Web browsing on OS 9

Jetb0y

This is a bit of a pet project so I don't wanna go throwing it out there as a success story yet. However, I thought I'd share with this forum that I've made an OS 9 app that runs a proxy server, allowing you to browse the modern internet (think https sites) on OS9.

It's in early beta mode and I've made some pretty serious security compromises to get it to a semi-functional state. However I trust this group's opinions so thought I'd check what people think of the idea:

I'm gonna call it TLS Bomb and make it clear that you REALLY don't wanna be using it with a computer that contains lotsa sensitive/important stuff. Also assuming you could do it, you wouldn't wanna use it for things like banking. It has a 'safe' mode that can load a small range of http sites and a 'risky' mode that basically says 'fuck security and just do it!!!'
Right now it doesn't fully load sites (it's rare to get images) but I'm gearing it towards feeding people an 'accessible' version of the web. Frogfind serves up a similar feed of the web but I think think this provides it from a different angle.
Target audience is weirdos like me who love turning on their G4, turning on a jazz/classical stream using MacAmp Lite while (for example) reading the news, logging into a Hotline server and doing some basic web browsing. I've made a calculated risk that the effort involved in trying to MITM my G4 (with no javascript and just plain text HTML being served up) would outweigh the benefit of accessing... nothing aside from a bunch of stuff that's available freely online (assuming the MITM hack doesn't crash my G4). It's purely for hobbyists.
While it's kinda basic (see pictures), my vision is to make sure it's accessible (a bit like Lynx). I don't actually mind having an ad free internet that doesn't serve up a boot load of ads, large pictures and eye. Rather than make it more flashy, my focus will probably be on making the html it serves up clean and accessible (think WCAG compliance and the like). Have it as a 'reader' more than anything.

Open to thoughts. Should I release this or just use it personally (liability in mind if somebody's hacked)? Would it be useful? Can anybody help test/debug it?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Link to images (sorry had an error uploading)

https://imgur.com/a/c2dX98L

Jetb0y

FWIW I'm also working on a baby web browser that pairs up with this proxy app. I say 'baby' because it's a _300kb app that basically talks to the proxy, receives html and then uses some basic heuristics to display an accessible version of the website.

It's more of a 'reader' (think Kindle style browser) than a 'proper' browser. However my experience using Classilla and iCab is basically that Classilla's too big/slow and I can't find a way to get iCab to play ball with my proxy (I'm sure there's a way but I'm not smart enough).

Will show some pictures of it when I'm ready as it's still in its infancy. Not sure how others feel but to me this provides a solid web browsing experience from a bygone era where there was less glitter. Rather than having a heap of background tasks going on without any real user oversight (e.g. Google trackers and the like), it just spits out static websites you can read and you don't have to like, subscribe, fill out forms or post your opinion about everything. You can just quietly read the news or a decent blog post with some jazz streaming in the background via MacAmp Lite or Audion, sip your martini and enjoy the moment. I find the experience somewhat relaxing...

menace690

There is a recent resurgence in old hardware being able to boot even older os's.

I miss OS 9. No real multitasking but damn was it fast.

https://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=7711.0

menace690

Found this tool that may be of interest as well.

https://github.com/classilla/cryanc
https://dressupgeekout.com/classic-macos/classilla-tls/

Its a "TLS library for internet of old things."

There is a mac os 9 tool called carl that has been made out of it that seems to be very close to what you are describing here but I dont see any successful compilations and most recommend just hosting the carl tool on a different OS. In theory, you could run Power MachTen as an application on the Mac and install carl to it, then it would at least all be on one computer, but I imagine it would be resource intensive.

Jetb0y

That's pretty cool seeing OS 7 on a G4... cool to see people pulling things apart and learning how it all works (which IMO is 99% of the fun) 😃

To be clear, my tool's advantage over what you've linked to (which is 'Crypto Ancienne') is that the said tool requires installing a VM called Machten, which runs X11 on top of OS9 and then compiling a UNIX build of 'Crypto Ancienne'. Not invalidating this process but it's a UNIX app running within a VM and TLS alone doesn't give Classilla a modern internet experience as it uses HTML 3/4 and a heavily dated version of javascript.

My TLS proxy is a native MacOS 8/9 app that uses OpenTransport and a Mac UI. Some compromises were made in order to get this working natively, but it means you get a native app. This has also enabled me to (for example) hack the HTTPS stream for things like readability.

The web browser is not as 'advanced' as Classilla (which is a port of a dated version of Mozilla) but it's my own hand-rolled browser. Why do this? My thinking was that trying to port over HTML5, CSS and a modern Javascript engine was a MAMMOTH task. Also my experience with OT is that it's designed for simpler transactions than what modern protocols require. Getting my TLS proxy to work without a UNIX layer was... interesting.

Having a hand-rolled browser means that instead of focussing on HTML5 and Javascript, I could make a lightweight browser that converts HTML into plain text. In short my browser:

Is 248kb right now (₄₃₀₀ lines of code) and I reckon there's still room for efficiencies
Takes the HTML and strips the guts out of it using a series of heuristics
Draws the text, 'hyperlinks' and images onto your browser window using Quickdraw/Quicktime/text in a lightweight, scrollable manner (to the best of my knowledge this all had to be done by hand for OS 9 web browsers)
Can do things like increase the font size. I may also add things like colour themes (dark mode maybe?) and website specific hacks if there's sites that donn't look great
Jigs DDG's search functionality to work as the default search engine (when you enter text into the address bar). Most modern search engines require JS and weird URLs for tracking/redirection so aside from FrogFind I found this the most viable solution.

Should be ready to release in time for Christmas 😉

menace690

Did you write the encryption libraries for TLS? Either way, I have a new years project of getting a PPC g4 running os9 and then this for the new year. Looking forward to it.