Firefox 53: no support for Windows XP or Vista

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 27, 2016
Firefox
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72

Mozilla plans to end mainline support for the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows Vista with the release of Firefox 53 in March 2017.

This means that Firefox 52 will be the last feature update for those operating systems, as Firefox 53 cannot be installed anymore on those operating systems.

Mozilla explicitly mentions installations that it plans to block. It is unclear whether it plans to block execution of portable versions of Firefox as well.

The organization plans to migrate Firefox users on XP or Vista to Firefox ESR automatically however to extend support.

Firefox 53: no support for Windows XP or Vista

Tip: load about: in Firefox's address bar to display the version of the browser installed on your machine.

firefox xp vista end of support

Bug 1305453 on Bugzilla lists the plan to stop stand-alone Firefox 53 and up installers from installing Firefox on XP or Vista machines.

We plan to eol XP/Vista by first moving those users out to ESR 52. Once 52 merges to aurora, we should land changes to the stand alone installer to prevent install by XP and Vista users. Initially there shouldn't be an issue with running but eventually we'll import a system dependency that will break browser startup.

Another bug, bug 1303827, highlights Mozilla's plan to move XP users to Firefox's ESR branch when version 52 gets released. Firefox 51 is therefore the last version of the browser that is not ESR.

We've decided to move Windows XP to the Firefox 52 ESR branch, so that Firefox 51 will be the last mainline version to support the platform.

We still don't have an official EOL date for XP support, but moving the platform to the ESR branch means that we will *not* need to worry about new feature support for XP which is becoming increasingly difficult.

It is unclear as of now for how long XP or Vista will be supported on the ESR channel. Firefox ESR 52 will be supported for quite a while. The new version will become available with the release of Firefox 52 on March 7, 2017, and will be supported until mid 2018.

Firefox users on XP or Vista may use Firefox therefore at least up until that time unless Mozilla decides to remove support for those operating systems from ESR at one point before the release of Firefox ESR 59 (which seems unlikely).

Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 2014, and plans to end support for Windows Vista on April 2017. Windows XP has not received security updates since April 2014, unless you have applied this little tweak to the machine. Google stopped supporting XP and Vista back in Chrome in April 2016 already.

Mozilla Firefox is the last major web browser that supports XP and Vista (when you look at use figures). (via Sören Hentzschel)

Now You: are you affected by the decision?

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Firefox 53: no support for Windows XP or Vista
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Firefox 53: no support for Windows XP or Vista
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Mozilla plans to end support for the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows Vista with the release of Firefox 53 in March 2017.
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Comments

  1. catgurl said on May 30, 2018 at 7:41 am
    Reply

    OMG, so tired of ignorant comments calling WinXP users “stupid” and saying “just upgrade”. FYI, oh uninformed masses, WinXP is STILL the 3rd most popular operating system in the world. Estimates on how many pcs are running it in 2018 range from 9% to 30% of all computers, depending on which website you are looking at (and the vested interests of said websites). Either way, MINIMUM guestimate is at least 2 billion computers worldwide are running this OS. Most of said computers are NOT capable of running Windows 7 or later and most of the users of said computers cannot afford to upgrade them. So money is why people are still using WinXP – not surprisingly, that is also the reason support for WinXP is being dropped. Microsoft and the computer manufacturers make money by getting people to upgrade to newer OS and hardware, so it is in their best interests to stop support for WinXP, and where Microsoft leads everyone else in “Windows world” follows. All the obfuscation about this being better for users and difficulty in continuing support and security patches for WinXP is just doubletalk – this is a money issue, period. I have a WinXP netbook that I love – it currently works perfectly for my needs and I don’t feel like making any multi-billion dollar companies richer by upgrading it. Since Microsoft is no longer supporting my operating system, I make sure to have a wide range of up-to-date anti-malware software installed and to use a sandbox for programs that access the internet (and don’t bother telling me to use Linux – If the programs I need ran on Linux, I would switch to Linux.) As for this OS being “unsecure”, ANY program that accesses the internet is vulnerable – there are always new viruses, bots, exploits and adware appearing. As for Firefox, it used to be so open and flexible – now it’s Firefox Iron Curtain (aka Quantum) – I feel that everything that made Firefox great has been gradually stripped away over the last few years. Firefox developers tell us Quantum is great for users and benefits us – cough, cough, bullsh*t, cough. I think the obnoxious changes are more about making things easier for the developers (NOT the users), and a lot of the changes have simply been long term prep for building in tracking and ads for selling the product – again money, money, money. My big concerns on a browser is that (1) it displays websites properly, doesn’t crash constantly and works smoothly; (2) can be customized the way I like for my use and (3) reasonably protects me from malvertisements, tracking and malware. Over the last few years, the constant Firefox upgrades kept breaking the software and addons, which means it was consistently failing on points 1 and 2, so I finally simply stopped upgrading Firefox BECAUSE I LIKED IT HOW IT ALREADY WAS – the “new and improved” changes were NOT new and improved from the end user viewpoint and in fact were (and are) a HUGE downgrade. I still have an older version of Firefox installed, but mostly use Pale Moon now. Shame on you Firefox developers for taking a great piece of software and ruining it.

    1. jackie said on May 30, 2018 at 8:52 am
      Reply

      Agree. Windows XP users get a lot of insults. I still use it because I like it. I got another laptop with bloated 7 on it. But I make it do all the stressful stuff that XP use to do. All Microsoft needed to do was make a Windows XP Second Edition. Same look, just updated under the hood. But they’re to dumb to realized they had a goldmine in XP.

  2. Ji Ranz said on September 24, 2017 at 2:13 am
    Reply

    I have several PCs running Win7/10 and had migrated to Win 10 Pro but it drove me crazy even with deferred upgrades it sudenly decides to reset all its settings in the middle of a project. After a year I got too frustrated so I restored my retired XPSP3 to find it is clean and fast and stable. It never gives me any trouble. Everything “just works” which is not the case with the later OS. At most I use CCleaner occasionally but do not use an antivirus program. It is connected 24/7 with a hardware firewall and just has never had a problem. I had the lates FF version on Win10 but back on XP I watched it auto update to FF v52 but then found it lost some functionality that was important to me. So I reinstalled an older version 35+ to restore the features I needed. I also turned off the upgrade notification feature in FF so I could keep what worked but Mozilla bombard me with upgrade-now notices telling me it was essential for security purposes that I allow the upgrades and despite my declining to allow this, somehow it still managed to upgrade itself to v43 over my dead body. This is kind of scary. . What security problems? I have not had any so am not convinced the reasons given are accurate and Mozilla want everyone updated with another agenda. In the meantime It looks like Mozilla can monitor what all users versions are installed and have retained a feature in older versions to be able to force upgrades on people like me who do not want them because I am quite happy living with an older OS to retain access to the level of programs it supports. First “they” tagged my cows, my sheep, my dog, now are about to tag my cat. …and soon me? Even my current auto now has a chip that records how I have been driving and at this it can be downloaded by authorities in the event of an accident. But can it also be downloaded tomorrow by new internet technologies? The new web of smart meters they added onto my house one day without my knowledge can record the type and use of every applicance in my home through its energy signature down to telling the movies I watch on the internet on my new FF browser in my new Windows OS which our beneficial providers of free services kindly upgraded me to …without my desire, knowledge or permission…. I am not happy knowing that FF will be changed to alter my lifestyle.

  3. Deb Normand said on September 10, 2017 at 6:06 am
    Reply

    This is so unfair because it comes down to money and profit. Whatever browser you’re using works in tandem with computer companies to force consumers to purchase new pc’s, laptops, phones, etc. when they end support.

    I don’t care about all this techno-babble regarding what works and what won’t. I care that my pc will no longer be protected or upgraded by my browser because I’m in a position that I cannot afford to purchase a new PC or laptop and even if I could I would never install Windows 10. The US government was given a legitimate back door into every PC loaded with W10 by Microsoft and Bill Gates. The user has absolutely no privacy, period. It’s just more control and every idiot in America fell for it, it seems.

    Without the ability to get work I’m stuck with a 10 yr old PC that I will use as long as possible. I just replaced the power supply last year.

    21 years ago when personal PC’s were available mainstream it was heaven. Everything was free and there were no worries about privacy, viruses or malware. The ugly money-grubbing greedy people and corporations of the computer industry changed everything for the worst. They were going to get their pound of flesh from every computer user regardless.

    I guess one day I will no longer have a computer of any kind because I refuse to buy into this evil.

  4. Ian said on August 4, 2017 at 5:34 am
    Reply

    One can leave feedback to Mozilla by opening the hamburger menu, clicking “Open Help Menu,” and then “Submit Feedback…” and request that support for Windows Vista will continue beyond September 2017.

  5. Paulus said on April 30, 2017 at 1:27 pm
    Reply

    There is no logical, intelligent reason to PROACTIVELY block support for any operating system or version, when the product otherwise runs fine on them. More compatibility is always a win situation for a larger number of people, and ultimately for the Firefox market share as stated above.

    It’s understandable to dump customer support for older operating systems on the paper while letting whomever wants to run Firefox on them to do so at their own risk, but not to actually put code on Firefox to PROACTIVELY block it on said operating systems.

    There are a few possible explanations for such an awkward decision, dirty money gloves from a certain billionaire company among them, but none of them will ever be logical or intelligent from a global, informed perspective. Forcing people to do things against their will never is.

    That tells us a lot about those currently making such decisions at Mozilla, and why the once favourite browser has been consistently losing ground to the competition.

    The market niche for an alternative, lightweight browser that works like people WANT is once again open – time to switch.

  6. L4z4 said on April 17, 2017 at 6:55 pm
    Reply

    I use XP and just installed Firefox 52 which works ok. I’ll stay on XP till I can because I love it. It’s easy, colorful and fast, a really friendly OS. Win7 is too cold, unfriendly, too office styled for me and the later “windows” systems are even worse.
    I hope I can use it for a long time more. Unfortunatelly Opera is not an alternative for a Firefox user because it’s too different, not convenient to use. It’s full of unnecessary features and lacks more useful features that Firefox has it. Opera is for enthusiasts who write scripts and macros to make comfortable the browser and not for the common people. We can say, Opera is the Linux of the browsers. :)

  7. Stern Daler said on April 9, 2017 at 3:09 pm
    Reply

    The point is that supporting XP means security updates and compiler support that costs money.
    I see however no point in joining the hype. XP gets security updates potentially until 2019.
    They are not tested with PC hardware. That is all. People with a legacy XP OS have to live with that limitation and do proper back-up. Before they apply these untested fixes. Vista owners can possibly downgrade. I did.

    I see no problem with conditionally program flags that prevent compilation of features into the FF when legacy OS 32 bit XP or Vista is chosen as target. The OS and hardware prevent using certain features but why break the rest?

    Some people simply cannot afford to update to new hardware and OS. Info is needed in a democracy for political participation. And HE said what You do to my least brothers You do to me.

  8. J. said on April 9, 2017 at 11:11 am
    Reply

    I wish that someone would come to his or her senses and simply make all of Microsoft operating systems compatible with one another. In other words, simply allow all of the operating systems to work and coexist with one another. By doing so, XP and Vista users could continue to use the operating systems and Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 could also continue using the operating systems.

    What is the point of discontinuing operating systems? What difference does it truly make if one uses XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10? Why should users be required to upgrade to the latest released Microsoft operating system?

  9. Bob Wiley said on April 5, 2017 at 2:56 pm
    Reply

    I just wish that Mozilla would give a more definitive date for when XP (and Vista) support ends for Firefox. One official release from Mozilla says that we should consider September 2017 as the end of support date for XP and Vista, while their Rapid Release Calendar says that Firefox version 52 will still be receiving updates next January, and possibly longer.

    I think we XP (and Vista) users should all be given a more definite date, such as: “Definitely September, but do not know what date in September yet (undecided). XP and Vista users will NOT be receiving any more security updates after September.”

    We need a statement like this.

  10. indiana said on March 18, 2017 at 3:03 am
    Reply

    XP’s screen and font is much better for building an HTPC You can’t customize the font and screen as well in any OS after XP.. I am currently running XP on my HTPC. I guess I won’t have a working browser after a while.

  11. Marc said on March 9, 2017 at 5:55 pm
    Reply

    My 10 year old computer with XP SP3 still runs faster and better than my new laptop with Windows 10. I have never had any problems during these 10 years while using XP. I don’t have any antivirus software installed and never got any security problems, Why suffer everyday antivirus softwares troubles that are worse than throubles caused by an eventual virus you may get with a 1 over 1000000 chance? (I only surf on scientific and educational like websites, NEVER play or surf on games, music, moovies etc. garbage sites). I only scan and clean my computer with Advanced System Care from iobit, and my computer still run like a Swiss watch!
    I don’t like at all Windows 7 and above versions. I will keep my old XP computer until I am unable to repair it when it will fail, maybe near the years 2045, if I don’t fail myself before, or I will buy a MAC sooner.

    1. MK said on March 13, 2017 at 2:02 pm
      Reply

      My thoughts exactly. I’m not stupid or foolish to be still using XP. I have tried every one of the new OS and none of them are worth the trouble – none of them worked properly. I’ve spent a lot of time helping other friends who continually have problems with their “updated” systems. I hate it and now refuse to do it for them anymore. My laptop is 11 years old as well and runs like a top. I’ve had 3 NEW laptops since Win 7 and every one of them died – cheap modern junk with crappy keyboards. I prize my Gateway M460e and I’ll continue to use it because it never gives me trouble and it’s a joy to use. I don’t have anti-virus installed either – never had a need for it and haven’t been infected by anything because I don’t go to iffy web sites, play games or other crap. I use my laptop to research and study; I couldn’t care less about games and the like. The chances of being compromised because it’s an “old” system get less and less every day. Hackers will go after the newer systems before they go after old ones. XP’s simple, clean, easy to use – no cluttered desktops or deeply buried features that require multiple clicks to find. I’ll stay with it as long as I can – after that I’ll just stop using the internet entirely. The biggest failing is not taking into account the needs of the average person; this catering to geeks who like to do nothing more than to spend their days “developing” largely unnecessary stuff that gives the rest of us headaches. I’ve been using computers for decades – my first system was the IBM personal computer. I’ve never had to go running for help. I learned to take care of things myself. I will not be driven to market, it’s as simple as that.

      1. jackie said on March 14, 2017 at 8:31 am
        Reply

        That’s great. I’m glad I’m not the only XP user out there. People just don’t get it. We just like how XP works. It’s fast and simple. Some people just don’t need all that extra glitz. And I also have a Gateway computer. Maybe they were made better back then. Nowadays you can’t even customized a computer when you buy it. They took that away too. No virus protection for me either all these years. I have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software but I never turn it on. Firefox is just being lazy. They got big headed and want to join Google,IE and the other big shots. I knew they were changing. Soon they’ll drop the add-ons. The nowadays games are silly. The games from the XP era are better. Everything is hyped up nowadays. XP Forever.

    2. jackie said on March 9, 2017 at 6:24 pm
      Reply

      Wow, that’s great. My laptop XP is going to be 11 this year. I got a backup laptop when this one dies. So I hope to use XP longer too. And yes I hate 7 too. Some XP users don’t have any alternative OS to use. Microsoft should have made a Windows XP Second Edition. But they won’t. So we just have to hope our XP can stay around for us. And I never get any troubles. Except sinking Firefox seems like it’s getting slow and bloated. I bet they made it work slow on XP on purpose. I’ll just have to find another browser. Traitors.

  12. Stern Daler said on October 24, 2016 at 10:10 pm
    Reply

    TLS 1.3 is draft as of 23.10.2016. https://tlswg.github.io/tls13-spec/

  13. Josh Taylor said on October 24, 2016 at 8:53 pm
    Reply

    There’s another reason for that.

    Because the secured web is transitioning to TLS 1.3. 1.3 is only compatible with Win7 and higher

  14. Yuhong Bao said on October 1, 2016 at 4:02 am
    Reply

    From https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1303827#c1 :
    “Note that the above plan is tentative until fully approved by our leadership team.”

  15. Stern Daler said on October 1, 2016 at 3:43 am
    Reply

    Migrating from XP to newer OS? I do not see reason for so called security updates when this facilitates “NSA insecurity”. Since DOS 6/Win 3.1/plus32 bit extensions MS lives well from crippling so called legacy OS support in a way that IMHO amounts to computer sabotage. Novell won millions from MS because it was. With usable XP for embedded systems updates available until 2019 this is IMHO more public than ever. Mozilla joins this custom when saying “Once 52 merges to aurora, we should land changes to the stand alone installer to prevent install by XP and Vista users. Initially there shouldn’t be an issue with running but eventually we’ll import a system dependency that will break browser startup.” I can understand when You stop support because no compiler is available that supports the old and new OS/Mozilla version with too much extra work – that is economics & inevitable – but sabotage I consider a criminal act.

  16. George said on September 29, 2016 at 9:41 am
    Reply

    Browsers with updating actual near Stable Chromium core versions with repack of actual Chromium core for support XP and Vista are: stable Beta and Stable Yandex browser, SlimJet and some Chinese browsers.
    Extended support with updates for XP Embedded (many people know how to recieve this updates for XP non-Emdedded and fresh certificates) is actual upto April 2019.
    Reason why some browthers’ developers don’t want support XP and Vista is migration of some of them to Visual Studio 2015. And possible Google’s position like one of money-sponsors for Mozilla FF. Google is interested in limits for new soft for sale new devices. Also Google don’t want support Chrome for Linux x32 without reasons in programming. But You can lose market quote about 5% of all-browsers world internet users. This market quote is more important than some difficulties.
    I use Chromium-based browser but looking and waiting for development realy quick FF’s API and e10s to nearest time for quick OS XP for about 3 nearest years. Later time will talk.

  17. Atom/XP said on September 28, 2016 at 10:18 am
    Reply

    Halo Herr Brinkmann, PM has a specific Atom/XP build.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on September 28, 2016 at 10:27 am
      Reply

      I know. Support for it will end with the release of Pale Moon 27.

  18. A41202813GMAIL said on September 28, 2016 at 4:59 am
    Reply

    Lots Of Other Browsers Out There.

    XPOCALYPSE FOREVER !

  19. Jack Alexander said on September 28, 2016 at 3:30 am
    Reply

    In one word: Palemoon

    1. Kuromi said on October 2, 2016 at 10:14 pm
      Reply

      Palemoon uses Firefox codebase, with some adjustments ofc. If Mozilla land some significant changes preventing browser to work on XP Palemoon devs will not have enough resouces to keep XP support alive. They may keep it for some time but soon enough…

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on September 28, 2016 at 6:55 am
      Reply
  20. mikef90000 said on September 28, 2016 at 2:23 am
    Reply

    Even though I still have WinXP running, I use it for a few non-network, non-gaming apps. Firefox v52 ESR should work for those rare times that web browser use is needed.
    Therefore, removing some more cruft from the Firefox base is a good thing. Time to keep moving on ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,…… to Linux and Xfce. The classic desktop is not dead, it is much better!

    1. Kuromi said on October 2, 2016 at 10:17 pm
      Reply

      Well, XFCE is good choice. Its not as much bloated and shiny as KDE or Gnome, its have some classic flavor too. Yet, if you have really not-so-powerful machine maybe LXDE is better choice as its significantly lighter then even XFCE.

  21. Gunnir said on September 28, 2016 at 1:50 am
    Reply

    It is time to write our own browser or at least use Palemoon…

  22. FireFag said on September 27, 2016 at 10:51 pm
    Reply

    @Fx0 You are stupid.

    Browsers don’t have to run on the recent OS only.

    Mozilla is a crappy Corporation.

  23. Tim said on September 27, 2016 at 10:05 pm
    Reply

    Switching to Linux is difficult and W10 is buggy among many other things so I’ll keep my outdated Firefox until I find an appropriate OS.

  24. Sebby said on September 27, 2016 at 9:44 pm
    Reply

    The reason people are getting itchy is that it’s a statement of intent by Mozilla, which held out for XP users–of which I am one–the longest, and apparently seems to be following the “Too much hassle” line of argument that everybody else did.

    Guess we can finally say it now then: RIP, XP.

    Yes. I prefer XP to 7 (the next hanger-on OS). I use macOS primarily, or Windows 8.1 plus Classic Shell for my Windows needs, but still find XP to be the “Optimal” Windows experience, and resent all that has gone afterwards. If you don’t agree, that’s cool, but at least have the good grace to recognise that some people simply don’t see any point in anything subsequent. When security and under-the-hood changes are your only justifications to upgrade, and everything else (privacy now too) are strong enough reasons not too, it’s completely understandable that you’d want what you know works to keep working, and for the justifications to stop supporting it to be clear and meritorious. Mozilla’s politics of late certainly gives me a less than optimistic outlook on their real intentions, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, because they are supporting my XP VMs until 2018. Thanks for that, Mozzy.

  25. Anonymous said on September 27, 2016 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    In 2018 when Firefox will get only 3% on the market-share probably Mozilla will no longer be able to maintain the ESR branch, to maintain it for what?… I only hope at the approach of its own death FF will continue to satisfy many people, no matter where they are on our planet, as our dearly missed Windows XP, which should not be ashamed contrary to its buggy little brother which already generates so much hatred. Abandon someone in its old age as XP, so cherished in the past for many reasons, from Mozilla that will be one more betrayal, a decision more or less inevitable I can understand ok, but not as others. Vista?

  26. Jason said on September 27, 2016 at 3:50 pm
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    XP is far enough beyond EOL that I would now say it’s for hobbyists only. If you want to keep using it, you should learn to write your own code instead of expecting others to offer you support (See also: Commodore 64).

    As for Vista, it is officially EOL next April I think, and it won’t have nearly as many people holding out for it as happened with XP. So I don’t see any problem with Mozilla cutting off support here, either.

    1. Ben said on September 27, 2016 at 8:19 pm
      Reply

      > If you want to keep using it, you should learn to write your own code instead of expecting others to offer you support
      I don’t expect support but I expect to not actively blocking people who have XP for no good reason whatsoever.
      If someone wants XP support then you can say no of course.

      1. Jason said on September 27, 2016 at 8:32 pm
        Reply

        There are good reasons for actively blocking installation. For example:
        -Protection of Firefox’s brand reputation
        -Protection of users who don’t understand that a dead OS is inherently insecure
        -Protection of other users who are put at risk because some of their contacts still use a dead OS.

        I usually dislike active blocking too, but in this case it makes sense to me.

    2. Parker Lewis said on September 27, 2016 at 5:01 pm
      Reply

      To be honest, a bunch of people are still using XP in China.

      The reason may be money and lack of technical ability, or it may be political, I don’t know, but I vote money. (Not willing to buy new computers, not able to change OS)

      1. qi benyu said on May 4, 2017 at 2:46 pm
        Reply

        chinese are using 360, and sogou, both based on chromium. theyre able to get chromium 50 to work on xp, and i think theyre the only ones in the world able to do that

      2. Jason said on September 27, 2016 at 6:49 pm
        Reply

        Oh, yeah, I agree with you, Parker. I imagine you could also find similar XP usage figures in the rest of what we confusingly now call the “developing world”. Even in the “developed” countries (again, stupid terminology), there are still plenty of XP holdouts who are playing with fire….

      3. Parker Lewis said on September 27, 2016 at 6:02 pm
        Reply

        It’s mostly 50% IE/Edge and 50% Chrome when it comes to users.
        When it comes to internet usage it’s 55% Chrome, 18% IE, 8% Firefox, and there’s nothing else above 7%.

        Yet internet usage for XP is 23% in China and that number is not decreasing very fast anymore. I guess it means that millions of people there are using outdated versions of Chrome or IE.

        Most likely, the Chinese have more urgent shit to deal with than personal computer security. In any case China is indeed not an argument for “Firefox should keep supporting XP beyond 2019”. I just wanted to show that XP is still used all over the place like an old car that pollutes like a thousand farting cows.

      4. Pierre said on September 27, 2016 at 5:18 pm
        Reply

        No pb, they have they own browsers, I guess they will support the systems they use…

  27. Tod said on September 27, 2016 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    I’ll be glad when all browsers stop supporting Windows versions before Windows 8.1. They are so full of security holes even a newbie hacker can get into them.

    1. Leifi Plomeros said on October 24, 2016 at 11:09 pm
      Reply

      Can you give an example how it would be done? You know the ip address of the target who’s behind a nat router on winxp. What’s the first step? Genuinely interested.

  28. Anonymous said on September 27, 2016 at 3:39 pm
    Reply

    I’ll be glad when all browsers stop supporting those older Windows versions. They are so full of security holes even a newbie hacker can get into them.

  29. kalmly said on September 27, 2016 at 3:18 pm
    Reply

    Yes. As I recall, Opera was first to abandon XP. I’ve moved on to WIN 7, but still have/use my XP computer, and I still prefer it. By comparison, Win 7 is stubborn, less customizable, and glitchy. I won’t move on to any OS that locks my system into MS’s preferences and allows me little to no control. For years Microsoft has been pushing people into the cloud and convincing them it is a good thing. I always thought it was a money thing. I’ve never seen an advantage for the average computer user or small business to use online applications. People worry about privacy and worry about the vulnerability of an “unsupported” OS, but they’ve been conditioned to be unconcerned about doing all their work in a browser? Trusting all their documents to the cloud? How secure is that? I guess the angels take care of them.

    When all the browsers stop supporting WIN7 (and XP), I know I will need something to give me access to the internet, so I can research, and email, and such, but it probably won’t utilize a Microsoft OS.

  30. pierre said on September 27, 2016 at 2:27 pm
    Reply
  31. neal said on September 27, 2016 at 12:34 pm
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    This is all speculation on my part, but it is probably a question about quality control and resources. Google for example already cut support for many still officially supported LTS linux distributions, even though they are still technically modern b/c their market share is minuscule. Vista has less than 1 percent market share, and Vista Firefox users are probably even smaller percentage and number, so I am not surprised they cut support for it.

    As for XP, if you take a cursory glance at Bugzilla there are a lot of OS version specific bugs. XP is also a quite a different beast than later Windows versions so it is even more technical drain. So I can understand why they would want to cut support for that OS, it isn’t officially supported for consumers anymore anyways and it requires a lot of resources to troubleshoot and holds back Mozilla technically in many ways.

    There is/was a lot of XP specific code written and maintained. The only reason why it was supported until now b/c XP remains popular, but even that is shrinking quite dramatically even in developing nations. I was in Vietnam, and they moved on to pirate Windows 10, and Windows 7 was still quite popular and largely replaced Windows XP a while ago.

    Don’t be surprised when the same thing happens to Windows 8, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the major browsers ends its support early. It did even worse than Vista in reception and adoption.

  32. Ben said on September 27, 2016 at 10:28 am
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    Is there any proof that there are features that W7 has but XP/Vista does not? Abi/api wise for FF.
    I assume you can run FF 53, 54, 55, … perfectly fine on XP when you patch out their block.

    1. Parker Lewis said on September 27, 2016 at 11:25 am
      Reply

      My guess would be that things would become similar to Flash 11.2 and Linux. It would slowly start to become unstable, some features would not work, etc.

      If I was using XP and not planning to change, I would let Mozilla update me to ESR and keep rolling until mid 2018, at which point I would either switch OS or find a Firefox fork that claims to support XP.

      Wanting to keep your browser always up-to-date while purposely staying on an OS released 15 years ago is an interesting stance. I wonder what’s the basis for it nowadays. (Note: Judgemental mindsets are foreign to me)

      1. Kuromi said on October 2, 2016 at 10:10 pm
        Reply

        I cannot say Linux is good example here. “It would slowly start to become unstable, some features would not work, etc.”
        There is indeed some lack of interests into bringing new features tied to hardware acceleration on that platform as speedy as they do on Windows, mostly because Windows is majority but overall support is comparable. Yes, there is some delays, but nothing like abandoned platform.

  33. Chris said on September 27, 2016 at 9:59 am
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    This article is missing a key piece of information: WHY is support for XP and Vista being removed?

    Without that information, this article contains no more information than is available from many other sources.

    1. Fx0 said on September 27, 2016 at 10:18 am
      Reply

      it’s not missing, there is a quote:

      > “We still don’t have an official EOL date for XP support, but moving the platform to the ESR branch means that we will *not* need to worry about new feature support for XP which is becoming increasingly difficult.”

  34. vosie said on September 27, 2016 at 8:18 am
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    Another retarded decision from Mozilla.

    I use Windows XP SP3. If they stop supporting it, I hope Firefox’s marketshare will further decrease.

    1. jackie said on March 9, 2017 at 12:38 pm
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      Agree. Firefox is just helping Microsoft out. I use XP too. And I don’t care how old it s. They want to be like Chrome. Firefox sucks now.

    2. Roberto G. said on October 31, 2016 at 1:06 pm
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      Indeed.

    3. Teo said on October 27, 2016 at 4:02 pm
      Reply

      Another idiot comment on the net

    4. Kuromi said on October 2, 2016 at 10:05 pm
      Reply

      Its kinda sad, but not retarded decision. First, they have limited resources and cannot endlessly drag old platforms. They actually supported WinXP LONGER then its vendor, MS. Second, as OS is evolves, some code changes. They either stick on old features works on old and current OS releases, support different code paths to get best from all releases (some features not works on old OSes) or drop support for old release. Mozilla can support legacy OS for some time, even for long time, but at some point they have to chose will they prefer new features or legacy support. Its sad, but time come fro WinXP, as it was not long ago with old MacOSX releases.

    5. John said on September 27, 2016 at 12:11 pm
      Reply

      Move to Windows 7 or 10 and stop putting your head in the sand, cos it leaves your behind up in the air with all risks to it. There are very good reasons to move to those OS’s. Yeah, you have to put some privacy tools to good use to block the “phone home” but that’s peanuts.

      1. scorpioblack said on October 1, 2016 at 1:55 am
        Reply

        @vosie

        Really dude, you sound like a trolling little kid. You can stick with FF 52 for awhile but eventually websites won’t render properly and all you’ll see is a jagged mess in a few months. Even Pale Moon got wise and has has dropped support for XP, and they have an even smaller marketshare than Firefox does.

        I don’t like Win10 either and plan on sticking with 7 and 8.1, so I have a few years to decide where I’m going to head to after that. You on the other hand have run out of time.

      2. vosie said on September 28, 2016 at 8:16 am
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        That’s the problem with people, they can be deceived by the media hype to update.

        There are no reasons to upgrade to newer Windows, except if one wants the latest games / programs. Otherwise the older system still works perfectly. It’s planned obsolescence from Microsoft that they purposely make older Windows incompatible with new games / programs. Even the latest games and programs could work perfectly on Windows XP if Microsoft updated it with the new features. In the past era (XP – Win 8.1), they did this to sell new OSes every few years. They recognized that selling OSes every few years won’t work on the long run, so they took the business concept of mobile platform (especially Android) and created Windows 10 and they offer it as a service instead of a product so they have constant income. Therefore they purposely don’t develop any tech for older Windows than 10. For example they purposely didn’t make DicrectX 12 compatible with Windows versions earlier than 10. They do this because they want to force people to upgrade to Windows 10.

        But Windows XP still works perfectly. Maybe I will install Windows 7 or 8.1 with ClassicShell if I will want to play Dirt Rally (it requires at least Win7) and if I will have time. Because it is a lot of work to configure any Windows newer than XP, because since Vista, Windows systems come with A LOT of bloatware, unnecessary services, bad system and UI changes, …

    6. Fx0 said on September 27, 2016 at 9:05 am
      Reply

      > Another retarded decision from Mozilla.

      Nope, the opposite is the case. It’s great for all people who are not so stupid to still use the outdated Windows XP. All other people benefit from this decision.

      > If they stop supporting it, I hope Firefox’s marketshare will further decrease

      This statement makes absolutely no sense because Firefox is already the last browser with Windows XP support. So you should thank God that you can still use Firefox. If this would be a reason to hope that the marketshare will decrease then the marketshare of _all_ browsers has to decrease and that’s not possible.

      1. Jacob said on March 18, 2017 at 1:03 am
        Reply

        > Nope, the opposite is the case. It’s great for all people who are not so stupid to still use the outdated Windows XP. All other people benefit from this decision.

        You assume it’s a hassle to maintain XP when it may not be the case. You also assume that XP has no purpose, today. Lastly, you assume that someone running XP does not also own newer machines.

        It’s interesting that Mozilla has not told older 32 bit Linux users to take a hike. Shouldn’t it be just as hard to maintain those old systems?

      2. overconscious said on December 17, 2016 at 12:24 pm
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        Opera still supports Windows XP: https://get.geo.opera.com/ftp/pub/opera-winxpvista/

        and is still receiving security updates.

        Download Opera_winxpvista_36.0.2130.80_Setup.exe and have fun.

      3. Anonymouse said on September 27, 2016 at 6:21 pm
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        Opera still supports XP SP1 and later.

      4. Parker Lewis said on September 27, 2016 at 4:45 pm
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        @Vosie

        But that reasoning essentially amounts to say that strength makes right. Google is right because they’re strong, and Mozilla is wrong.

        But if you reason ethically, who is more respectable now ?

        I don’t know what Mozilla will do about e10s in Firefox 52 ESR, but the architecture will be more mature and tested than in 45 by then, so perhaps there will not be a hard block ? I guess we’ll see.

        Purely strategically speaking, I’m not going to take a stance since I don’t have a clear view of the Windows XP Firefox user base. But there are other concerns such as security, for instance SHA-1 being insecure and no alternative being available to XP:
        http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32288.windows-enforcement-of-authenticode-code-signing-and-timestamping.aspx
        https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/10/19/one-million-ssl-certificates-still-using-insecure-sha-1-algorithm.html

        How much longer should XP browser support last, in your opinion ?

        The OS will have been abandoned by Microsoft for 4 years by the time Firefox drops it.

      5. hirobo said on September 27, 2016 at 3:11 pm
        Reply

        I dual boot XP and Win7 with XP as my main work OS. I’m not affected by this decision b/c FireFox 52 will continue to work for a few more years, after which point I can always log into my Win7 partition to install versions beyond 52.

      6. vosie said on September 27, 2016 at 12:51 pm
        Reply

        @Parker Lewis

        Chrome can get away with dropping XP support, but it will hurt Mozilla more, because many XP users who used other browsers switched to Firefox because of the support.

        As for me, I will not switch to another browser. I will stay with the latest working Firefox. But I will be glad to see the decrease of Firefox’s market share.

        Mozilla blocked E10S in the Firefox 45 ESR channel (it’s another dumb decision from the developers), so you can’t force enable multiprocess in about:config.

        https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1252338

        It’s a big problem if they still keep the E10S blocking on Firefox 52 ESR.

      7. Parker Lewis said on September 27, 2016 at 10:37 am
        Reply

        @Vosie

        Did you read the article ? Firefox is the last major browser to support Windows XP. And it will support it until mid 2018, that’s two years from now.

        Chrome dropped support in April 2016. What about Chromium based browsers, on which a bunch of non-major browsers are based ?

        You’re free to find out a browser that will support XP in 2018. But if Chromium is like Chrome, I’m guessing you may end up using….a Firefox fork ;)

        According to the article, you’re basically hoping for the browser that has been most keen to support your favorite OS to die. I never get tired of footgun reasoning :D

      8. Fx0 said on September 27, 2016 at 10:18 am
        Reply

        lol okay, you seems to be trolling kid. Have fun with Windows XP.

      9. vosie said on September 27, 2016 at 10:02 am
        Reply

        Nobody benefits from this decision. Not all people so stupid to use newer version of Windows because of hype if the older version works perfectly.

        You have no common sense. Firefox is already losing market share because Mozilla’s stupid decisions. So Mozilla deserve it. While other browsers can get away with dropping XP support, it will hurt Mozilla more. So your statements make no sense.

  35. wonton said on September 27, 2016 at 7:10 am
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    There are code changes in the browser that will prevent firefox.exe running this is on top of Mozilla eol for vista | xp so regardless if you unpack the installer with 7zip the browser won’t run but firefox esr will as it won’t have that change until the next esr cycle where xp and vista users will have to use internet explorer

    1. love said on September 5, 2017 at 10:54 am
      Reply

      thank you very

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