Absolute Browser Fiasco

Question

I'm on a Mac 10.11.6 I used to work with TOR and BRAVE. Brave got worse with every update, so I dumped it and changed to Firefox. Now it was TOR's time to hit on me. Automatically updated itself but then telling me this TOR version can't be used wiht my Mac version. So why update then?

I can't update my Mac version because of my Macbook age. I don't buy a new Mac just to be able to use TOR.

I appreciate their work but I disagree with their "Tyrant" attitude to rule over my finances and hardware and what I can and can't do. This shall be MY decision, not anyone's Tech Guru.

Now I downloaded an older version of TOR and been told Firefox Prevents ...something with proxy settings.

As a starter, I never 'Touched' any proxy settings.

Is there anyone who can shed some sensible light on this or am I just set out to life with tyranny or else, die off.

Nice one.

And where is the difference between tyrant governments and 'Supposed to be' technology to keep us safe from tyranny by imposing THEIR tyranny upon us?

If you feel I'm ranting, don't be afraid to put yourself into my position for a moment, it may help understand; Not everybody is financially LOADED to just upgrade every 5 months to more expensive equipment or else be doomed to be dumped. That kinda 'social attitude' is responsible why we are at the point where we are, anyway!

Answer 1

I can sympathize with your frustration, but MacOS 10.11 is extremely old (over five years, which is centuries in computer years) so you should expect that many programs will start breaking when you update them.

The Tor developers simply don't have the resources to maintain a version of their software that works with every arbitrary previous OS release across all platforms. In part this is because Tor Browser is based on Firefox, and Firefox 91 probably won't run on your machine either. But Tor Browser recently updated to V11.0 and so it would be a big security risk to try to run older versions in perpetuity.

If you still want to try getting the old version to run, you can perhaps find out more about your proxy issue by checking the Tor logs (though your issue may just be a consequence of trying to use too-old a version of Tor Browser that is incompatible with current protocols).

In any case, I think your issue is with Apple and their agenda of planned obsolescence, not with Tor.

Answer 2

The OS you're using is old, but - you have to use a source builds: make a VM with a recent FreeBSD or Debian and route it though another VM with Tor - and, yes, it will be a bulletproof-safe solution

Answer 3

I'm in the same boat with 10.11.6 and macbook pro that won't run the latest OSX. Whilst this hardly comes into the realms of 'tyranny' it does fall under the term annoying.

The answer from Alexey about VM and things goes straight over my head. Is it not possible to simply instal the previous version of Tor? I can find no pages for legacy versions.

Cheers all, Nick

edit - reached out to torproject.org who directed me to this download page. reinstalled the older version, switched off auto-updates, sorted: https://archive.torproject.org/tor-package-archive/torbrowser/10.5.1