iCab - 3.0.5

This is no longer usable. Slow and crashes after non-use if the page you leave it on hass RSS feeds. Not modern enough for todays web. Will go back to Netscape 7.02 when on a classic MacOS machine

I have tried this several times on my Mac and it runs so slow it is unusable. I have a PowerMac 7300 with a G4/800 upgrade card but it runs as if the card is not there. I have increased its memory allocation but to no avail. I cannot recommend this at all.

Current version: 3.0.3 (or 2.9.9a/b)
http://www.icab.de/dl.php

iCab is about the only modern, updated web browser option for people NOT running Mac OS X. You get tabbed browsing, RSS reader, the ability to selectively enable/disable plugins, customizable context (right-click) menus, filtering control over cookies/scripts/IDNs (International Domain Names--a potential security hole in web browsers), etc. And in the 3.x versions you now can "Auto-Save Session" which will recover your tabs and web locations so you can automatically pickup where you left off the next time you launch iCab. There is also an option to "Save Session As" so you can resume a specific set of tabs/locations by simply double clicking on the savefile.

All the preferences of iCab may seem a tad daunting at first, but Classic users need only "Show Balloons" from the Help menu and you will see pop-up help for the vast majority of features in the Preferences panes. Enable "Auto-Save Session" from the File menu to save all open tabs when quitting. The Filter Manager has many advanced functions and takes a little getting used to. Keep in mind that you can always disable the Filter Manager quickly from the bottom of the View menu.

I have been using and paying (optional) for iCab for years. While iCab may not have a paid development staff, it does have one very dedicated programmer who is worth his weight in gold: Alexander Clauss. He cares about his software and will respond to issues you might encounter (please do not take this as a suggestion to fill his email box, however! :) While iCab is available in different languages, much of the online documentation is in German, so you may need to contact the author if you get stuck. Check the Help menu items and explore the Balloon pop-up help first.

The current version of iCab is 3.03 for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. For people still running Mac OS 7.1-8.1 on an old 68k processor, or Mac OS 7.61-8.1 on PPC systems, you can download 2.9.9a/b. Please note that pre-3.x versions do not have "Auto-Save Session" and do not support JavaScript 1.6, so some web sites may display incorrectly (usually you just need to scroll farther down to see the content). For users running older versions of Mac OS with not so much RAM, iCab uses a small portion of memory (4.5 MB for 2.9.9b on 68k Macs, 7.1 MB for 2.9.9a on PPC Macs). Also, the 2.9.9 versions have their own plug-ins folder inside the iCab application folder. 3.x versions use the System plug-in set.

It is still a good idea to keep your old copies of Internet Explorer 5.17 and Netscape 7.02 for the occasional sites that are coded specifically for these browsers.

If you give iCab a try and it works well for you, please send a donation to the author. This will help encourage future revisions for Classic users who still want to access the Internet.

I've come back to iCab from Mozilla (Wamcom) which took forever to load (on my PB 3400 using OS 9.2) tho' once it was up the browser was quick (Mozilla's email client was another story - painfully slow). iCab 3 no longer mangles my internet banking site the way 2.98 used to, is very quick to load and quick with most sites (except Versiontracker!) - handles just about all my favourite sites well. I would love a pop-up suppressor, and would really really really love an email client (have gone back to Netscape 4.79 for email because it's quick and simple, but of course it uses Navigator to follow links, and some of those freeze it up).

Danny

I take it, the developers didn't fix anything, in this version. Well, if you wanna play with the big boys "ie" Safari, Communicator & Internet Explorer. You better add a pop-up suppression. Hello!!! Safari, Communicator & others do it.