Can I get a 'modern' browser for Mac OS X (10.7.5) without upgrading to OS X El Capitan?

I am using Safari (6.1.6) for all my web use but certain sites I use often are telling me my browser is out of date. I gather Safari cannot be upgraded to a more modern status.

Having read the often less than complimentary reviews of 'El Capitan' which I assume would be the next logical step, I wonder if I can keep my OS X version but use another more up to date browser.

You can currently use Chrome, the world's most popular browser, but not for long. Google are dropping support for OS X versions before 10.9 from April of this year. A Chrome version you download now will keep working, of course, but it won't get updates.

However, it's unsafe to use the Internet from OS X 10.7.5, regardless of which browser you use. It's not received any security updates for years, so it's full of unpatched known vulnerabilities.

I find the website Cross Browser Testing really useful. It give a matrix of operating systems and browsers and you can see which ones are supported.

For example you can click on 10.7 under the Mac OS X heading and then choose Safari in the browsers section and see that Safari 6 is the only version supported.

However, if you select just 10.7 you can see that there is a lot more versions available for Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

As the other answers suggest, I would be very careful running outdated software as they do have known security vulnerabilities. Have a look at the CVE Database for current known vulnerabilities for your software.

The Opera web browser is still up-to-date. It's what I'm using as my MacBook can't run anything newer than OS 10.7.5.

Lion browser support

As of this writing, no major browsers support Lion. Chrome supported Lion until April of 2016 while Firefox supported it until August 2016. The default Safari browser hasn't been updated since 2014. Opera is built on Chrome's Chromium webkit engine so Opera support was also cut around the same time as Chrome.

Though there are "security risks" with using Lion to browse the net, I haven't had any problems. The main concern is when websites no longer support these older browsers. However, there are a few years before that will happen. Generally, software support for Lion is becoming scarce and an alternative solution will soon be necessary.

Alternative solutions

Aside from trying to install a newer version of OS X on an unsupported Mac (don't try it; it doesn't work very well on machines dropped with Lion), the best solution is to install an alternative operating system. Linux operating systems support the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome. Another alternative is installing Windows. Officially, the maximum Windows OS supported on MacBooks is Windows 7 x86 but I've been able to run Windows 10 x64 with a couple glitches. Two finger scrolling doesn't work and the function keys don't have the normal functions in OS X. The display brightness also can't be changed. If you don't want to pirate Windows, a digital license key can be purchased on eBay for under $10. I also highly recommend spending $10 and upgrading to 4GB of RAM to avoid using SWAP memory.

Why were many of the A1181 MacBooks dropped at Lion?

Many of the A1181 MacBooks were stuck with Lion. It's a shame Apple didn't bother rewriting x64 drivers for the graphic processors in those models as the graphic card is the only factor keeping these models from the newer operating systems. I'm a third-hand owner of MacBook 4,1 (early 2008).

A note to Apple

Please stop releasing operating systems every year and indirectly forcing users to upgrade to a new computer every few years. The new features I'll never use don't compensate for the premature loss of software support.