macsurf

The modern web, on a 25-year-old Mac.

A native browser for the Carbon era, Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS X 10.6: real CSS, modern JavaScript, and HTTPS on the Mac itself. No proxy, no second machine.

MacSurf 2.0.5 on a Power Mac G3 iMac, rendering hackaday.com at full desktop width over native HTTPS.

Support MacSurf

   

Thanks to our supporters:
Ko-Fi: Chris Marks, Rogue, Turuun, kilgeist
Patreon: Mack Chamberlain, Lucas, Joseph Mulvaney, Shlooom, Bigdipper

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[!NOTE] 2.3 "OPEN TABS" is the largest MacSurf release since 2.0. Tabs bring independent page, scroll, history, rendering and JavaScript state into one native Mac window. The release also expands dynamic-page support, browser APIs, CSS and image/SVG handling, native managers, networking and security. Read the 2.3 release notes.

Why this exists

The web outgrew Classic Mac OS twenty years ago, and modern HTTPS finished the job around 2016. Pull a G3 or G4 out of the closet today and it can barely reach a single live site.

MacSurf fixes that on the machine itself, with no screenshot proxy and no remote-terminal trick. It is a native browser built with the tools that shipped on the platform: CodeWarrior, Carbon, QuickDraw, and Open Transport. It speaks TLS 1.3 straight to the modern web through a BearSSL-based native TLS stack and runs modern JavaScript through a QuickJS engine adapted for Mac OS 9.

As far as we can tell, it is the first serious NetSurf port to Classic Mac OS, and the first Mac OS 9 browser with native CSS Grid, CSS custom properties, and an on-device modern JavaScript engine.

Real sites, on real hardware

Every shot below is a live site, captured on a Power Mac G3 running Mac OS 9.2.2 with MacSurf 2.0.5. They are kept here as a hardware baseline; MacSurf 2.3 has moved substantially beyond the browser shown in these images.

hackaday.com A modern, JavaScript-heavy news site at full desktop width.	68kmla.org A full XenForo forum: logged in, full-width, correct text size.
macintoshgarden.org Image-heavy and fully styled, over native HTTPS.	news.ycombinator.com Hacker News: login and front page, no phantom boxes.

New in 2.3

Tabs. One native Mac window can now host multiple independent browser pages. Command-T opens a tab; Command-W closes the current tab. Background tabs retain their own JavaScript realm, title, URL, content and scroll state without taking over the foreground chrome.

The release also brings a major dynamic-page and JavaScript compatibility pass; deeper DOM reconstruction safety; CSS math, sizing, Grid, variables and paint improvements; native WebP and stronger SVG; a rebuilt Downloads window; improved Preferences, Bookmarks and History; tighter HTTPS/security behavior; and a large body of crash- and lifetime fixes.

MacSurf 2.3 supports Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS X 10.6. On Intel Macs, the PowerPC build runs under Rosetta where available.

Full 2.3 release →

New in 2.0.5

The headline is hackaday.com rendering at full desktop width (shown above): correct type, article cards, and images in place.

Under it: text is measured in real device pixels (author font-size no longer draws 25% too small), a large modern-CSS pass (justified text, soft hyphens, logical properties, box-alignment shorthands, grid auto-sizing), a more capable JavaScript engine (real fetch/XHR, resolving Promise chains, DOM traversal, document.cookie), and tracker/ad-network blocking. Full 2.0.5 release →

New in 2.0

Type-ahead address bar History- and bookmark-backed suggestions as you type.
History manager Day-grouped, searchable, clearable. A real window.	Bookmark manager Save, organize, and jump straight from the menu.

Earlier shots: the same sites on previous builds