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TenFourFox 4.0.1 browser; Firefox 4 for PowerPC

Sections: Mac Software, Web Applications / Development

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Version 4.0.1 of TenFour Fox, FloodGap’s port of Firefox 4 for Power PC Macs that supports both Mac OS X v10.4 and v10.5. has been released. Mozilla.org dropped support for OS X v10.5 after Firefox 3.6 and for Power PC with the fourth beta of Firefox 4.

TenFour Fox

TenFourFox uses almost all the same code as Firefox 4 and has nearly all the same features, including faster JavaScript, WebM video, and HTML 5 and CSS 3 support. It also has new and emerging Web features, but with the code needed to keep your Power Mac functional and fast.

The developers pledge that new feature versions of TenFourFox will continue to be released until it is no longer possible to compile Mozilla’s source code. Subsequent to that, it will still release security updates.

I’ve been using TenFourFox on my old ismo PowerBooks with 550 MHz Motorola 7410 G4 PowerPC processors running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger for the past month or so, and find it offers the most satisfactory all-around browser performance on these venerable machines. It’s among the fastest of the remaining Power PC compatible browsers, as well; more lively than the Firefox 3.6, and with most of the FireFox 4 feature improvements. If you’re still running Power PC hardware, I enthusiastically recommend checking out TenFourFox.

104foxspeed

Note that there are actually four processor-tuned variants of TenFourFox available, and for the the best speed on your particular Macintosh you’ll want to download the appropriate build for your machine, and be aware that download links from third-party sites may not link to the specific one you need.

The choices are:

  • TenFourFox for G3 processors
  • TenFourFox for G4 processors: 7400-series
  • TenFourFox for G4 processors: 7450-series (“G4e”)
  • TenFourFox for G5 processors

G3 and G5 owners can just download the G3 and/or G5 build respectively, but G4 users need to determine if their G4 is a 7450-series CPU (“G4e”), such as the 7447, 7447A, 7448, 7450, 7451, 7455 and 7457, or a 7400-series CPU, such as the 7400 and 7410. Typically the “G4e” series of CPU are in most G4s at and over 733MHz.

If you’re unsure which G4 variant is in your Mac, the easiest way to find out is to open the OS X Terminal.app and type “machine” (without the quotation marks). Your output will probably look something like this:

G4typeinfo

Download the appropriate version of TenFourFox, and you’re good to go.

TenFourFox version 4.0.1 is a performance, security and stability update incorporating Mozilla’s Firefox 4.0.1 plus AltiVec acceleration for WebM and browser graphics, and G5 JavaScript acceleration.

TenFourFox gets the highest recommendation I’d give over any of the remaining PowerPC Web browsers.

Product [TenFourFox]

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  • Erica Marceau

    Thanks so much for this news. I am stuck for the time being using an old PowerPC G4 and was disappointed when the latest Firefox wouldn't work. Now I can use the latest browser and speed up my browsing time. I'm downloading it now and look forward to using it.