4 ms·

Macsurf, "modern" web browser for macOS 9

130 points by gattilorenz 6mo ago

hyperhello 6mo ago
Absolutely love it.
Cyan488 6mo 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 6mo ago
  Exactly. I don't know why some people'd change the branding.
  - Springtime 5mo ago
    The project didn't, only the HN submission title.
    - gattilorenz 5mo ago
      Not the submission title, just the automatically revised submission title. Pretty sure I submitted it with the proper casing/spacing
  - ndiddy 5mo 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.
  - grishka 5mo ago
    HN has this thing where it would automatically "fix" submission titles.
gcp123 6mo ago
Freaking love it! Gonna put this on my 1998 Bondi Blue iMac G3 today.
- SoftTalker 5mo ago
  Let us know how many minutes it runs before you get a system crash and a sad-face Mac icon.
simgt 6mo 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 5mo ago
  It's a significantly newer Mac OS than Mac OS 9, but this is basically my life. Mavericksforever.com.
  - simgt 5mo ago
    That's awesome, thanks for sharing.
- wolrah 5mo ago
  This is Mac OS 9, which is pre-hackintosh. The term "hackintosh" refers to running x86 versions of Mac OS X on non-Mac x86 systems, where OS 9 was exclusive to PowerPC.
iwontberude 5mo ago
Time to fire up the ol PowerMac G4 MDD (last native support for Mac OS 9)
bensyverson 5mo 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.
- manytimesaway 5mo ago
  So, making obsolete hardware relevant by using the technology that's accelerating their "irrelevanceness" ?
  - prokopton 5mo ago
    Can hardware became more obsolete?
    - addaon 5mo 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.
  - hyperhello 5mo ago
    To me it proves that a technology can be understood and implemented by one person.
  - bensyverson 5mo ago
    Life isn't black & white
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5mo ago
    How is AI making old hardware obsolete faster?
    - pqtyw 5mo ago
      If anything it's the opposite (by making new hardware unaffordable)
manoDev 5mo 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.
- rekabis 5mo ago
  WebAssembly can run without needing an interpreter, as it’s a binary and not a scripted language. May JS die a quick death so that WebAssembly can take its place.
LoganDark 5mo ago
That would be "Mac OS 9"
pndy 5mo 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 5mo 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 5mo 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
Torwald 5mo ago
This is what the Amiga is missing!
- mplsllc 5mo ago
  Have you tried the Netsurf port for it?
mplsllc 5mo 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 5mo 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!
  - mplsllc 5mo ago
    Yep! Main website is mp.ls so I went pretty hard in on it. Howdy neighbor.
grishka 5mo 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.
matt123456789 5mo ago
Somewhere in Korea there's an industrial overhead crane tracked across an entire 5-story warehouse, operated from a G3 in a network that is about to implement web-based zero trust. It has a twin in Japan. You have just extended the life of these two perfectly functional $100M investments. Do I know this to be true? No. But I do not know it to be false, either.
pjmlp 5mo ago
I was expecting to see PowerPlant with C++, given Codewarrior, or even better MacApp with Object Pascal being used.
- mplsllc 5mo ago
  [flagged]
whatismybrowser 5mo ago
Very cool, congrats on the release. Looks fantastic, wish I had a G4 to test it on! I've just added it to the Web Browser Directory (Corrections and additions welcome) https://www.webbrowserdirectory.com/browsers/macsurf/ https://www.webbrowserdirectory.com/browsers/macsurf/

130 points by gattilorenz 6mo ago

Absolutely love it.

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 6mo ago
Exactly. I don't know why some people'd change the branding.
- Springtime 5mo ago
  The project didn't, only the HN submission title.
  - gattilorenz 5mo ago
    Not the submission title, just the automatically revised submission title. Pretty sure I submitted it with the proper casing/spacing
- ndiddy 5mo 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.
- grishka 5mo ago
  HN has this thing where it would automatically "fix" submission titles.

gcp123 6mo ago

Freaking love it! Gonna put this on my 1998 Bondi Blue iMac G3 today.

SoftTalker 5mo ago
Let us know how many minutes it runs before you get a system crash and a sad-face Mac icon.

simgt 6mo 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 5mo ago
It's a significantly newer Mac OS than Mac OS 9, but this is basically my life. Mavericksforever.com.
- simgt 5mo ago
  That's awesome, thanks for sharing.
wolrah 5mo ago
This is Mac OS 9, which is pre-hackintosh. The term "hackintosh" refers to running x86 versions of Mac OS X on non-Mac x86 systems, where OS 9 was exclusive to PowerPC.

iwontberude 5mo ago

Time to fire up the ol PowerMac G4 MDD (last native support for Mac OS 9)

bensyverson 5mo 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.

manytimesaway 5mo ago
So, making obsolete hardware relevant by using the technology that's accelerating their "irrelevanceness" ?
- prokopton 5mo ago
  Can hardware became more obsolete?
  - addaon 5mo 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.
- hyperhello 5mo ago
  To me it proves that a technology can be understood and implemented by one person.
- bensyverson 5mo ago
  Life isn't black & white
- yjftsjthsd-h 5mo ago
  How is AI making old hardware obsolete faster?
  - pqtyw 5mo ago
    If anything it's the opposite (by making new hardware unaffordable)

manoDev 5mo 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.

rekabis 5mo ago
WebAssembly can run without needing an interpreter, as it’s a binary and not a scripted language. May JS die a quick death so that WebAssembly can take its place.

LoganDark 5mo ago

That would be "Mac OS 9"

pndy 5mo 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 5mo 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 5mo 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

Torwald 5mo ago

This is what the Amiga is missing!

mplsllc 5mo ago
Have you tried the Netsurf port for it?

mplsllc 5mo 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 5mo 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!
- mplsllc 5mo ago
  Yep! Main website is mp.ls so I went pretty hard in on it. Howdy neighbor.

grishka 5mo 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.

matt123456789 5mo ago

Somewhere in Korea there's an industrial overhead crane tracked across an entire 5-story warehouse, operated from a G3 in a network that is about to implement web-based zero trust. It has a twin in Japan. You have just extended the life of these two perfectly functional $100M investments. Do I know this to be true? No. But I do not know it to be false, either.

pjmlp 5mo ago

I was expecting to see PowerPlant with C++, given Codewarrior, or even better MacApp with Object Pascal being used.

mplsllc 5mo ago
[flagged]

whatismybrowser 5mo ago

Very cool, congrats on the release. Looks fantastic, wish I had a G4 to test it on! I've just added it to the Web Browser Directory (Corrections and additions welcome) https://www.webbrowserdirectory.com/browsers/macsurf/ https://www.webbrowserdirectory.com/browsers/macsurf/