14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP reached end of support in April 2014, but the world’s still loving it, and approximately 10 percent of users keep running this particular operating system even though the risk of getting hacked without any patched flaws and updates from Microsoft is rising every day.
At the same time, developers are one by one giving up on Windows XP, and the latest to do so is Mozilla, which has recently announced that Firefox would no longer work on unsupported Windows versions after September 2017.
Firefox 52 will be the latest version supporting Windows XP and Windows Vista in full, while Mozilla will continue rolling out security updates, but no new features.
“Firefox is one of the only browsers to offer any support for Windows XP and Vista,” Mozilla said in an announcement. Google has also announced end of support for Chrome on Windows XP, and Microsoft is no longer providing updates to Internet Explorer for this particular OS version.
“Microsoft itself ended support for Windows XP in 2014 and will end support for Windows Vista in 2017. Unsupported operating systems receive no security updates, have known exploits, and can be dangerous to use, which makes it difficult to maintain Firefox on those versions. Firefox security updates for XP and Vista users will continue until September 2017, although new features will not be offered,” Mozilla continued.
Possible extension to the September 2017 deadline
And yet, there’s still hope that Mozilla would continue providing security updates for Firefox on Windows XP and Vista beyond September 2017.
The company said in a statement that it would look into Windows XP usage numbers in mid-2017 to finally commit to an official end-of-support date, so depending on how many users will be running Firefox on Windows XP at that time, the firm might decide to pull the plug on or extend updates for this old OS version.
For the moment, given the fact that Windows XP is no longer getting updates, it’s better to consider updating to a new Windows version because the more time you spend on this platform, the fewer apps you’ll have to install.