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MacSurf 1.68 – NetSurf on OS 9 Released (github.com/mplsllc)
85 points by mplsllc 14 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 22 comments


The single biggest change since 1.5 is under the hood: MacSurf's JavaScript engine has been replaced. Duktape (ES5) is gone; MacSurf now runs macQJS which is a QuickJS port for Classic Mac OS and executes modern ES2023 JavaScript natively on Mac OS 9.


This needs to backported to main Netsurf ASAP.


The most annoying bug I was able to fix that is also present up stream was this weird viewport, extra scroll bar, that would appear on some pages. I need to figure out how to get involved with the main repo if they'll have me.


Writing a JS engine for OS 9 in 2026 is like, genuinely impressive

Seriously. I am going to check this out. Otherwise, I can only use the last release of tenfourfox on my g4 but only through the https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice proxy running on another machine.

Having issues with MacSurf? I have set up a web page for you to send me MacSurf logs to help with debugging issues and crashes. I also have a version that has much strong logging so we can really see what's going on. http://macsurf.org/debugs.html - Works with IE 5 or Netscape.

Wow. Just wow, I will give this a run on my old iMac G4 later today. Very cool to see this progress, and I am a big fan of NetSurf.


Yeah, I wish more people contributed to Netsurf and it gets the momentum it needs to compete with Blink, Gecko and Webkit. So many divided efforts in this area - there's Ladybird, Flow, Servo, Goanna. Even just improving Webkit and making it truly multi-platform (it isn't available for Windows, and the Linux version is apparently not as performant) would greatly even the field.


Netsurf seems pretty closed in terms of who they allow to contribute. However, I need to look more into it and not use the excuse that it's "too complicated" to see if they are interested in my bug fixes.



This is awesome and greatly appreciated, going to boot up my iMac G4 and give it a go.


Awesome! Please let me know how it goes (good or bad) I am always open to feedback.


Not working, “Bad Parameter”

I'm trying to figure this out now, I can't replicate it myself. Actual hardware of emulation? Spinning disk drive of SSD?

I've pushed a couple stability fixes, give it a try if you get the chance. Thanks!

Check the newest release!

Awesome stuff! I love retro computing especially with Macs.

But it's a bit weird that old PPC Macs get modern browsers, but Intel Macs running 10.14 are stuck with Firefox 115esr.




Hmm, no, you have latest Chrome, via Boot Camp ;)

Or by installing a BSD or linux.

Well, then they are not running Mac OS 10.14. ;)



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