the same engine and version as an old and inferior application, then why bother? If you can make it great by relinking to LeoWebkit, why not simply use LeoWebkit?

I've never understood this. That, along with the fact that it depends on Leopard Rebirth to be installed so as not to look completely out of place. Plus, why they've decided to plaster cats all over the branding and authors is beyond me, when some people might not at all be fond of cats.

Rant over. Carry on...
Click to expand...

Dronecatcher said it, it's more efficient. Roccat is different under the hood somehow from Safari, even though both are Webkit-based. The difference between the two when it comes to YouTube is quite noticeable; it's the difference between having smooth (Roccat) or choppy (Safari/LWk) in-browser video playback. I keep Roccat around for that reason.
 
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ScreenSavers said:
So how do we “link” the two? I’ve had both on my dual 2.0 G5 for a while.
Click to expand...

Instructions are in the "Read Me" file included w/Leopard Webkit. If you didn't save it, download LWk again so you can get at the file. It's just a matter of dragging & dropping certain Webkit-based applications onto a script set up for that purpose (the script, too, is included with the LWk download). LWk's author has really made the process simple for us.
 
z970mp said:
And it is this reason why I see Roccat as totally redundant. If it's using the same engine and version as an old and inferior application, then why bother? If you can make it great by relinking to LeoWebkit, why not simply use LeoWebkit?

I've never understood this. That, along with the fact that it depends on Leopard Rebirth to be installed so as not to look completely out of place. Plus, why they've decided to plaster cats all over the branding and authors is beyond me, when some people might not at all be fond of cats.

Rant over. Carry on...
Click to expand...

IMO Roccat is still faster than LWK. What I do is use the Safari plugin for Quicksilver, and keep all my bookmarks in Safari. Then set Roccat as my default browser, and launch all bookmarks in it via Quicksilver. I find this to be extremely efficient and light on the CPU.
 
Dronecatcher said:
Because once linked, it's lighter than Leopard Webkit and a tiny bit more efficient...at least it can be - I've since become frustrated with unstable updates.
Click to expand...

I see. Maybe I ought to give it a second look.

By the way, you mentioned in a prior thread that YouTube works very smoothly in OmniWeb. I've got 5.11.2 in Tiger and the video is just a black box. What can I do?
 
z970mp said:
By the way, you mentioned in a prior thread that YouTube works very smoothly in OmniWeb. I've got 5.11.2 in Tiger and the video is just a black box. What can I do?
Click to expand...

Still working for me - here it is on my 800Mhz G4 iMac.

Quicktime 7.6.4 and Perian installed - are you using the right UA?

1.jpg


2.jpg
 
Dronecatcher said:
Site preferences can be set for each site you go to - I set https://m.youtube.com as my home page, then go OmniWeb/Show Site Preferences, select Other tab, then set Identify to web servers...drop down as Custom then enter details as shown on previous post.

Normal playback is 240P, HQ is 360P.
Click to expand...

I'm admittedly not much of a Omniweb fan, but I do respect its heavy customization abilities.
 
Raging Dufus said:
Instructions are in the "Read Me" file included w/Leopard Webkit. If you didn't save it, download LWk again so you can get at the file. It's just a matter of dragging & dropping certain Webkit-based applications onto a script set up for that purpose (the script, too, is included with the LWk download). LWk's author has really made the process simple for us.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I tried it on my Titanium PowerBook and it makes a big difference. Interestingly, the HTML 5 test detects the WebKit browser as Safari 11 on El Capitan, but the about window is still Safari 5. Wonder if WebKit will get any more updates...
 
ScreenSavers said:
Wonder if WebKit will get any more updates...
Click to expand...

It's just an observation - and one that could be completely wrong - but it seems to me that the guy responsible for Leopard Webkit updates it on an "as-needed" basis. Only he knows what metric he uses to determine when it's needed. Comparing release dates of major new versions of Safari with updates to Leopard Webkit, it looks like he's managed to keep us one step behind Apple. That's a considerable feat, and as far as I know he does it by himself [really makes one appreciate other wunderkinds like @wicknix, who turns out browsers and other stuff like he's baking bread...but I digress].

Safari 12 has been out for about 8 months now, was updated to 12.1 a couple of months ago, and got a security update a few days ago. If my theory is correct, it makes sense to assume that he'll wait until Apple updates 12 a bit more, or maybe even releases 13, before LWK is updated again. It's got to be a monumental undertaking, and if it was me I'd want to have as complete a base as possible before I began doing all the coding. So, I'd expect another update within the next year or two, but that's just me. FWIW.
 
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Sorry to hijack this thread , but both on omniweb and roccat I get SSL error. On lwk and tenfourfox it doesn’t happen. How do I solve that?
 
So if leopard webkit is newer, then how come certain sites like NPR's webcast and a local radio station will not load the audio stream players at all? I have to use VLC for my local NPR station, I'd like to at least be able to listen to www.radiomilwaukee.org, it seems it won't load in leopard webkit correctly.
 
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