Web Browser Tips for the Classic Mac OS

I received some great feedback from the Low End Mac readers in regards to our Classic Mac OS Web series.

The Feedback

Mozilla Family

WaMCom, Mozilla 1.2.1, and the alternate Mozilla port of 1.3.1 were well regarded. All versions have some odd bugs, but nothing too severe, mostly some small interface issues.

Reader Note from Timo

One reader had some very interesting notes on Internet Explorer. In fact, his website (in German, English translation) contains some good notes overall. I still say Internet Explorer is an okay browser with some neat features, but I do miss tabs, popup blocking, and a few other extras. Also, I find Internet Explorer is a tad unstable on my Macs. If you can get Internet Explorer running stable for you, by all means give it a try. Microsoft is discontinuing support for Internet Explorer on the Mac, so you might want to grab the download while you can.

Netscape

Another reader found Netscape 4.x to be very lacking in comparison to the other browsers. Also, while limited, Netscape 3 did a better job for our reader with basic browsing. You can even add Flash and QuickTime support by copying the plugins from Netscape 4.x to Netscape 3. Thanks for the tips, Chris.

Opera

Opera 5 had a few fans - over Opera 6.0.3 anyway - but the fans did not suggest using Opera over WaMCom, iCab, or even Internet Explorer. Opera 5 may prove to be more stable than 6.0.3, but it lacks tabs or a password manager. It seems to have some page rendering issues as well. That's understandable, as Opera 5 is now 3 versions old.