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What should I do if I can't afford the OS necessary to continue using Firefox?

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I have an old Mac running OS X 10.4.11. I can't afford a new one, but now I can't access my gmail. Hpow can I access my email through my present OS?

I have an old Mac running OS X 10.4.11. I can't afford a new one, but now I can't access my gmail. Hpow can I access my email through my present OS?

All Replies (11)

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Try to update your firefox version to 24.0 from Mozilla.org

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Hello,

Please see the support article here:

Firefox no longer works with Mac OS X 10.4 or PowerPC processors

If your Mac uses a PowerPC chip then you may also be interested in TenFourFox a fork of Firefox 17 ESR that works on PowerPC chips.

I know you specified that you want to continue using your current OS but I still want to suggest that you have a look at using a Linux OS instead.

There are versions of Ubuntu or Lubuntu that work on PowerPC (or intel) Macs and would allow you to use the latest version of Firefox. You would also have the additional advantage of using a fully up to date OS with regular security updates.

I suggest creating a bootable OS disk with one of these distributions to give them a try out. You can try the OS without installing it. If you do want to go ahead and install you can even install it side by side with your Mac OS and switch between them as you choose.

See here for more information:

I hope this helps.

Modified by Ed

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I downloaded it, but it won't run on this system. Thank you anyway.

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I tried the links, and none of these alternatives works. The problem might be me. I'm not at all good at this, and I may be missing things I could click on to solve the problem. However the 10.4 system section said it was no longer supported, and I couldn't find anything that would help me either: a. use my 10.4.11, or b. upgrade to a newer OS. For the past couple of years I've realized I was being forced offline. It may be time to accept that as a done deal. But thank you very much for your time and effort.

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At a high level the issue is that:

  • Firstly Apple no longer support OS X 10.4.11 with security updates
  • Secondly Mozilla no longer support Firefox on OS X 10.4.11

This means that you are now using a very old version of Firefox (v3.6). From what you say it sounds like gmail have decided not to support this version of Firefox any more and now you can't get onto your emails.

Your best option would be to move to a newer version of OS X, one that is still supported by both Apple and Mozilla. However this may not be possible, your mac may use a processor that is unsupported by the newer versions of OS X (PowerPC) it will also cost money to purchase the new version of OS X.

If you decide that you do want to try to update to a newer version of OS X (or just want to find out more about costs etc) then I suggest asking in the Apple Support Forum for help.

If you cannot or don't want to update to a newer version of OS X then you have to try a work around. One option would be to install TenFourFox. This is a different browser to Firefox but is based on Firefox. It is a specially modified version of Firefox that can run on Macs that use a PowerPC processor. If you download and install it then you should be able to use it instead of Firefox to access your emails.

The final alternative is to leave OS X completely and install Linux instead. It is a different operating system that has the advantages of being free and of supporting older hardware. Even the newest versions of Linux will run well on very old hardware, so this might be a good alternative for you. However it is not all that easy to install. You have to be comfortable downloading a disk image and then creating a bootable disk. If you want to try this option you can ask here for help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/

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I tried the tenfour. It's quite slow, and now I've lost all my links to things like hotmail, even when I use my old Firefox. Is there anyway I can get those back?

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Sorry what do you mean by lost links? Are your bookmarks missing?

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Thanks for the quick response. Up until this morning, when I clicked on the address box I always got a list that included some of my most-visited sites: hotmail, google, and several sites I use in my work. After downloading the tenfour OS I went back to Firefox to find those, but when I click on the address box there's nothing. Now I can't get into any of those sites without finding them online, then typing in passwords I've long since lost. Hotmail says they'll give me a new password in 24 hours. I don't know about the others.

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That seems strange. I've never used TenFourFox myself but I can't see why it would have removed/deleted your Firefox data.

I suggest removing TenFourFox (you said it was too slow anyway) and see if the history comes back.

If not then I suspect that what has happened is that TenFourFox created a new Firefox Profile and your Firefox installation is detecting the new blank profile instead of your old one. All your personal information (bookmarks, history etc) is stored in the profile folder.

Use the instructions below to determine if you have more than one profile. If you do then follow the instructions to recover your old data by moving the files into the new profile folder:

Recover important data from an old profile

I hope this helps.

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TenFourFox is for Mac computers with a PowerPC Mac processor and not for Macs with an Intel processor like your System Details shows (I don't think it will run under an emulator like Rosette).
With an Intel processor your only option would be to upgrade your OS, but that would be OS X 10.6.8

Maybe there are alternatives like iCab or older versions of SeaMonkey that support your OS.

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Hi plheyrman, I was excited for you when I heard Apple was allowing free upgrades to the latest OSX, but it turns out you that is for users of 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and higher. If you have an older version, you first need to pay for 10.6. Not sure if the price changed, but it's $20 on the Apple store at the moment: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC5.../mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard. Something to consider.