Safari update

[Bill Gates Jr.]

I'm have a mid 2011 iMac running High Sierra. MY Safari version i s 13.1.2 I believe that is the highest Safari version I can use on this iMac. Is that correct?

Pete...still stuck with the rolling walker.

 

[IWT]

2011 iMac running High Sierra. MY Safari version i s 13.1.2 I believe that is the highest Safari version I can use on this iMac. Is that correct?

Correct. I have an oldish iMac running High Sierra which I keep for special apps and Safari 13.1.2 is as far as it can go.

Ian

 

[Bill Gates Jr.]

Ian,

Thanks for verifying.

Pete

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I'm have a mid 2011 iMac running High Sierra. MY Safari version i s 13.1.2 I believe that is the highest Safari version I can use on this iMac.

With older versions of the Mac OS such as you have, your version of Safari was tied to the OS. You usually couldn't upgrade Safari without upgrading the OS. (Rarely there would be an intermediate upgrade available from Apple if they deemed it necessary. Usually for security purposes.) If your Mac was maxed out with the last version of the Mac OS it could run, you were stuck with an outdated version of Safari in perpetuity.

The problem with that is that the technology used on the Web keeps advancing. As time goes on, more and more Web sites won't render perfectly using an outdated version of Safari.

The good news is that both the FireFox browser the the iCab browser are often updated and made backwards compatible for older versions of the Mac OS for a good while. And both browsers have archives of older versions. So, all that you need do is identify that last version of, let's say FireFox, that ran under High Sierra, download it, and you now have a browser that is quite a bit more modern than the old version of Safari you have.

Old FireFox versions:
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Old iCab versions:
http://icab.de/download.html

 

[davowolf]

This is the latest I think recently upgraded. However Gumtree are telling me this morning the reason I can't upload photos is they're having trouble with Safari in this respect and recommending Chrome or Firefox.

So should I add another browser in and if so which one ?

 

[pine man]

I, happily, run both Safari and Firefox side by side on both of my iMacs. The old one has Safari 10.16.7 and the newer one has 16.6 but there are, occasionally, some sites they won't play ball with on either iMac, which is where Firefox comes into play.

Others may have a view on other browsers but I've always steered clear of Chrome as it's run by Google, which I'm not too happy with.

 

[davowolf]

Ahh that’s interesting pman. I’ll download Firefox on the basis of your experience. I’ve never had 2 running. Can they / do they, both run simultaneously and is there anything I need to be careful about ?

 

[pine man]

I’ve never had 2 running. Can they / do they, both run simultaneously

They only run when you launch them. So, for example, if you are trying to access a site with Safari that doesn't work too well just launch Firefox and see if that improves your view of that site.

Neither browser will have any effect on the other but one of them will need to be set as the default, which in my case is Safari.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I’ve never had 2 running. Can they / do they, both run simultaneously and is there anything I need to be careful about ?

I have a half dozen browsers on my Mac, as I constantly test them to see which is currently the best one. They don't interfere with each other at all. You can run several at once if you like.

I think that this is the best one right now:

Brave browser (free)

The browser that puts you first | Brave

The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.

brave.com

Brave is FAST, it has lots of really nice features, it can block ads without the need for any add-ons, it's fully customizable...and it's the most secure browser available (using standard settings.)

 

[Bill Gates Jr.]

Randy, Can I run Brave on High Sierra? App store doesn't bring it up.

Pete

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Randy, Can I run Brave on High Sierra? App store doesn't bring it up.

You certainly can't run the current version of Brave on High Sierra.

However, there is an archive of older versions of Brave for the Mac:

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/

...and I know for sure that there WAS a version of Brave for High Sierra. (There was even one for Sierra, and El Capitan before that.) You'll probably have to try a few older versions until you hit on the most recent one that still works.