Mac OS X 10.5.8, widely believed to be one of the final updates to the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, is expected for a release sometime this summer or early fall. The distribution. Jul 22, 2011 Using a Third Party Tool. If you don’t find success using the Terminal command to enable TRIM for your SSD, there are two third-party apps that can help you enable TRIM support. I recommend trying Chameleon SSD Optimizer first. If that doesn’t do the trick, you can try TRIM Enabler 3.0 or later for Mac. I don’t like to recommend third-party tools, as they often make system-level changes above and beyond those performed by the terminal command – and that may not be in your best. Cindori’s free application Trim Enabler (Pro version $10) enables Trim support for third-party SSDs under OS X, including the latest 10.10.2 and 10.10.3 versions. The app is called TRIM Enabler and it works by loading a kernel extension from MacBook Pro 2011 models (with TRIM support) into your Mac OS X kernel, this forces TRIM to be enabled. All you have to do is click on “Patch” to enable TRIM, but the current version does not support one-click disabling, so if something goes wrong, you’ll have. The app lets you do more with your digital media. With Quick Time Pro for macOS, you can convert your files to different formats and record and edit your work. Third-party plug-ins extend the app technology in many different directions. And the tool streaming solutions let you stream your media across the Internet.
As a user of older Macs, especially G3s, lightweight apps make your day-to-day usage a lot easier, and this extends to web browsers.
I recently tested as many browsers as I could find, but the test machine was my iMac Core Duo running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. After looking carefully at my results and some of the comments I received, I have retested some of the more lightweight browsers on my Pismo PowerBook G3.
It is a 400 MHz with 1 GB of RAM, a new 5400 rpm 40 GB hard drive with AirPort Card and running Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger with all the latest updates installed.
There are a lot of browsers for Tiger, but some of them I wouldn’t put in the lightweight category and therefore didn’t include in my testing. Some of them, like Flock, while they will work on a G3, require a G4 for decent performance.
Editor’s note: For those using older versions of OS X, we sometimes include system requirements for versions earlier than the one reviewed. Of the nine browser versions reviewed here, only four can run on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther – but that includes some of the best ones. Anyone still using Mac OS X 10.2 can’t run current versions of any of these browsers.
These are the browsers I choose:
Mozilla BrowsersWebKit Browsers
So let’s get started.
Opera 9.52
Opera has come a long way in the past year, but it is still way behind its competitors. The app was slow to load, pages loaded slowly, and it was the only browser to not render my website home page properly, dropping the navigation pane to under the rest of the page.
It is also has one of the ugliest user interfaces I have seen in a long time; it looks very dated.
Opera 7 requires Mac OS X 10.1 or later; 8 requires 10.2 or later; 9 requires 10.3 or later.
Rating: 1.5/4
Mozilla BrowsersCamino 1.6.4
Camino is a great browser. It is a Mac OS X exclusive browser from the Mozilla team. I have used Camino on a number of systems, and the later versions (currently in beta stages) have been fabulous.
Camino is a neat and tidy browser, and with most older Macs not supporting the higher resolutions of more modern Macs, screen space is more of an issue – and this slim and trim browser helps maximise the browser window.
A rock solid browser, which is incredibly fast even on my PowerBook with the usual features that are standard in browsers these days like tabs and password remembering.
Camino requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
Rating: 4/4
Firefox 3.0.2
Okay, so Firefox isn’t exactly lightweight, but as it is the biggest Mac browser, I thought I would throw it in. I use it a lot, even on my Pismo.
As you would imagine, it is a lot slower to load than the others, and pages take a little while to load, but it renders them fine. The added bonus of having hundred of plugins for everything you could think of, makes this a highly customisable browser.
Firefox 2 requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later; version 3 requires 10.4 or later.
Rating: 3.5/4
WebKit BrowsersiCab 4.2.0
iCab has been around for a long time. Its maker is one of the last software developers still making OS 9 software. This is the OS X version.
This was extremely fast – even on this aging G3 – and it rendered pages perfectly. Pages loaded very quickly, even those that I hadn’t been to before.
iCab 4 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
Macos apps for dimming brightness. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Display Brightness Control. Mar 31, 2018 My phone screen keeps dimming. I'm not on auto brightness, nor on Low Power Mode. This seems to happen when I'm in the middle of a heavy use app, such as PUBG, the brightness would drop randomly. Then when I'd exit the app, and use the brightness scroller, it would have no effect on the brightness on the right half, it would stay constantly dim. Aug 22, 2011 Download Brightness Slider for macOS 10.8 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. With Brightness Slider you can adjust screen brightness from the menu bar, just like the sound menu provided by Apple, and with improved control over the dimming process. On some newer portable computers, you can help optimize battery use by setting the display brightness to approximately 75%. You see this option in the menu bar only when the display’s brightness is set to a level that uses a significant amount of energy. On your Mac, click the battery icon in the menu bar, then click Display Brightness. About how can we disable the automatic brightness setting of a Mac screen according to ambient light, I spoke and I showed this in an article written some time ago.How to disable automatic brightness change on macOS. Past days I installed a Windows 10 in Boot Camp on a MacBook Pro with 'master' operating system macOS Mojave.It's like 'beta' to the end, through Boot Camp I came with Windows 10.
Rating: 3.5/4
Shiira 2.2
I have never been a fan of Shiira, even on higher spec’d systems. It is very unstable, and while it has gotten better with each new revision, it still has a long way to go.
The app took a few more bounces on the Dock to load than most other browsers, but once open, pages loaded quite quickly and were rendered properly.
Shiira 1.2.2 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later; 2.2 requires 10.4 or later.
Rating: 2/4
Demeter 1.5 Beta 2
I was pointed to the Demeter browser by a fellow G3 enthusiast and was looking forward to trying it. It is supposed to be a “slimline Shiira”, and Shiira in turn is a revamped Safari. Is fast speed on old machines was touted as one of its best features.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the browser to work. The app opened fine and was very quick, but halfway through rendering pages, it kept quitting.
Demeter 1.0.8 (stable) and 1.5 (beta) require Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Rating: 1/4
Radon 1.0![]()
Radon started off as a good browser, it was quite fast and rendered pages properly. However version 1.0 is the last version being developed for Tiger. Newer versions are Leopard-only, which considering you need a beast of a machine to run Leopard, you wouldn’t be too worried about a lightweight browser.
Radon 1.0 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Rating: 2/4
Sunrise 1.7.4
Sunrise was another browser pointed out by fellow user of older Macs, and I was very impressed with it. I had never heard of it before this test, and I was very surprised by it. The app loaded blindingly quick (within 2 Dock bounces), and the pages loaded extremely fast.
There was one annoyance: When you type a web address in the address bar, it searches Google for it instead of taking you directly there.
Sunrise requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
Rating: 3.5/4
Safari 3.1.2
Apple would have you believe this is the best browser for the Mac, and it has some very good points – but being the best isn’t one of them.
Safari 3.1 loads fast, and pages load fast, although not as fast as Camino and Sunrise. Pages are rendered fine, but the lack of support for WYSIWYG editing in eBay, and the random page drops makes it an unreliable browser. Hopefully Apple will resolve these niggles and put Safari where it should be.
Dec 02, 2015 Missing CD or DVD burning sessions: If you have ever used Disk Utility to burn DVD or CD in Yosemite, you will be disappointed in all newer MacOS versions. Download Yosemite Disk Utility It is absolutely doable to bring the familiar Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite into new MacOS versions. Nov 17, 2014 Must-have Mac utilities for Yosemite. 1 of 9 NEXT PREV Introduction. There's little doubt that OS X 10.10 Yosemite operating system is a fully-featured platform that helps you to get a lot done. Utilities for mac yosemite. Oct 24, 2019 Mac mini introduced in early 2009 or later iMac introduced in mid 2007 or later Mac Pro introduced in early 2008 or later Xserve models introduced in early 2009. To find your Mac model, memory, storage space, and macOS version, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu. If your Mac isn't compatible with OS X Yosemite, the installer will let.
Safari 1.3.2 requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later; 3.0 requires 10.4.9 or later.
Rating: 3/4
Conclusion
I have thrown a bunch of browsers at you, with most of them similar in specs but missing a few vital points.
The best all rounder is Camino, as it is immensely fast, but for maximum compatibility and a whole bunch of plugins, Firefox is still good, although a little slow if you have an older G3. High-end 600 MHz with lots of RAM should cope with it fine. My wife had a G3 iBook 800 MHz with 640 MB of RAM, and Firefox 3 breezed on it, as fast as my Intel iMac running Leopard.
Don’t dismiss Sunrise, as it looks very promising, and I will be using a whole lot more. For very old G3s, look at Camino and Sunrise,; for faster G3s and low-end G4s, look at Camino and Firefox.
G3’s and low-end G4’s still have a long life left in them, but software developers and advances in web languages are forcing slower machines out of the picture. Fortunately there are still some developers writing with older machines in mind, and for this we are thankful.
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