Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PowerFox Web Browser - A brand new browser for PowerPC (Beta)

atarixle said:
To me (and to my shame) the most important thing is: will Hotmail work with it? This OAuth2.0 thingy seems to break all. And while that even is available in a Thunderbird-ESR-Version running in El Capitan, it does not work at all there.

To speak PowerFox: PowerFox for Tiger works pretty well on Leopard PowerPC. Nice to have all the bug-fixes you promised. Can't wait to use the stable release! On Intel there are some quirks, which I may mention in the PowerFox Intel thread (I tested it in Snow Leopard, and Tiger Intel).
Click to expand...
Yes, Outlook’s Ouath2 protocol will be supported.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Appleuser201 and Smithwick’s
Appleuser201 said:
I've never been able to log into Hotmail/Outlook or into my Microsoft account at all on PowerFox. I suspect its a user agent issue, as the Brassmonkey browser on Leopard works with logging in and checking my outlook. Someone here mentioned switching the user agent on PowerFox to the KaiOS user agent from Aquafox and being able to get it to work.
Click to expand...
That was me! Yes, it works and also loads a minimalist mobile version of the site.
 
Smithwick’s said:
That was me! Yes, it works and also loads a minimalist mobile version of the site.
Click to expand...
Which is honestly necessary, on Brassmonkey, it literally takes minutes to open an email on the full desktop site on a 1.2ghz G4. I would love a user agent switcher in settings so I could use all mobile sites as they load significantly quicker.
 
Jazzzny said:
Yes, Outlook’s Ouath2 protocol will be supported.
Click to expand...
This is great. I do want to ask, would it ever be possible for you to add a user agent switcher in settings like TenFourFox based browsers have? The KaiOS UA specifically is significantly faster on Aquafox than the main desktop UA and I feel like it could help a ton here for speed. Currently every single individual website needs to be edited manually to change the UA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skinniezinho
  • Like
Reactions: Raging Dufus, skinniezinho and Appleuser201
I'd like to implement a special section in the preferences akin to TenFourFox's section for our next release. Does anyone have any suggestions on what should go in there? (Obviously options have to be reasonable).
 
Jazzzny said:
I'd like to implement a special section in the preferences akin to TenFourFox's section for our next release. Does anyone have any suggestions on what should go in there? (Obviously options have to be reasonable).
Click to expand...

the built in adblocker would be great.
 
Has anyone tinkered around enough in about:config to know if there are any settings to change that positively affect performance? I've only done some cursory looking around but nothing seems to make much of a dent on my G4.
 
finally regional settings for <input type="time"> and <input type="date"> would be nice ... time is american 12-hours-format only, which leads to issues in my schedule webapps, at the very least a 24-H-format would help much. I got the same issue with Basilisk and Pale Moon.
 
Last edited:
Smithwick’s said:
Has anyone tinkered around enough in about:config to know if there are any settings to change that positively affect performance? I've only done some cursory looking around but nothing seems to make much of a dent on my G4.
Click to expand...

Have you tried UXPEP by any chance? Besides disabling UI animations, it blocks many trackers and increases the number of connections to reduce site loading times, and also sets frame rates and asynchronous pan-zoom parameters to improve scrolling performance, among other things.

With that being said, I have noticed that it is most useful for systems that already have Core Image support since UXP relies very much on the graphics hardware to perform properly since it is so much more modern than TenFourFox; non-Core Image supported cards / systems are still best on Aquafox, I think.

atarixle said:
OMG how I love Open Source: Basilisk-Browser is available for PowerPC (Leopard)! I bet it is due to the hard work of the PowerFox project.
Click to expand...

Download Basilisk

A XUL-based web-browser demonstrating the Unified XUL Platform (UXP).
basilisk-browser.org

Now there are two modern browsers for PPC OS X, and I'm sure a Pale Moon build is just a matter of time. This is quickly becoming a momentous year for the platform indeed. 🙂
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: iBookmaster and Appleuser201
I was trying to tack a package with usps. Does anyone know how to get anything useful out of tools.usps.com or should I just call them and let them know that their web site sucks?
 
  • Haha
Reactions: AdamBuker
Is anyone else having this issue with YouTube playback while using the Vorapis V3 addon. I'm getting this screen when trying to watch a YouTube video. Is there anything I can do to get the video to play?
Picture 1.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Appleuser201 and Yuanch
PowerHarryG4 said:
Is anyone else having this issue with YouTube playback while using the Vorapis V3 addon. I'm getting this screen when trying to watch a YouTube video. Is there anything I can do to get the video to play? View attachment 2627563
Click to expand...
Try using h264ify. That works for me. Plus it performs better. That said, I've noticed YT in powerfox runs much worse on 10.4 than 10.5, maybe it doesn't have the same hardware acceleration or uses different codecs? On 10.4 144p is barely playable, on 10.5 480p is butter smooth and 720p is watchable (1.67GHz G4)
 
Caleb Hauge said:
Try using h264ify. That works for me. Plus it performs better. That said, I've noticed YT in powerfox runs much worse on 10.4 than 10.5, maybe it doesn't have the same hardware acceleration or uses different codecs? On 10.4 144p is barely playable, on 10.5 480p is butter smooth and 720p is watchable (1.67GHz G4)
Click to expand...
How does it play if you turn off h264ify?
 
Hi all! My only functioning Power pc Mac is a iMac g3 bondi blue tray loader, and with only 233mhz, it’s probably the largest hardware stretch powerfox can make. So glad that more sites load on this than Aquafox, even though it is 2-3x slower. Will any new updates help with the G3’s? It’s great to have Tiger support, but I feel that hardware limitations are a contributing factor to the G3’s.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4114.jpeg
    IMG_4114.jpeg
    4.7 MB · Views: 32
  • Like
Reactions: AdamBuker, Appleuser201 and Yumiko Noua
Oh wow I was thinking it is a PowerFox issue ... but also modern Firefox (Momiji 140.10 ESR) does not load the image when I click it. The Forum admins should target this issue.

EDIT: great. after the 4th try (after I downloaded the image to be precise) the image is displayed ... and I screamed false alarm.
 
Last edited:
skyguy99 said:
Hi all! My only functioning Power pc Mac is a iMac g3 bondi blue tray loader, and with only 233mhz, it’s probably the largest hardware stretch powerfox can make. So glad that more sites load on this than Aquafox, even though it is 2-3x slower. Will any new updates help with the G3’s? It’s great to have Tiger support, but I feel that hardware limitations are a contributing factor to the G3’s.
Click to expand...
That's amazingly impressive, seeing the modern web on a 233mhz Bondi iMac. The only stock macintosh older this would theoretically run on is the beige G3 Powermacs from the year before (1997).

To answer your question, no. I don't think anything could help a G3 navigate the modern internet, especially not at 233mhz. It's cool to see, but the modern web of 2026 has far left that nearly 30 year old computer behind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skyguy99
Appleuser201 said:
That's amazingly impressive, seeing the modern web on a 233mhz Bondi iMac. The only stock macintosh older this would theoretically run on is the beige G3 Powermacs from the year before (1997).

To answer your question, no. I don't think anything could help a G3 navigate the modern internet, especially not at 233mhz. It's cool to see, but the modern web of 2026 has far left that nearly 30 year old computer behind.
Click to expand...
I am really surprised what I actually can do on this. For some reason Aquafox is much faster, but has many more dead sites. Faebook with Powerfox for example, works normally (Albeit painfully slow 2 min load times) and others load more correctly. Aquafox can somehow make youtube play at 5 frames per min, but the audio usually is ok. Aquafox has ability to make the browser act like a moble device, while Powerfox cant. If there was a way for Powerfox to allow a sort of mobile script, I feel it would be more usable, but for now, I'm just amazed that it can do this much! Even 10.4 tiger isnt natively supported.
 

Attachments

  • unnamed.jpg
    unnamed.jpg
    140.9 KB · Views: 20
  • Like
Reactions: Appleuser201
Appleuser201 said:
The only stock macintosh older this would theoretically run on is the beige G3 Powermacs from the year before (1997).
Click to expand...
You'd be hard-pressed to see this happen, especially in a stock configuration.

Those original run Beige G3s have odd graphics behavior in even contemporary OS X versions (my Rev 1 kernel panics in Jaguar, for instance; forget about Tiger), so you'd have to slot in an add-in graphics card at minimum. And then you'll need a RAM upgrade on top of that. Also while you're in there you can swap out the socketed processor for something faster and better, like a G4 upgrade. But at that point it's not really a Beige G3 anymore besides the case.

I did drag my Rev 1 through a web benchmark one time and got the worst score in the thread, though I had to throw a RAM upgrade and run Linux to do it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skyguy99
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back