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Pages do seem to load more quickly than in Firefox, and Chromium does a (relatively) better job of playing with native Mac features, like Applescripts and custom keyboard shortcuts. And I have to admit, Chromium really is just a damn good browser. I have it working in Mavericks now via some code injection, and I've officially switched to it as the one browser installed on my computer. Complicating matters, I strongly dislike keeping more than one web browser installed at a time, because I'll sometimes forget which browser I'm in, and it gets confusing.Įnter Chromium Legacy, by the fantastic Bluebox. Up until now, I've been using VMWare for Slack and Teams calls, but waiting for VMs to start up is annoying, and the whole thing is a tad too error-prone in a professional setting. And for better or worse, this can only be done in Google Chrome and its derivatives. I am very much trying to make Mavericks work for every computing task in my life, and that means answering work calls in Slack and Microsoft Teams.
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Unfortunately, the web is increasingly a Chromium-only domain.
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Back when I used modern versions of macOS, I used Safari, and when I decided to downgrade all of the computers in my life to OS X 10.9 a year ago, I switched to Firefox. I don't like Google's dominance over the web, and besides, there are two other excellent, mainstream browser engines. Themes designed by artists (opens in new tab) are more variable in quality, but give you a lot more choice, and many include custom backgrounds for new tabs.I know we already have a thread for Early Intel Mac web browsers, but frankly I think this one deserves its own thread. The High Contrast theme is particularly useful, making tabs stand out more clearly for anyone who struggles to differentiate between subtle shades. Themes designed by Google (opens in new tab) are tasteful and will give your browser a makeover by changing its standard design to something more vibrant. Thankfully, you can narrow them down using the options on the left, which let you choose between themes created by Google and third parties, and by star rating. You'll find themes in the Chrome Web Store (opens in new tab), and there's an overwhelming number to choose from.
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Not all themes are free, but the vast majority are. There are also collections based on topics such as space exploration (opens in new tab), forest scenes (opens in new tab), and options created by famous fashion designers (opens in new tab). Google is busy refining its own site and Chrome's dark mode in preparation for the release of Android 13, but there's no need to wait for that because Google has already been compiling dark themes (opens in new tab) into one handy collection.
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