Xpostfacto

The Internet likes 8.6 just fine. It is based on Apple's excellent implementation of Open Transport, which has worked well and networks seamlessly from 7.5.3 through the current version.

If you intend to run a Browser on that Mac, it's a different story.

Lots of folks here have had great luck with XPostFacto v3.1 and Mac OS X Panther 10.3.x on Beige and Blue & White G3s. XPostFacto may require a minimal installation of Mac OS 9 or an earlier version of Mac OS X to run. Read the support matrix for XPostFacto very, very carefully to be sure that your configuration is supported, and what versions on Mac OS X are supported on it.

Support add-on software for aftermarket processor upgrades has been very cranky, but several user here have gotten them to work.

More likely you has Mozilla or Netscape running under 8.6.

Also, Firefox had just turned over to version 2.0.x.y, so they have hidden all the old links to get new users onto the new version.

Mozilla.org announced fairly recently that they were dropping their OS9 Mac browser and referred those users to iCab.

Looking for software for Mac OS 9?
Due to the lack of developer interest, build machines, compilers and testing resources, the last mozilla.org software built for Mac OS 9 was Mozilla 1.2.1, released in December 2002. However, versions of our software that old are not recommended for security reasons. Therefore, for Mac OS 9 users, mozilla.org recommends iCab - which is, as far as we know, the only graphical browser currently maintained for Mac OS 9.

I tried iCab in 9.2.2 and the page rendering for several sites I checked was unusable.

I use Xpostfacto on my 8500/120 (now with a G3/266 upgrade) to run OS 9.2.2, and it works just fine. In fact, it's the most stable it's ever been!However, I haven't had the guts to install OSX on it yet.

iBook G4, PM8500/G3, Mac Classic, IIcx, LCIII, PM7200 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Aren't you referring to "OS 9 Helper" (and not "XPostFacto"), to install OS 9.2.2 on your 8500?

OS9 helper information and the free downloads are here:

http://www.os9forever.com/os9helper.html

I have a 9600 with a very similar spec to yours. I use XPostFacto and OS X 10.3.9 on it and it was very well behaved. You might also want to upgrade the graphics card - although, owing to the PCI bus, there's no point in getting anything other than an ATI Rage 128 series card. Incidentally, I use the past tense because I haven't turned it on for over a year. I'm sure it's still fine though.

The best browser for Mac OS 9 (and 8.6) in my book is WaMCom (wamcom.org). It's based on Mozilla 1.3.1, with additional later bug fixes applied by the developer.

While it's no longer being updated, it is more recent than any version of Netscape available for the classic Mac OS, and certainly better and IE or iCab.

I used to use XPF quite a bit. Currently I have one computer that's running OS X via XPF, a 7500/100 with a 450MHz G4 card, 512MB RAM, 70GB hard drive, ATI Rage 128 video, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and even WiFi. And it all works well enough. 🙂 (Wanna buy it?)

HOWEVER..... Although it runs quite well, OS X is definitely slower than OS 9. The trade-off, of course, is performance for stability. Although OS 9 runs faster, it crashes more often than OS X.