14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has recently launched Firefox 52 and this particular release is one critical moment for Windows XP and Windows Vista, as it’s the last version of the browser offering support for these two old operating systems.
This is the reason Mozilla launched Firefox 52 as an extended support release version, which means that it will continue getting security updates exclusively for another more year, but on the other hand, no new features and improvements are being added.
This decision gives XP and Vista users more time to upgrade their computers or find an alternative browser, though options in this regard are pretty limited right now.
Mozilla Firefox will continue getting updates and improvements on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, and Windows XP and Vista users are recommended to upgrade to any of these versions.
World not yet giving up on Windows XP
Windows XP no longer receives updates since April 2014, while Windows Vista is projected to reach end of support on April 11 this year. This means that no patches are released and software developers are one by one dropping support for these operating systems.
In the case of Windows XP, choosing the right browser becomes kind of a challenge, as Google has already pulled support for the 16-year-old OS in Chrome last year, while Internet Explorer is no longer getting any updates and improvements.
Opera keeps working on Windows XP, while Firefox will continue getting security patches for another 12 months.
On the other hand, third-party statistics show that Windows XP continues to be more popular than anyone expected, with a market share of approximately 8 percent. Windows Vista is substantially less popular, but the existing market share of Windows XP shows the world’s just not ready yet to abandon this OS, despite the fact that Microsoft itself retired it nearly 3 years ago.