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Browse the Web in style with Classilla for Mac OS 9

The Classic Mac OS may be dead, but that doesn't mean its users are. If you …

Despite Mac OS X seeing almost eight years of public use, numerous years of development, and a pseudo career on NeXT hardware, some archaic users still aren't quite sure of the staying power of the operating system. Maybe you're one of them. Perhaps preemptive multitasking frightens you, and you believe that icons should only be 32 pixels by 32 pixels, virtual memory should always be set to 1MB greater than the amount allotted to the application by the user, and printing a document should bring the entire operating system to a halt.

The only issue you may have is that those pesky browser companies have stopped supporting your OS of choice, things aren't as secure as they used to be, and your copy of Internet Explorer 4 just hasn't kept up on Web standards the way you would have liked. Sure, there is iCab, but that hasn't been updated since 2008, and you told yourself you wouldn't purchase software again until the makers of Conflict Catcher answered your support e-mails. Perhaps it's time to upgrade your browser, but how?

Hold onto your ADB ports, because there's a new player in town. The Classilla project (via Macworld) aims to bring back modern browsing to 15-year-old hardware. The browser is based on a port of Mozilla called WaMCom that was more or less abandoned in 2003. As it turns out, the folks working on Classilla have been franticly applying six years' worth of security updates and stability patches to the software. While the browser is by no means done, the curators of the project have decided that, despite its bugs, it's ready for public consumption.

The project needs your help, though. If Linux development is no longer obscure enough for you, Classilla might just be the project you are looking for. If you're into C or C++ and know anything about CodeWarior, your help is requested by the Classilla team. They are also looking for HTML and CSS gurus to help the cause. Viva la OS 9!

Channel Ars Technica