Some bad news comes for Firefox users who are still running Windows Vista or Windows XP older operating systems. Mozilla just announced that by September 2017 it will end support for Microsoft's legacy operating systems.
Firefox Support on Vista & XP To Be Discontinued
Earlier this year, Mozilla banned the Adobe Flash plug-in from its Firefox internet browser. Now, the company announced a new move that will leave the users of older Microsoft operating systems without support for Firefox.
According to Hot Hardware, Mozilla will begin the phase out period in March of next year when the company will move users on Vista and XP to the Extended Support Release (ESR). This is a special version of the Firefox internet browser that is not updated as frequently.
According to Computerworld, even if the ESR builds are regularly updated with security fixes, they do not receive the new enhancements and features that the standard version does. For approximately a year, Firefox ESR remains feature static and then a new ESR is issued.
After this first phase, Mozilla will continue to provide security updates for the Microsoft's legacy operating systems only until September 2017, when it will completely discontinue its support. Users will receive the security updated without being required to take any additional action. According to a post on company's blog, Mozilla will determine the exact timing of Firefox's retirement from Microsoft's legacy operating systems in the summer of the next year.
Windows Vista & XP Combined Share On OS Market
Currently, according to data collected by Net Applications, Windows Vista, and Windows XP combined account for less than 10 percent of all PCs. The most popular operating system in the world is Windows 7, with more than 47 percent share of the market. On the second place is Windows 10, accounting now for 23.72 percent of all PCs.
Mozilla Firefox is the only internet browser to abandon official support for older Microsoft operating system. Even the latest version of Microsoft own Internet Explorer do not support versions of Windows older than Windows 7. In the same situation is also Google's Chrome internet browser, which stopped supporting Windows Vista and XP earlier this year.
