TenFourFox

TenFourFox 12 running under Mac OS X Tiger.
Initial release	November 8, 2010 (2010-11-08)
Stable release	17.0.5 (March 29, 2013 (2013-03-29)) [±]
Preview release	20.0 unstable (April 2, 2013 (2013-04-02)) [±]
Operating system	Mac OS X v10.4, v10.5
Type	Web browser
License	Mozilla Public License, GNU General Public License, Floodgap Free Software License, others
Website	www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

TenFourFox is a web browser based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine. It is a port of Mozilla Firefox for PowerPC-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS X to retain compatibility with the older architecture and older versions of the operating system, and to add PowerPC-specific optimizations for improved performance. The project was started after Mozilla announced that it would not release Firefox 4 for PowerPC versions of OS X. Like Firefox, it includes compatibility with a wide range of addons, Acid2 and Acid3 compliance, and HTML 5 and CSS 3 features; however, it also includes JavaScript just-in-time compilation,^[1][2][3] custom builds for specific PowerPC processor families,^[4][5] and AltiVec acceleration of key media codecs.^[6][7] The primary maintainer is Cameron Kaiser.

The project shares administration with Classilla, a fork of Mozilla Application Suite for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS 8.6.

History[edit]

In 2010, Mozilla's Mike Beltzner announced that the forthcoming Firefox 4 would not be released for Power Macintosh computers,^[8] compatibility with Mac OS X Tiger having already been removed,^[9] making Firefox 3.6 the last supported release of Firefox on the older architecture and platform. Mozilla stopped making PowerPC-compatible universal builds of Firefox 4 with beta 7.^[10]

In parallel, developer Cameron Kaiser created a test build of Firefox 4 that could run on his Power Mac G5 at the same time as support was being withdrawn from beta 7.^[11] This was released to users in separate builds for AltiVec Macs and G3 Macs on November 8, 2010.^[12][13] Aligning with previous precedent that modified builds of Firefox source could not use Firefox trademarks without permission, the project was forked and named TenFourFox.^[14] A full complement of builds for the G3, the 7400 and 7450 G4 families and the G5 were released with beta 8 on December 15, 2010.^[15][16][17] JavaScript acceleration using its completed PowerPC version of TraceMonkey was released with beta 9 on January 12, 2011,^[18][19] and enabled fully for beta 11 on February 2, 2011.^[20][21] The finalized first release version, 4.0s, incorporated a security update and a fix for JavaScript performance,^[22] and was released on March 24, 2011.^[23] Version 4.0.1 incorporated bug fixes and AltiVec-accelerated WebM video and pixel compositing^[24] and was released on April 22, 2011.^[25] Version 4.0.2 also incorporated additional bug and security fixes and was released on May 28, 2011.^[26] Version 4.0.3 was a final security fix for 4.x and was released on June 20, 2011.^[27]

Version 5.0 switched to the current Mozilla rapid release framework, based on Firefox 5 and including additional AltiVec scaling and color features,^[28] and was released on June 16, 2011.^[29]

Versions 6.0, 6.0.1 and 7.0 closely mirrored the corresponding Firefox releases, with 6.0 improving AltiVec integration and ending official plugin support^[30] as well as introducing an add-on for QuickTime playback outside of the browser.^[31] Version 6.0 was released as 6.0r correcting two high-priority issues on August 16, 2011^[32] and 6.0.1 correcting the DigiNotar SSL certificate leak on August 31, 2011;^[33] 7.0 was released in final form on September 27, 2011.^[34] After announcement of extended support release (ESR) of Firefox, Cameron Kaiser stated that starting with version 10 of TenFourFox, stable releases of TenFourFox will be based on Firefox ESR, to reduce maintenance burden. Between major ESR versions, developers plan to track changes in Firefox's 6-week rapid release cycle with test builds only, to determine whether or not they will still be able to build the software after the next ESR version is released. In the meantime, only minor ESR updates will be advertised as suitable for general consumption.^[35]

Features[edit]

TenFourFox shares its main feature set with Firefox along with optimizations for the PowerPC platform. Similar to other optimized build projects such as Pale Moon and Swiftfox TenFourFox includes specific compiler optimizations to improve its overall performance and issues specific builds tuned for specific processor families.^[36] However, it also includes custom new features, in particular its JavaScript just-in-time compilation backend and AltiVec acceleration, and adds glue code to enable interface features from Firefox 4 and later to still work on Mac OS X Tiger. This has led to favorable reviews on its speed and performance on older Macintosh computers.^{[37][38][39][40][41]}

Due to its compatibility with the older operating system, the browser lacks the entire feature set of modern Firefox versions. In particular, it does not fully support Core Text, so it does not understand Apple Advanced Typography features in certain international fonts; it does not support graphics acceleration for compositing; and it does not support WebGL (because PowerPC Tiger does not support OpenGL 2^[42]).^[43] Furthermore, for security and maintainability reasons, NPAPI plugins support is deprecated,^[44] and has been removed in version 18.0,^[45] (which was never released) and above.

See also[edit]

Free software portal

• List of web browsers
• Comparison of web browsers

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• TenFourFox Development blog
• TenFourFox at Google Code
• TenFourFox on SourceForge.net