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Cameron Kaiser 2019-08-24 20:38:25 +00:00
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AAATheFAQ.md

@ -118,15 +118,19 @@ That having been said, if you are absolutely unable or unwilling to upgrade your
In general, using Rosetta to run TenFourFox will be noticeably slower on an Intel Mac, even if you are successful in starting it up. The reason is that Rosetta must convert all the PowerPC code in it into Intel machine language on the fly and there is no AltiVec or other acceleration support. As a result, it will appear to be much slower than the last version of Firefox compatible with Snow Leopard (48), the last version of Firefox compatible with Leopard (16) or the last version of Firefox compatible with Tiger (3.6), all of which have native Intel code. However, TenFourFox is more up-to-date with web features and security patches, so you may prefer it if your Intel Mac is sufficiently fast enough.
At one time a TenFourFox 17.0.2 was available for Intel, donated by a contributor, but is no longer being maintained. You should not use this version anymore due to known security vulnerabilities. If you can help with building and maintaining a newer release, please post to the development blog.
Finally, let us say it again: **Intel Macintoshes are not supported under any circumstances, period.** Power Macs remain the primary focus of support and development; any indulgence of Intel Macs is on a best-effort basis only.
Remember, **Intel Macintoshes are not supported under any circumstances, period.** Power Macs remain the primary focus of support and development; any indulgence of Intel Macs is on a best-effort basis only.
## Can 10.4Fx run on an Intel Mac with 10.7 or 10.8?
No, because these versions of OS X lack Rosetta, the translation layer for running PowerPC applications on Intel Macs. Sorry. Blame Apple for being cheap about QuickTransit license seats.
The good news is, all Intel Macs that can run 10.8 can run 10.9 through 10.11, and even some older systems limited to Lion can be coerced to boot at least 10.9 using unsupported tools like MacPostFactor.
The good news is, all Intel Macs that can run 10.8 can run 10.9 through 10.11, and even some older systems limited to Lion can be coerced to boot at least 10.9 using unsupported tools like MacPostFactor; this should enable you to run mainline Firefox, at least of this writing.
## Has anyone built 10.4Fx to run natively on Intel Macs without Rosetta?
TenFourFox can compile on Intel hosts and some third-party developers have released unofficial builds configured to do so. They should run on 10.4-10.6 as well, and may even work on later versions of macOS. However: **_We_ don't support these. If they don't work for you, too bad. Bug reports about them will be ignored and/or deleted.** Contributed unofficial builds can be found in the [SourceForge repository](https://sourceforge.net/projects/tenfourfox/files/unstable/contrib/) and [a separate fork](https://github.com/OlgaTPark/tenfourfox/releases) can be found at Github. They may not be current, they may not ever be updated and they may not even work.
Finally, let us say it again: **Intel Macintoshes are not supported under any circumstances, period.** Power Macs remain the primary focus of support and development; any indulgence of Intel Macs is on a best-effort basis only.
## Will 10.4Fx use all my Firefox settings?
@ -194,6 +198,10 @@ We cannot automatically detect these fonts due to limitations in the system libr
Unfortunately, maintaining the "blacklist" is a manual process. Periodically as URLs change or new fonts are used, the blacklist must be updated. If a site you use is causing this problem, you can submit font URLs for investigation. While you can just open a ticket on Tenderapp with the offending website and wait for us to figure it out, a better way to get the problem fixed is to [follow the steps in this support ticket](https://tenfourfox.tenderapp.com/discussions/problems/8558-turbotax), which will greatly expedite the process.
## Can I use AppleScript to control 10.4Fx?
Yes, though some features work a little differently than many other applications. See our page on [[AppleScript]].
## Does 10.4Fx support IonMonkey JavaScript JIT acceleration?
Yes. Starting with version 38, TenFourFox has a nearly complete implementation of the IonMonkey JavaScript compiler with special enhancements for PowerPC. We call it *IonPower.*
@ -220,10 +228,20 @@ Basic adblock is just that: basic. It does not, nor is it designed to, completel
You can use basic adblock in combination with other adblock add-ons, though basic adblock can be substantially faster if used by itself. Basic adblock also functions in Private Browsing windows, which implement additional tracker blocking.
To enable basic adblock, go to Preferences, click TenFourFox, and check "Enable basic adblock." You can [suggest other sites](https://tenfourfox.tenderapp.com/) to block on Tenderapp.
## Does 10.4Fx support Firefox Sync?
If you have a Firefox account, you can use Firefox Sync with TenFourFox. This will enable you to synchronize your history and bookmarks with Firefox on other computers or on your mobile devices.
**Sync is a service provided by Mozilla, not by the maintainers of TenFourFox. You use it at your own risk. Support is "best-effort" and may end abruptly without warning at any time.** Because we don't control the backend software, incompatible changes could occur without warning which may not be immediately fixable, and it is possible these changes could permanently prevent TenFourFox from accessing Firefox Sync in the future. It is also possible, however unlikely, that data formats might change in future versions and corrupt or erase your history, bookmarks or other settings. You are strongly advised to **keep backups of your TenFourFox profile** and have another system with regular desktop Firefox available for synchronization in case TenFourFox is unable to access your data.
In addition, we advise you **do not synchronize preferences with TenFourFox** (uncheck that box). Certain important settings are configured differently for performance and compatibility reasons in TenFourFox; these settings are inappropriate in mainline Firefox, and mainline Firefox settings may cause adverse behaviour in TenFourFox.
## Does 10.4Fx support Firefox add-ons?
Yes, if they are compatible with Firefox 45 and do not require an Intel Macintosh. While many current versions of add-ons require later versions of Firefox, older versions will generally function, and at least for the time being you can still find these older versions from [Mozilla Add-ons](https://addons.mozilla.org/). We offer [an archive of these add-ons](https://sourceforge.net/projects/tenfourfox/files/addons/archive/), though we do not support them.
Yes, if they are compatible with Firefox 45 and do not require an Intel Macintosh. While many current versions of add-ons require later versions of Firefox, older versions will generally function. Unfortunately Mozilla has removed virtually all of these versions from their archives.
We offer [an archive of some add-ons](https://sourceforge.net/projects/tenfourfox/files/addons/archive/); note that although these are attested to work with TenFourFox, we do not support them. If you don't find the add-on there, you may be able to find it at the third-party [Classic Add-ons Archive](https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive). To install them, simply download them and drop them on any open browser window. Some add-ons will not function until the browser is restarted.
Note that adding large numbers of add-ons will make your browser *slower*, and a badly-coded add-on may cause your browser to act in unexpected ways. If the browser starts acting incorrectly, consider temporarily disabling or removing add-ons to isolate the problem. You can view the addons that are installed and disable or uninstall them as necessary by going to Tools, Add-ons.
@ -231,14 +249,14 @@ Remember: add-ons and plugins are not the same; [[we don't support plugins and h
Tiger users should note that even if an extension works with PowerPC, some may require Leopard.
## Gopher sites no longer work in 10.4Fx.
You can enable the Gopher protocol with the [OverbiteFF addon](https://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/). Do not use OverbiteWX or OverbiteNX; they are intended for mainline Firefox and are not compatible with TenFourFox.
## 1Password does not work with 10.4Fx.
Users have asked AgileBits to support TenFourFox in 1Password and Agile has refused to support _any_ non-Intel build of Firefox after 3.6, including TenFourFox. If you are unhappy about this policy, please tell them so (especially if you are a paid user -- though [ignorant comments like this from their staff](https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/77514/i-am-uncertain-where-to-put-this-discussion-tenfourfox-powerpc), who clearly don't know what TenFourFox is and don't care, make it very unlikely they will be of assistance and you should keep that in mind if you're not using the latest and greatest and choose to buy anything in the future from AgileBits). In the meantime, if you absolutely require 1Password support, you are stuck with Firefox 3.6. There is no way, unfortunately, to force 1Password to work with TenFourFox from our end.
## Gopher sites no longer work in 10.4Fx.
You can enable the Gopher protocol with the [OverbiteFF addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/overbiteff/).
## Does 10.4Fx support plugins or Flash?
No. **Plugins no longer operate in TenFourFox.** 10.4Fx uses older compositing code to remain compatible with OS X Tiger which is incompatible with later versions of Firefox. More to the point, few if any PowerPC-compatible plugins remain updated, and Adobe no longer supports Flash on Power Macintosh.
@ -251,31 +269,42 @@ Between 6.0 and 17.0.11 an undocumented, unsupported plugin enable setting exist
[[We explain this policy in more detail and ways you can access content without plugins.|PluginsNoLongerSupported]]
## How can I play H.264 video?
If a site offers HTML5 H.264 video as an option, you can play many such videos outside of the browser using the optional [[QuickTime Enabler|QuickTimeEnabler]]. Please read that wiki page carefully as some sites cannot be supported yet. You may be able to use one of the Firefox video downloader add-ons for those sites.
## How can I play WebM video?
WebM video support is built into TenFourFox, including for YouTube. No special software is necessary.
WebM video support for VP8 and VP9 is built into TenFourFox, including for YouTube. No special software is necessary.
## YouTube video is too slow on my Mac.
## WebM video is too slow on my Mac.
## How can I play H.264 video?
TenFourFox uses the YouTube HTML5 player, which streams video to the browser using WebM. WebM video is generally slower than H.264 video because no Power Mac has hardware acceleration for WebM. 10.4Fx does have AltiVec acceleration for WebM, however, which improves performance on G4 and G5 systems. For this reason, most G5 Power Macs can play standard definition WebM without issue but practically no G3 Macs can, due to the CPU power needed to decode, scale and composite the video in the browser.
If a site offers HTML5 H.264 video as an option, such as Vimeo and many news sites, you can install the [[MP4 Enabler|PlayingH.264]]. This installs a sidecar library that adds support for playing H.264 and other MPEG-4 video formats directly inside the browser. This library is separately distributed due to licensing differences, and is only supported on systems 1.25GHz or faster (G4/7450 and G5).
Some sites will work with the older [[QuickTime Enabler|QuickTimeEnabler]] add-on and will offer the best performance as the video plays outside of the browser. While we still support the QTE, unfortunately it relies on your system's QuickTime libraries to play streaming video, which means it works on fewer sites than the MP4 Enabler.
## Online video is too slow on my Mac.
Online video is slower than playing video in a standalone application because the browser must decode, scale and composite the video at the same time it is servicing other browser windows and tabs. In addition, there is no hardware acceleration, although AltiVec acceleration is available for G4 and G5 computers.
Here are some general tips for improving performance:
* **Systems slower than 1.25GHz are likely to perform badly.** Although video may play on these computers, we don't support them, and we strongly recommend a G5 for HTML5 video.
* **Systems slower than 1.25GHz are likely to perform badly.** Although video may play on these computers, we don't support them, and we strongly recommend a G5 for HTML5 video. In particular, although you may be able to play some very low bitrate videos acceptably, G3 systems are not supported for online video playback at all.
* **Make sure you have sufficient RAM installed.** If you have less than 1GB of RAM, your computer is likely to swap other programs out (especially on 10.5), which will slow video playback further. We recommend at least 1.5GB.
* **Don't let the video autoplay.** This will cause the browser to dramatically slow while it tries to load the page _and_ play the video at the same time. **Click _once_ anywhere on the video to pause it and let the rest of the page load**, and _then_ click once on the video to start it again. Or, you can use any of the Firefox autoplay disabler extensions which will do this automatically.
* **Consider reducing video quality** (see the next question).
* **Consider reducing video quality** (see the next two questions).
* **Close unnecessary tabs and windows.** If you have many tabs or windows open and loaded, the browser must service them too, which can steal CPU time from playing the video.
* **Don't make the window too big.** On a wide screen you may be tempted to make the browser window fill it, but YouTube will then faithfully try to make the video bigger also.
Full-screen and theatre mode are only of acceptable performance on high-spec G5 systems, and only in standard definition. You should leave the video windowed on lower-end G5 systems and all G4 systems.
## How can I play YouTube video at a lower resolution?
## Should I turn MediaSource Extensions (MSE) off?
There are two supported types of WebM video: VP8, the older technology, which is less computationally intense but provides poorer bitrates (comparable to H.264), and VP9, a newer technology that can offer better resolution in less space but requires more work to decode it (comparable to H.265/HEVC).
VP9 YouTube video requires Media Source Extensions (MSE) and has been officially supported since TenFourFox 45.5. VP8 video has been supported since TenFourFox 4. TenFourFox offers custom AltiVec acceleration for both VP8 and VP9 on all G4 and G5 systems. VP8 YouTube video is usually offered only at 360p resolution, while VP9 YouTube video with MSE allows you to choose from several resolutions, usually 144p, 240p, 360p and 480p (as well as HD resolutions, which we do _not_ recommend).
Many video sites, most notoriously YouTube, seem to require MSE with TenFourFox to play video, and MSE is more flexible with playback options. However, when MSE is disabled, VP8 is selected on sites that offer WebM, which can be faster. Test and see what works best for you. If you're not sure, leave it turned on for highest compatibility.
MSE makes no difference for H.264 performance, so if you are primarily playing video in that format, you should leave it on.
## How can I play online video at a lower resolution?
Playing YouTube videos at lower resolutions can dramatically improve performance at the cost of lower quality. Low-spec G4 systems may perform substantially better at 144p, for example. On the other hand, a Quad G5 can usually manage 360p and sometimes 480p with minor numbers of dropped frames. The best resolution will vary based on your system.
@ -288,13 +317,9 @@ By default, YouTube plays VP9 video at 360p on TenFourFox. If you want to change
* Choose the desired resolution.
* Resume the video. There may be a pause while the new resolution buffers.
## Should I turn MediaSource Extensions (MSE) off?
Similar steps also work for sites like Vimeo, which uses H.264 video instead, and can also improve their performance.
There are two supported types of WebM video: VP8, the older technology, which is less computationally intense but provides poorer bitrates (comparable to H.264), and VP9, a newer technology that can offer better resolution in less space but requires more work to decode it (comparable to H.265/HEVC).
VP9 YouTube video requires Media Source Extensions (MSE) and has been officially supported since TenFourFox 45.5. VP8 video has been supported since TenFourFox 4. TenFourFox offers custom AltiVec acceleration for both VP8 and VP9 on all G4 and G5 systems. VP8 YouTube video is usually offered only at 360p resolution, while VP9 YouTube video with MSE allows you to choose from several resolutions, usually 144p, 240p, 360p and 480p (as well as HD resolutions, which we do _not_ recommend).
Many video sites, most notoriously YouTube, seem to require MSE with TenFourFox to play video, and MSE is more flexible with playback options. However, when MSE is disabled, VP8 is selected which can be faster. Test and see what works best for you. If you're not sure, leave it turned on for highest compatibility.
Unfortunately, many sites do not offer any bitrate options, though these sites usually play at standard definition rates.
## High definition video really sucks!