Xack

In the last few weeks there has been a lot of concerns about Google's new Web Environment Integrity proposal and its possible effects on web freedom. One particular concern that I don't feel can be addressed is the fact that old versions of Windows (and other unsupported operating systems) are likely to not be certified meaning only "supported" systems will be able to access large amounts of the internet if the proposal is successful. Expect large amounts of sites to use it, including banking websites, paywalled news sites, DRM'd video sites and social networks that could potentially be blocked from being accessed. Since remote attestation will be used and possibly be enforced by TPMs and signed drivers it might be impossible to get say Windows 7 to be certified for a WEI protected site. If you want to be able to continue to browse the web on older operating systems please oppose the proposal for WEI.

They have finally broken binary compatibility in Firefox nightly by using a new compiler and subsystem. Running the extracted firefox.exe just brings up an invalid application error now.

It is currently still trivial to revert the patch from (https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f8db4b5e5d95) to the installer and then compile the installer using ./mach package from a Mozilla build environment (https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/setup/windows_build.html). I now have a working nightly installer again that works on Windows 7.

They just added a kill switch to the installer program, running it provides a message saying you need Windows 10. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1836874 Extracting the latest nightly (2023-07-07) with 7-zip works for now, but there is a permanent yellow triangle in the hamburger menu. It is only a matter of days before the binary compatibility is fully broken once they start compiling with an incompatible compiler or start using new APIs.

Otter Browser, one of the few browsers left for XP, has dropped support as of April 17 2023. It was already based on an old version of QtWebkit and didn't work with Cloudflare.

Steam to drop Windows 7 and 8.1 on January 1st 2024. They say it's because Chromium no longer supports Windows 7. It looks like a lot of Chromium dependent apps will drop support soon. Announcement on Steam's FAQ page.

I feel we have 2 main options. Either have a large protest directed at Google and Mozilla, or focus on improving the extended kernels so there is "day one" support for new versions when official support drops.

Chrome is upping the cpu requirements again for Chrome 89 meaning that many older Windows 7 computers will be affected. Firefox will probably follow suit as well soon meaning older computers will need New Moon’s non sse builds. Since SSE3 is defacto required by Windows 8 anyway this means that a portion of Windows 7 users get dropped before the official dropping of 7 support by Chrome. I feel it is a bad idea dropping cpus during the current cpu shortage.

The FBI is warning about Windows 7. being used to hack into company systems and set up ransomware. Since MSFN provides information about using old operating systems online I think we need to change our security advice. Especially since Windows Update no longer works on many systems. I think older operating systems should now be used offline only or on airgapped local network at most. The situation will only get worse once ESUs expire. The security issue is much bigger now that serious amounts of money is involved.

It's finally happened. The May results show Windows XP is at 0.96%, falling below the 1% milestone. I think Youtube phasing out support was the main driver of this.

We have a scenario where the Windows 7 Edge gets released very near (just over 5 months if they release it now) or after the Windows 7 end of support. Would it make sense for Microsoft support a browser on an OS that they don’t support? Will windows 7 edge be only available to paid support users? If Edge on 7 drops support soon after release would it have been a waste of Microsofts resources?

Microsoft's Security Chief is no longer recommending Internet Explorer They say it is not a browser anymore, only a "compatibility solution". Once Edge is released on Windows 7, Microsoft will probably officially kill off Internet Explorer for consumer use.

Microsoft has announced on their blog that they are making a Chromium based version of Edge and that it's coming to older versions of Windows. How will this affect Windows 7 usage by having a newer browser being supported in its twilight years. And what will become of the EdgeHTML version of Edge and Internet Explorer?

By releasing extended updates for 7 Microsoft is admitting Windows 10 is a failure in the enterprise. Enterprises don’t want to have to deal with telemetry, Candy Crush and forced reboots on mission critical machines. I hope Microsoft gets a clue or we will see Windows 7 usage into the late 2020s.

I do the same but with Virtualbox. One problem is the layers of mouse integration conflicts