to the safe 1.8.9 alternatives, or should we look into how to set up to use the real Meteor on old servers?

: Download the ViaFabricPlus mod and place it in your mods folder along with Meteor.

Meteor Client is not just another hacked client. It is a designed for anarchy servers and competitive play. The 1.8.9 version is particularly sought after because:

: A free, performance-enhancing client specifically for 1.8.9.

I should also consider that the user might be looking for a technical document explaining how to verify the authenticity of the downloaded Meteor CLI package. Steps could include visiting the official GitHub repository, checking the release notes for version 1.8.9, downloading the file, computing the SHA-256 hash, comparing it to the provided hash, and then checking the GPG signature against the official Meteor key. Including screenshots or examples would help, but since it's text-only, descriptions of the process would suffice.