Firefox, Mac OS 9, and the power of open source

Despite the occasional usability snag, one of the very best things about open source is the diversity of development "itches" that can be "scratched," to use Eric Raymond's parlance. This is borne out in the news that the popular Mozilla Firefox browser has been ported to the Mac OS 9 platform.

Classilla Logo

Dubbed "Classilla," it's an effort to keep Apple's classic OS 9 alive and kicking by bringing the power of modern browser technology to an old operating system.

According to the project developers, however, it also "establishes a template for other free open-source projects to follow," namely "By putting the ability to maintain our own software in our own hands, as users of classic Macs, we ensure that OS 9 will continue to survive."

In other words, Classilla demonstrates what open-source software has long allowed: developers and users can take their fates into their own hands, rather than being overly reliant on a vendor.

So, if you're feeling ambitious, join the effort. Or you could instead contribute to the Firefox port for the Amiga (Amizilla). You have nothing to lose but your chains (and quite possibly your sanity).

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

[mondegreen]

"Despite the occasional usability snag..." Why even say this? It only detracts from your point. We already know you're a Macophile.

[Mr. Dee]

Mac OS 9? Sorry, but nostalgia is a terrible thing when you read stuff like this. People like this are using Technology, for Technology sake, not to be productive and gain better experiences and improvements in their daily lives. They might as well stick with pen and paper.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

I have a friend who repairs Macs for a living. He repairs mostly OS 9 iMacs or G4 towers that owners don't care to give up. In fact, a major comic book, Tarot Witch of the Black Rose, still uses OS 9 for all of their computing needs. You have to remember many people who bought Macs in the 1990s paid a good deal of money for the computers and have the "record-player" take on it. It better last them well into whenever for what they're doing for the amount of money paid at purchase.

[slimshady007]

"Technology, for Technology [sic] sake"

No, Classilla isn't tech for tech's sake, having to buy new hardware to support the lastest software is. As is vice versa (having to use newer software to operate on the latest hardware). People with decade old hardware and software to run on it do occationally use the Internet. That Internet experience isn't possible without new browsers, though.

[LaTene_Man]

But if they are sticking with XP, that's okay? Take a flying leap Mr. Dee!

[LaTene_Man]

All of us here wish you would stick with pen and paper, Mr. *********.

[edtechlab]

This is welcome to news to schools with old technology. Sorry, with less discretionary money, new computers are a luxury!

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Amen to that!

[carlnunes]

OMG! You actually referenced an article outside of cnet?!

Prolly get fired now.

[simonjoker]

Anything that keeps old computers out of landfills and productive is good. And for those who don't want to or can't run Linux or NetBSD on their old Macs, the only thing OS 9 lacks is a decent web browser, and maybe Classilla will address that need.

[LaTene_Man]

I disagree, iCab is a decent web browser that is still available for download. There'll be some "web 2.0" type content you might not be able to view, but it's not a total wash. I might just fire up my old G3 and see if I can use all my favourite sites.

[i_debian]

iCab just doesn't cut it. The presence of this single application is huge for anybody who wants to run Mac OS9.

[leamanc--2008]

Classilla is not a port of Firefox. It is a fork of the last Mozilla build that was available for OS 9. In terms of the Gecko layout engine, security, and feature-set, it is roughly equivalent to Firefox 1.0. Actually, that's being generous, as by the time Firefox hit 1.0, its code base had diverged significantly from the Mozilla suite, but it's close.

I can understand the attraction of running old OS's. Back in the OS 9 days, I kept many old machines around running System 6 up through various OS 8 versions. But to say that these are capable production machines in this day and age is quite a stretch. The software support has long since vanished, it uses an antiquated networking stack (streams vs. traditional TCP/IP sockets with the god-awful OpenTransport hack on top of it), doesn't have protected memory, doesn't do WPA WiFi security, and on and on and on.

If you want to play around with OS 9, or even put it to use for a specific task, I can see your point. But to pretend that the arrival of "Firefox 1.0" for the OS suddenly makes it a relevant, usable production OS on par with Vista, OS X, Ubuntu or Fedora, is quite laughable.