Release notes for TenFourFox 38.5.0

38.5.0 is a feature, security and bugfix update for TenFourFox 38. Please read the release notes below for important information on using the browser. We may periodically revise this document with late-breaking information, so check back for updates if you have difficulty.

System requirements

TenFourFox (hereafter "10.4Fx") requires a G3 Power Macintosh, Mac OS X 10.4.11, 200MB of free disk space and 512MB of RAM. 1GB of RAM and a G4 or G5 processor is recommended. Video playback is likely to be poor on systems slower than 1.25GHz; a G5 is recommended. Mac OS X 10.5.8 is supported. Although the browser may run under Mac OS X Server, it is not currently supported.

Intel Macintoshes are not supported. Although some users have reported success getting the G3 version of 10.4Fx to run under Rosetta, certain features may not work correctly or at all on Intel Macs, and you may need to completely disable JavaScript compilation for it to work with Rosetta (see the FAQ for more information). Because Apple no longer supports Rosetta and 10.4Fx is not a Universal binary, it will not run under Lion 10.7 or any subsequent version of Mac OS X.

Before upgrading to TenFourFox 38

If you are updating from TenFourFox 31 or a previous version of TenFourFox 38, no special steps are required.

If you are updating (or still use) Firefox 3.6, your bookmarks may no longer be compatible. We advise you export your bookmarks to HTML so that you can reimport them into TenFourFox 38 if there is a problem. Before updating, open the Bookmarks Organizer in Firefox 3.6 by pressing Command-Shift-B, click the "star" Import & Backup button and choose Export HTML... to save them to HTML. If your bookmarks fail to transfer to TenFourFox 38, press Command-Shift-B again (this time, in TenFourFox), click the "star" icon, select Import Bookmarks from HTML..., and choose your backed-up HTML bookmarks. You should not use Firefox 3.6 if you are using a current version of TenFourFox, as you will lose data by switching back and forth between Firefox 3.6 and TenFourFox 38, and doing so is not supported with any version of TenFourFox.

Getting TenFourFox

Make sure you select the appropriate build for your Mac from the main site download page. The G3 version will run on any supported Macintosh, but it will not take advantage of the additional features of G4 or G5 processors. The G4 and G5 versions will not run at all on a G3, and the G5 version will perform badly or crash on non-G5 Macintoshes.

All current downloads are hosted on SourceForge. We strongly recommend getting the most recent version directly from the main TenFourFox website, but you can also browse files in the TenFourFox SourceForge repository if you prefer.

If you are using a G4, you should try to choose the correct version for your processor generation (7400 or 7450 "G4e") as performance may be impaired if you run the wrong one. If you don't know which type you have, we can help.

If you are in a high security environment, on a network where the integrity of your downloads cannot be guaranteed, or just want to verify the browser downloaded correctly, you can certify the integrity of your copy of TenFourFox with a checksum.

TenFourFox 38 is equivalent to Firefox 38

TenFourFox uses modified Firefox source code, rewritten to remain compatible with Mac OS X v10.4 and the Power Macintosh. It also contains specific optimizations and special features for PowerPC processors. For this reason, it is not exactly the same as Firefox. However, it is intended to be as compatible with it as possible, including most add-ons and most standard features. You can treat 10.4Fx 38 as equivalent with Firefox 38 in most circumstances, with specific exceptions noted below.

Note that add-ons which require an Intel Macintosh will not work with TenFourFox, even if they are otherwise compatible with Firefox 38, and add-ons that require 10.5 Leopard (or higher) may not be compatible with TenFourFox running on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, even if they are compatible with PowerPC.

This branch of TenFourFox is the stable version

Starting with Firefox 10, Mozilla began offering an extended support release version of Firefox ("Firefox ESR") intended for environments where users are unable to use rapid-release versions of Firefox due to policy or technical constraints. This ESR is the basis of the TenFourFox stable branch.

The current ESR release is based on Firefox 38. 10.4Fx 38.x is based on this extended support release and is intended for users who wish to remain with a stable browser core. The stable branch will continue to receive bugfixes and security updates, but will not receive new Firefox features (although it may receive certain 10.4Fx-specific features judged important for our legacy users).

We recommend this version for most of our users. If you wish to help test our continuing porting efforts, you can try the unstable branch, which is based on the current release of Firefox. The unstable branch does have bugs and is recommended only for advanced users. For more information, see the TenFourFox Development blog.

TenFourFox no longer supports plugins or Flash

Plugins on PowerPC are of special concern because Mozilla is making updates to their plugin architecture which may require the plugins themselves to be updated, and there are certain difficult-to-correct bugs with them already on Tiger. Most importantly, QuickTime, Java and Adobe Flash for PowerPC are no longer maintained and have known security risks that can crash, perform malicious operations or leak data, and Flash 10.1 is rapidly becoming unsupported by many applications.

For these and other reasons, TenFourFox does not run plugins and they cannot be enabled. Bug reports will no longer be accepted. Sites will now act as if no plugins were installed at all. Earlier versions that allowed an undocumented plugin support mode are no longer supported.

For Internet video, TenFourFox natively plays WebM on sites such as YouTube. To play H.264 content we now recommend the use of TenFourFox's optional QuickTime Enabler. This allows many videos to be handled in QuickTime Player directly.

You can also download videos for separate viewing using Perian and any of the available video download add-ons for Firefox.

Here is a more in-depth explanation of this policy and other workarounds.

New in this version of TenFourFox

Support for MP3 audio. This uses a unique internal decoder. If you encounter MP3 files that are not playable, please report them with the encoder used so that it can be analyzed. Reports without additional information may not be acted upon.

Fixed in this version of TenFourFox

All security and stability fixes from Firefox ESR 38.5.0.
The application menu is no longer blank in certain startup circumstances or while in a foxbox (Mozilla bug 1181977).
Bookmark backups now always use the older JSON format (issue 307).
The debugging code for rooted objects from issue 308 is no longer needed and was removed, which slightly improves performance.

Known issues specific to TenFourFox

If you don't see your problem here, please consult the FAQ before filing a report at Tenderapp:

Remember: Plugins do not work in TenFourFox and cannot be enabled. Here is an explanation and suggested workarounds.
Starting in version 38, the Check for Updates menu option is now under the Help menu, as in the official Mac Firefox.
Starting in version 38, the new tab page is always blank for technical reasons.
Starting in version 38, the default search provider is now Yahoo, not Google. You can change it back from the preferences page.
TenFourFox intentionally uses a different chrome for windows and dialogue boxes than prior versions or the official Mac Firefox.
Bitmap-only fonts (usually Type 1 PostScript) cannot be used by the 10.4Fx font renderer and are automatically ignored by the browser. A fallback font will be used in their place.
Personas and certain custom skins may hide the "traffic light" window buttons, but they are still present and will work if hovered over or clicked on (issue 247).
The "traffic light" buttons are misplaced on private browsing windows if the title bar is enabled (not the default). They function normally otherwise.
Not all webcams are supported; in addition, multiple webcams may not all appear depending on how they are connected (issue 221). Here is a list of supported webcam devices.
10.4Fx does not currently support WebGL, WebRTC or the webapp runtime, and scripts such as Arabic or Indic requiring glyph reordering or language-specific ligatures may not appear correctly without OpenType fonts. See issue 5 for more information.
Printing may crash the browser on Mac OS X Tiger Server (issue 279). Please note that Mac OS X Server is not supported currently.
Crash reporting is intentionally disabled to avoid polluting Mozilla's crash tracking system with our reports. Please use your system's crash logs if you are reporting a reproducible crash, or (if you are able) provide a gdb backtrace. Crashes that cannot be reproduced cannot be fixed, so please include detailed instructions with your report.
Although 10.4Fx will tell you when an update is available, you must download updates manually at this time.

You are welcome to report other bugs that you find. However, please do not report Mozilla bugs to us. If the bug or crash occurs in both the official Mozilla Firefox 38 (3.6 doesn't count!) and in 10.4Fx, this is a Mozilla bug, and you should file it at Bugzilla. You must test your bug in both places -- bugs that are not confirmed to be part of 10.4Fx will be marked invalid so that we can keep our task list focused. This is the current list of known issues.