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Mac OS compatible web browsers
If you need technical support for issues after
reading this FAQ, please visit my Tech Support page,
where I offer fee based support.
Note: this page was formerly on the Mac OS X speed FAQ
This page was started as a one stop resource for
many Apple compatible web browsers. In an effort
to make it easier to find out why certain websites
won't work on your Mac.
December 13, 2021 updated to address Monterey, Big
Sur, and Catalina additions to Safari. Old Links
to Oldapps.com have been removed in search of
better links for these browsers.
A user
tip on Apple Support Communities was added
on 3/26/2021 by me to address current browsers for
Macs.
It is divided into these sections:
Many websites may not be totally compatible with
any of those web browsers, but that's because
their webmasters (the commonly used term for the
programmer of a webpage) neglect to follow WWW Consortium
Standards. You should write the webmaster of
any website that doesn't follow those standards
and let them know that the web is more than just
for Windows users, and that following those
standards will help their web pages be more
accessible. First off, those who can't afford
another operating system, can now see their
website as viewed from nearly every browser on the
planet at Browsershots.org.
A great page on helping webmasters become more
crossbrowser compatible is Anybrowser.org.
Others include Webstandards.org,
and Webmonkey.
Mac users may be interested in Pure-Mac's Editors - Software for Macintosh
for a variety of webpage editors for the Mac
Meanwhile if the webmaster doesn't respond, here
are links to all the major web browsers for the
Mac and tools to make them work more efficiently.
In addition to requesting webmasters to make
websites more compatible, let the authors of the
web browsers know when a website doesn't work.
Below the table below are Java
updates.
The contact link to the various web browser
authors is in the table below next to each web
browser:
| Browser name with
download link |
PowerPC and/or Mac OS
9 version |
Contact/feedback link |
|
Safari 15.6 with a security
update, Monterey, Big Sur and
Catalina through Software Update in Apple
menu -> About This Mac. Safari
14.1.2 is available for Mac OS
10.14.6 and above. The current
release is not available via https://support.apple.com/en_US/downloads
except for the Catalina Security
update. The latest release
updated September 21st-23rd.
Apple menu -> About This Mac ->
Software Update includes the latest Safari
for Big Sur and Catalina.
Older versions included on earlier
updates for Mac upgrades may not work as
well as current browsers available for
them. A history of security
updates also covers when Safari was
updated.
Safari 11.1.2 is available for 10.11.6.
Wikipedia
lists the latest Safari version, and
which operating system can use it
Safari 11.1 is in 10.13.4.
Safari 9.1.2 is on 10.11.6's last security
update that came out simultaneously with
10.13.4. Safari 9.0 ships with Mac OS X
10.11, and version 9.1 is available for
10.9, 10.10, and 10.11 through Software
updates for the operating systems
combined with the the security update, and
the Safari update through the App Store.
10.10.4 for instance can't get Safari 9.1,
but Mac OS X 10.9.5 and 10.10.5 can, and
it must be installed separately from the
security update unless you install all the
updates for the operating system together
including remote desktop and other updates
which may not be needed by you. Other
browsers such as Chrome and Firefox are
not as sensitive to the operating system.
Safari 8.0.8 ships with Mac OS X 10.10.5
Safari 8.0.7 ships with Mac OS X 10.10.4
Safari 7.0.5 ships with Mac OS X 10.9.4.
Safari 7 ships with Mac OS X 10.9.
Safari 6.0.5 is part of Mac OS X 10.8.5.
Safari 6.0 ships with Mac OS X 10.8
Mountain Lion.
Safari Safari
6 for Mac OS X 10.7, and Safari 5 for
Mac OS X 10.6 are being kept up to
date.
Safari 5.1.6 came out with 10.7.4. In
10.7.3 and 10.6.8 it is 5.1.5. Safari
5.1.2 is available in Mac OS X 10.7.2, and
10.6.8 from Apple for 10.6.8 only.
Releases older than 5.1.7
are available. Version 5.0.4 is
included with 10.6.7. Safari 5.0 is
included with 10.6.4, however requires
10.5.8, and 10.6.2 or later on Apple's
website. Note, version 5.0.2 has
reportedly had issues with some computers
slowing downloads of updates. 5.0.3
appears to have fixed the problem for
some, as well as issues with the download
speed of . Version 4.0.5 could also run on
10.6.2. Version 4.0.4 shipped with Mac OS
X 10.6.2. Version 4.0.3 came with 10.6 and
10.6.1. Version 4.0.2 was included with
10.5.8. Safari 3.2.3 is also available for
10.5.7,
10.4.11
(no longer available as English
download), Windows
XP and Vista (version no longer
stored at Apple). Version 3.2.1 was
available for 10.5.5. Version 3.0.4 was
included with 10.4.11, and 10.5, 10.5.1,
and 10.5.2.
Version 3.1 and later include a "Develop
menu" in the Safari menu -> Preferences
-> Advanced that allows Safari to spoof
a website into thinking it is a different
web browser. Prior versions (3.0.4 and
earlier), read about enabling the Debug
menu. If you want to explore the command
line via Applications -> Utilities
-> Terminal, you can enable the Debug
menu that the previously available
software Safari Enhancer does offer you a
User Agent menuitem to cloak itself as a
different web browser (I'm not sure which
versions this works on since I haven't
tested it on all):
defaults write com.apple.Safari
IncludeDebugMenu 1
Nagarabrowser
(original source no longer exists) gives
Safari a kiosk mode. With the 10.3.9
update it has been reported that several
third party addons such as Saft and Acid
Search will need updates. The March 2005
security update fixes Java issues on
Safari, and if you applied the 10.3.9
delta update, applying the 10.3.9 combined
update will often fix issues. See my Upgrade FAQ
for more on how to apply updates without
running into issues such as these.
|
Version 1.1.1 and later are only available
as part of Apple's Mac OS X 10.3. Older
versions of Safari are only available in
non-English varieties from Apple: Version
1.3.2 is available for 10.3.9. Version
2.0 is current as of Mac OS X 10.4, and 2.0.1
is available for 10.4.2)*, and 2.0.4
is available when you upgrade Mac OS X 10.4
to 10.4.7
through 10.4.10. Safari is also
available for
10.5.7,
10.4.11,
Windows
XP and Vista. Version 3.2.1 was
available for 10.5.5. Version 3.0.4 was
included with 10.4.11, and 10.5, 10.5.1, and
10.5.2. |
Go to Safari menu and select "Report Bugs
to Apple" |
| Download
Netscape 9 for Mac OS X, |
Netscape
7.0.2 Mac PowerPC
and other versions listed as Mac PowerPC
are available for Mac OS 9 |
AOL
Developer page |
| Microsoft Internet Explorer is no longer
available for download from Microsoft. A WINE
version for Intel Macs
offers some I.E. 7 compatibility. |
The Mac OS X version 5.2.3 is available
from Majorgeeks.
There are several stores
which carry old Apple operating system disks
which also included Internet Explorer for
Mac OS X. If installing older operating
system disks, be sure to observe the System
Specific installation notes. The Mac
OS X version of Internet Explorer was last
preloaded on Mac OS X 10.3's Install Disk 2
as version 5.2.3. The included Internet
Explorer for Mac OS 9 on restore disks and
Mac OS 9 installer disks is version 5.0.
Remember if installing Mac OS X, only an
Archive and Install and Upgrade and Install
will let you preserve applications from
previous versions of Mac OS X on the hard
disk. Otherwise, you'll need to either use
the Install Additional Applications from the
restore disks, or Charlessoft's
Pacifist to extract the files from the
installer packages to reretrieve Internet
Explorer (if it wasn't backed up elsewhere).
Macintosh
Repository has the only known copies
of version 5.1.7 for Mac OS 9. |
Microsoft product feedback
page |
| Omnigroup's Omniweb for
10.4.8 to 10.9.5 |
|
E-mail
Omniweb support |
| Opera |
Opera
for Mac OS 7 through 9 |
Opera's
Contact page |
| iCab -
one of the few browsers that still has
downloads going back to System 7.5 (you read
that right, from 1995) |
Download
page lists both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X
versions |
E-mail
iCab support |
| Mozilla
can immitate other browsers with User-agent
switcher |
Classila and Wamcom
Mozilla for Mac OS 9 |
Mozilla Bugzilla feedback
page |
| Google Chrome |
|
Google
Chrome Discussions. |
| Camino
(formerly known as Navigator) |
|
Camino Bugzilla feedback
page |
| Firefox
(formerly known as Firebird) can
immitate other browsers with User-agent
switcher. Its version
45.9 works well with Yahoo on 10.6.8 |
PowerPC version |
Firefox
Bugzilla feedback page |
| Waterfox
- Mac OS X 10.7.5 compatible Firefox, This
tip was written on Apple Support
Communities: "It's October 2017 now, and I
run the current version of Waterfox (55.2.2)
on OS X 10.7.5. It's derived from Firefox,
but is is less tardy than Firefox. I like
that the Reader mode has speech output tied
to OS X's voices and that it automatically
chooses the correct language as well - if
only it wouldn't crash sometimes for some
reason... Important for Youtube: If Youtube
videos don't play in Waterfox (giving you a
playback error message) you will have to
deactivate the Multiple Process feature in
Waterfox's preference settings." |
|
Contact
info |
| Bumpercar
- kids web browser |
|
Bumpercar
contact addresses |
| Tenfourfox |
|
Support |
| Brave |
|
Help
Center |
| WannaBe |
|
Contact
info |
You can run PC web browsers on the Mac if you use
one of these Intel
operating systems on the Mac solutions. Note
however, any website which requires you use
Internet Explorer for Windows is unlikely to be a
very secure website, given the number of times
such websites have been hacked.
Note: Java versioning may confuse some people when
someone refers to Java 7, they really mean Java
1.7.x. Versions on Apple download site usually refer
to the 1.x versioning.
Java version 7 has had a security flaw which is
documented on my tip user
tip on Apple's Support Communities. Apple
explains the latest Java available for Mac OS X
10.4, and 10.5, at Article TS3489.
The latest Java exists for Mac OS X 10.6.8 and
10.7.3 and addresses some of the Flashback trojan
issue. For the 10.6.8 download go to DL1516.
Java for 10.7.3 and later is supported by http://www.java.com/
The latest Java for 10.5.8 is http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1359
And for 10.7 go to Oracle's Java page. Apple has
a guide to the latest Java updates on their Technote
Database. Not all Javas are Mac compatible
without Emulation
or Virtualization as ActiveX was only
developed for Windows, and is not a true Java. Any
site that uses ActiveX should be criticized for
not using an open standard of Java. Java support
may be improved 10.2.3 combo or 10.2.4 through 10.2.6
combo updates, Java
update for Mac OS X 10.3 to Java 1.4.1, Java
update for 10.3.4 to 1.4.2, Java
Update for 10.3.9, Java 2
Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 release 1
for Tiger, Software
Update search for latest Java updates
The Carbon Java Plugin, and Java Embedding Plugin are both
different plugins which can be used to make
certain Java sites more accessible in some Mac OS
X web browsers. I would be careful not to run both
at the same time.
Adobe Flash
Adobe has dropped all Flash support as of December
31, 2020. If you still have Flash on your computer,
visit Adobe's website to download the uninstaller. If you find
websites that still require it, please remind them
that HTML5 has now supplanted Flash.
A similar problem to that which exists for web
browsers, is that most e-mail programs don't have
complete support for web browser standards. As a
result, getting HTML e-mail can be problematic at
best. There is an excellent site that discusses
the issues of HTML e-mail at Birdhouse.org.
Among them there are security, accessibility, and
design elements which simply don't render the same
way on all e-mails. If you receive HTML e-mails
and have no option to receive text, I recommend
contacting the company that sends such e-mails and
ask for a link to the webpage which has those
documents. Attachments are also problematic as my
Mac OS X page
reference discusses. It is better for any
document being transmitted via e-mail that can't
be represented by ASCII
text to be saved to a website and referred
to by a link in an e-mail, than attempts to render
information in e-mail which can't be universally
read.
|
