Macsurf, "modern" web browser for macOS 9

(github.com)

109 points | by gattilorenz 14 hours ago

12 comments

  • bensyverson 5 hours ago
    This is fantastic. To me, this is one of the greatest side-effects of agentic coding; adding new functionality to vintage, abandoned or obsolete hardware. It gives me hope for a solarpunk future where e-waste gets a more functional second life.
    • bbbbbbbbbbbvyt 3 hours ago
      [dead]
    • manytimesaway 5 hours ago
      So, making obsolete hardware relevant by using the technology that's accelerating their "irrelevanceness" ?
      • chongli 2 hours ago
        There's no acceleration here. Vintage Macs are 100% obsolete. They can't get any more obsolete than that. They can, however, become MORE relevant for hobbyists through the development of new software for them.

        What could be better than that?

      • pndy 2 hours ago
        You are aware that there's a huge retrocomputing community around the world that with hearts and passion preserves old machines and software?
      • yjftsjthsd-h 3 hours ago
        How is AI making old hardware obsolete faster?
        • pqtyw 1 hour ago
          If anything it's the opposite (by making new hardware unaffordable)
      • bensyverson 4 hours ago
        Life isn't black & white
      • hyperhello 5 hours ago
        To me it proves that a technology can be understood and implemented by one person.
      • prokopton 5 hours ago
        Can hardware became more obsolete?
        • addaon 2 hours ago
          Yes. Discrete 74 series TTL logic ICs were quite obsolete; CMOS versions replaced them. But now with new generations that are not level-compatible with the TTL versions, the TTL versions are even more obsolete.
  • Cyan488 7 hours ago
    When I owned a iMac G3, the Classilla browser was surprisingly good. Looks like development ended in 2021.

    Also, the branding was "Mac OS 9".

    • felixding 6 hours ago
      Exactly. I don't know why some people'd change the branding.
      • grishka 12 minutes ago
        HN has this thing where it would automatically "fix" submission titles.
      • ndiddy 5 hours ago
        Apple keeps changing the name of their desktop operating system, so Hacker News has some sort of filter to automatically change "Mac OS" to whatever the newest name is in order to fit Apple's brand guidelines. This has the consequence of making some submission titles read as anachronistic when the sumission is about an old OS version.
      • Springtime 6 hours ago
        The project didn't, only the HN submission title.
        • gattilorenz 2 hours ago
          Not the submission title, just the automatically revised submission title. Pretty sure I submitted it with the proper casing/spacing
  • grishka 15 minutes ago
    I always enjoy it when someone makes "obsolete" hardware natively talk to modern network services that it was never meant to talk to. And bringing an entire browser to a system this old is a serious achievement. I don't own any hardware that can run classic Mac OS, but I'm gonna try it on an emulator later, really curious how it handles several of my own websites.

    Though the fact that the author uses AI is kinda meh.

  • manoDev 5 hours ago
    That's impressive, too bad modern web requires more than 2000x the transistor density to run JS at decent speed. We really f*** up.
  • pndy 2 hours ago
    Anyone had luck running it under infinitemac? I can't boot anything beyond 9.0 and it throws some error upon launch - seems it needs at least 9.1.
    • mplsllc 2 hours ago
      It needs carbonlib - is that installed on the OS? I was able to get it to work on 9.1 with the last released CarbonLib.
      • pndy 1 hour ago
        Yes, some older version but I've grabbed carbonlib 1.6.1 from macintoshrepository and that helped with launching MacSurf under that premade 9.0 machine
  • LoganDark 3 hours ago
    That would be "Mac OS 9"
  • simgt 7 hours ago
    Cool! I've been wondering for some time if a good low-distraction but pleasant environment could be an old Mac OS on a (good looking) Hackintosh. The UI was baked with UX research at least.
    • Wowfunhappy 4 hours ago
      It's a significantly newer Mac OS than Mac OS 9, but this is basically my life. Mavericksforever.com.
      • simgt 40 minutes ago
        That's awesome, thanks for sharing.
  • gcp123 7 hours ago
    Freaking love it! Gonna put this on my 1998 Bondi Blue iMac G3 today.
    • SoftTalker 2 hours ago
      Let us know how many minutes it runs before you get a system crash and a sad-face Mac icon.
  • Torwald 2 hours ago
    This is what the Amiga is missing!
    • mplsllc 1 hour ago
      Have you tried the Netsurf port for it?
  • hyperhello 7 hours ago
    Absolutely love it.
  • iwontberude 6 hours ago
    Time to fire up the ol PowerMac G4 MDD (last native support for Mac OS 9)
  • mplsllc 2 hours ago
    Hey everyone! This is my project, I've been working really hard (yes using AI to help) for about two months straight now. I am not just letting it be, I am going to keep tooling with it every day to make it better and better.

    The latest version uses real, third-party verified, TLS 1.3 so I am pushing all the limits that I can. Thanks for sharing!

    • gazook89 29 minutes ago
      Always surprising but fun to see a "MPLS" MN state flag graphic in some random github readme. Then I see the username "mplsllc" :) Hello neighbor!