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Firefox 4 won't run on PowerPC Macs, Mozilla says
If you're a Firefox fan and you're still using that trusty old G4 iBook, it might be time to get a new Mac. Firefox 4 probably won't run on PowerPC Macs, accordinging to Mozilla's Director of Firefox. The decision is pending some supporting data, but the Firefox team suspects that PowerPCs no longer make up a significant chunk of Firefox's user base.The current Firefox 4 beta already doesn't support older Macs. Apparently, the issue is with Out of Process Plugins, which allows plugins to run as separate processes that can crash without taking down the whole browser.
PowerPCs also don't support a key component of the JaegerMonkey JavaScript renderer that makes Firefox 4 faster than previous versions.
[via Computerworld]
Comments
11
Subscribe to commentsSupercool4Aug 26th 2010 7:52PM
They are only over half a decade old they need to end support some time
Chris DekeAug 27th 2010 3:56AM
So this is more of an issue than you think.
There are a lot of PPC machines that are still perfectly serviceable - think Dual G5 powermacs, or even the amazing little 12" powerbooks that are still one of the best little portables Apple has made.
Assuming Camino goes the same way as FF, your choices for a modern browser on these are as follows:
Safari - as of 4.x EXTREMELY slow
Opera
..Thats it. Chrome doesn't support PPC. So you either have to learn to like Opera (which is hard for some) or put up with ludicrous performance in Safari. Not a great choice really.
JoshAug 27th 2010 8:10AM
Or stick to Fx 3.6. If the world of computing wants to progress, older machines have to be left behind. It's how things work. There will be people on PPC for the next decade because people refuse to upgrade until their machine dies. We can't wait for them to upgrade before we try to make progress in software development. As it is, PPC machines can't even run the latest version of OS X. If Apple has stopped developing for their own hardware, why should anyone else? Additionally, I doubt they would have done this without strong statistics saying that PPC machines make up next to nothing (maybe 1-2%) of their userbase now.
hectormaciasa79Aug 27th 2010 11:16AM
Opera is GREAT choice.
Mc.FishieAug 27th 2010 6:35AM
Mozilla is the best man. What do you preffer? IE? Safari? They are like warts, don't do anything good, huge, and are a real pain in the arse to get rid of.
Eminemdrdre00Aug 27th 2010 12:30PM
People with PPC Macs probably don't even know what Firefox is and are perfectly happy with Safari.
Ian PAug 28th 2010 3:30PM
That is the daftest comment ever.
orlandusAug 28th 2010 9:28PM
People with PPC Macs routinely run Firefox. I'm one of them, with a G5 desktop (usually running LinuxPPC) and a G4 iMac (totally nifty form factor; still does web and wordprocessing and mail and news as well as ever). There's no point in sending a perfectly capable machine to landfill ahead of its time.
Peter MELLALIEUSep 15th 2010 8:47PM
I concur with orlandus. My G5 performs adequately for my purposes.... I teach sustainable development so I attempt to practice what I teach!
Firefox is crucial to my work as a knowledge worker/professor. I use Firefox because of the Zotero add-on for scholars like me. Zotero enables me to manage the dozens of references and web sources I read daily. Unfortunately, for very technical reasons, Zotero is constrained to function only with Firefox. Zotero have indicated clearly there are no plans to port Zotero to other browsers, such as Safari or Chrome.
james.jonny6Oct 20th 2010 5:00AM
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sascha_ettlNov 17th 2010 1:00PM
To bad Firefox 4 is not for mac ppc because on leopard safari 5 is for ppc
and why not develop a last time firefox for ppc.
there are so many users who have ppc.
the new skype also only features intel only