Classilla
Encyclopedia
Classilla is a Gecko
-based web browser
for PowerPC
-based classic Macintosh systems, essentially an updated descendant of the now-defunct Mozilla Application Suite
by way of the Mac OS port maintained in the now-aborted WaMCom project. The name is a portmanteau of Classic (the classic Mac OS, as defined by the Classic Environment), and Mozilla
.
Like the Suite it is descended from, Classilla offers E-mail
(POP
/SMTP
), Usenet
(NNTP
), Gopher, FTP
and World Wide Web
(HTTP
) access, using a modified version of the Gecko layout engine
called Clecko. Classilla also includes its own versions of the DOM Inspector
, Mozilla Composer
and Venkman
components; the former IRC ChatZilla
component was removed in version 9.1. Classilla is currently the most recently updated major browser for classic Mac OS systems, and the only Mozilla-based browser for that environment in current maintenance as well, as iCab 3
's final update was 3.0.5 in January 2008, Opera
's Mac OS 9 support ended with version 6.03 on 20 August 2003, Internet Explorer for Mac
on the classic Mac OS ceased development with 5.1.7 in July 2003 and Mozilla
itself ceased support in 2002 (see History). The primary maintainer is Cameron Kaiser.
(and Mac OS 8.6
) in the Mozilla Application Suite
ended with the release of Mozilla 1.2.1 in 2002, coincident with Apple ending support for their former operating system. However, many enthusiasts discovered that Mozilla 1.3.x would still generally build and run on the old Mac OS with modification apart from its dependencies on CarbonLib
, leading to builds such as Unofficial Mozilla for Mac OS 9, WaZilla 1.3f, and WaMCom. Of these, WaMCom was the arguably longest maintained, with its final release on 23 July 2003.
In May 2009, Cameron Kaiser announced his intentions to start porting later Mozilla updates back to the 1.3.1-based version used in WaMCom, christening his modified version as Classilla. This first version, given the version number 9.0 to match Mac OS 9 (with subsequent numbers matching OS 9 version numbers), was released on 30 June 2009. Version 9.0.4 was released on 28 October 2009. Version 9.1 was released on 26 February 2010. Version 9.2 was released on 4 June 2010. Version 9.2.1 was released on August 22, 2010. Version 9.2.2 was released on March 29, 2011. The developers consider the current version to be alpha quality software.
Although the project shares administration with TenFourFox
, another Mozilla fork for older Macintosh systems, the codebases are not closely related and target different versions of the Mac OS.
version of Mozilla 1.3.1; vestigial proof remains in its verse from The Book of Mozilla
), it has more limited support for web standards
than do later Gecko-based browsers such as SeaMonkey
and Mozilla Firefox
, and its layout compared to iCab 3.0.5
is objectively inferior as the latter browser is Acid2
compliant and Classilla is not and scores 31/100 in Acid 3. On the other hand, its layout capability is more current than WaMCom or Mozilla 1.3.1, and Classilla has a more current JavaScript
interpreter than iCab and better support for the Document Object Model
although it is also still deficient compared to modern Gecko-based browsers. It is also perceived by users to be more stable and quicker to render than iCab, important as the classic Mac OS relies on cooperative multitasking and has very limited support for memory protection
. However, known problems in the browser and issues with performance on older machines led the developers to implement their own limited version of NoScript
as a built-in part of the browser so that users had the ability to enable JavaScript only where it was safe or necessary to do so. Classilla also adds support for user agent spoofing, which was not part of the original Mozilla suite, and repairs various Mac OS-specific bugs.
Apart from its upgraded support for Web pages, Classilla supports most of the same features that Mozilla of the same generation did, with similar feature sets and bugs in its support for E-mail, Usenet, FTP and Gopher, although the latter received token upgrades. In a likewise fashion, Classilla also inherits many of the security failings of earlier versions of the Application Suite, many of which are still not patched and openly warned of by the developers. The presence of NoScript, along with the unusual nature of the classic Mac OS, is thought to add some level of protection, although it is the avowed goal of the developers to reach security parity with current Mozilla-based releases and repair outstanding bugs.
Gecko (layout engine)
Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
-based web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
for PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
-based classic Macintosh systems, essentially an updated descendant of the now-defunct Mozilla Application Suite
Mozilla Application Suite
The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
by way of the Mac OS port maintained in the now-aborted WaMCom project. The name is a portmanteau of Classic (the classic Mac OS, as defined by the Classic Environment), and Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
.
Like the Suite it is descended from, Classilla offers E-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
(POP
Post Office Protocol
In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
/SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
), Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
(NNTP
Network News Transfer Protocol
The Network News Transfer Protocol is an Internet application protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles between news servers and for reading and posting articles by end user client applications...
), Gopher, FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
and World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
(HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
) access, using a modified version of the Gecko layout engine
Gecko (layout engine)
Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
called Clecko. Classilla also includes its own versions of the DOM Inspector
DOM Inspector
DOM Inspector is a web developer tool created by Joe Hewitt and was originally included in Mozilla Application Suite as well as versions of Mozilla Firefox prior to Firefox 3. It is now included by default in SeaMonkey and is an installable extension for subsequent versions of Firefox and other...
, Mozilla Composer
Mozilla Composer
Mozilla Composer is the free, open source HTML editor and web authoring module of the Mozilla Application Suite . It is used to create and to edit web pages, e-mail, and text documents easily. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Composer is a graphical WYSIWYG HTML editor...
and Venkman
Venkman
Venkman is the JavaScript debugger component of the Mozilla Application Suite. It is also available as a Mozilla Firefox extension. Venkman is named after the character Dr. Peter Venkman played by Bill Murray in the movies Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.-History:In 1998, John Bandhauer was in...
components; the former IRC ChatZilla
ChatZilla
ChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting....
component was removed in version 9.1. Classilla is currently the most recently updated major browser for classic Mac OS systems, and the only Mozilla-based browser for that environment in current maintenance as well, as iCab 3
ICab
iCab is a web browser for the Macintosh by Alexander Clauss, derived from Crystal Atari Browser for Atari TOS compatible computers. It is the most recently actively developed browser for 68k-based Macintoshes that features tabbed browsing and one of a very few browsers that was still updated in...
's final update was 3.0.5 in January 2008, Opera
Opera (web browser)
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...
's Mac OS 9 support ended with version 6.03 on 20 August 2003, Internet Explorer for Mac
Internet Explorer for Mac
Internet Explorer for Mac was a proprietary web browser developed by Microsoft for the Macintosh platform. Initial versions were developed from the same code base as Internet Explorer for Windows...
on the classic Mac OS ceased development with 5.1.7 in July 2003 and Mozilla
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
itself ceased support in 2002 (see History). The primary maintainer is Cameron Kaiser.
History
Official support for Mac OS 9Mac OS 9
Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...
(and Mac OS 8.6
Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems...
) in the Mozilla Application Suite
Mozilla Application Suite
The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
ended with the release of Mozilla 1.2.1 in 2002, coincident with Apple ending support for their former operating system. However, many enthusiasts discovered that Mozilla 1.3.x would still generally build and run on the old Mac OS with modification apart from its dependencies on CarbonLib
Carbon (API)
Carbon is one of Apple Inc.'s procedural application programming interfaces for the Macintosh operating system. It provides C programming language access to Macintosh system services...
, leading to builds such as Unofficial Mozilla for Mac OS 9, WaZilla 1.3f, and WaMCom. Of these, WaMCom was the arguably longest maintained, with its final release on 23 July 2003.
In May 2009, Cameron Kaiser announced his intentions to start porting later Mozilla updates back to the 1.3.1-based version used in WaMCom, christening his modified version as Classilla. This first version, given the version number 9.0 to match Mac OS 9 (with subsequent numbers matching OS 9 version numbers), was released on 30 June 2009. Version 9.0.4 was released on 28 October 2009. Version 9.1 was released on 26 February 2010. Version 9.2 was released on 4 June 2010. Version 9.2.1 was released on August 22, 2010. Version 9.2.2 was released on March 29, 2011. The developers consider the current version to be alpha quality software.
Although the project shares administration with TenFourFox
TenFourFox
TenFourFox is a Mozilla-based browser closely related to Mozilla Firefox, written 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...
, another Mozilla fork for older Macintosh systems, the codebases are not closely related and target different versions of the Mac OS.
Features
Owing to Classilla's unusual provenance (being essentially a heavily patchedPatch (computing)
A patch is a piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance...
version of Mozilla 1.3.1; vestigial proof remains in its verse from The Book of Mozilla
The Book of Mozilla
The Book of Mozilla is a computer Easter egg found in the Netscape and Mozilla series of web browsers.It is viewed by directing the browser to about:mozilla.There is no real book entitled The Book of Mozilla...
), it has more limited support for web standards
Web standards
Web standards is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites,...
than do later Gecko-based browsers such as SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...
and Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
, and its layout compared to iCab 3.0.5
ICab
iCab is a web browser for the Macintosh by Alexander Clauss, derived from Crystal Atari Browser for Atari TOS compatible computers. It is the most recently actively developed browser for 68k-based Macintoshes that features tabbed browsing and one of a very few browsers that was still updated in...
is objectively inferior as the latter browser is Acid2
Acid2
Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
compliant and Classilla is not and scores 31/100 in Acid 3. On the other hand, its layout capability is more current than WaMCom or Mozilla 1.3.1, and Classilla has a more current JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
interpreter than iCab and better support for the Document Object Model
Document Object Model
The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...
although it is also still deficient compared to modern Gecko-based browsers. It is also perceived by users to be more stable and quicker to render than iCab, important as the classic Mac OS relies on cooperative multitasking and has very limited support for memory protection
Memory protection
Memory protection is a way to control memory access rights on a computer, and is a part of most modern operating systems. The main purpose of memory protection is to prevent a process from accessing memory that has not been allocated to it. This prevents a bug within a process from affecting...
. However, known problems in the browser and issues with performance on older machines led the developers to implement their own limited version of NoScript
NoScript
NoScript is a free and open-source extension for Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, and other Mozilla-based web browsers, created and actively maintained by Giorgio Maone, an Italian software developer and member of the Mozilla Security Group...
as a built-in part of the browser so that users had the ability to enable JavaScript only where it was safe or necessary to do so. Classilla also adds support for user agent spoofing, which was not part of the original Mozilla suite, and repairs various Mac OS-specific bugs.
Apart from its upgraded support for Web pages, Classilla supports most of the same features that Mozilla of the same generation did, with similar feature sets and bugs in its support for E-mail, Usenet, FTP and Gopher, although the latter received token upgrades. In a likewise fashion, Classilla also inherits many of the security failings of earlier versions of the Application Suite, many of which are still not patched and openly warned of by the developers. The presence of NoScript, along with the unusual nature of the classic Mac OS, is thought to add some level of protection, although it is the avowed goal of the developers to reach security parity with current Mozilla-based releases and repair outstanding bugs.
See also
- Mozilla Application SuiteMozilla Application SuiteThe Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
- Mac OS 8Mac OS 8Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems...
and Mac OS 9Mac OS 9Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as... - TenFourFoxTenFourFoxTenFourFox is a Mozilla-based browser closely related to Mozilla Firefox, written 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...
- List of web browsers
- List of news clients
- List of HTML editors
- Comparison of web browsersComparison of web browsersThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.-Historical web browsers:...
- Comparison of e-mail clientsComparison of e-mail clientsThe following tables compare general and technical features of a number of email client programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date.-General:...
- Comparison of HTML editorsComparison of HTML editorsThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of HTML editors.This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date...
External links
- Classilla - main site
- Classilla Google Code - wiki, source code and downloads