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Firefox XP support will shift to ESR 52, drop in mainline past 51


mixit

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Chris Cooper, Release Engineering Manager at Mozilla, states:

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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.

Edit: FF 52 is currently scheduled to be released on March 7, 2016.

 

Edited by mixit
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I wouldn't worry too much about this. It's important to note the wording "support", which is quite different than "won't work".

After all, we have had ways of running unsupported versions of Firefox on Windows 95 (only 1.x was officially supported) and 2000 (was dropped at 12, but it is possible to run later versions). 

How to run Mozilla Firefox 2.0 on Windows 95

Firefox 13+ in Windows 2000 (forums are currently offline for maintenance, so I have posted the cached version- the original link is http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=2482475)

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Right now more than 9% of internet connected users still remain on Windows XP and just barely over 1% of internet connected users are on Windows Vista. Extended Support for Windows Vista ends on 11 April 2017.

Firefox 52 is already in nightly testing right now and if the bug was marked RESOLVED FIXED, Firefox 51 (which would be supported until 7 March 2017) would be the last mainline version. Firefox 52 ESR EOL would be sometime in April 2018.

Mozilla still has more than 100 Windows XP test machines in production. While adding new features to Windows XP/Server 2003 is becoming increasingly difficult, it's still a bit too early for Mozilla to make a final decision on when Windows XP/Vista support will be curtailed.

I would rather wait until early 2018 when there is a lot less Windows XP/Vista users from where it is now.

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1 hour ago, ppgrainbow said:

I would rather wait until early 2018 when there is a lot less Windows XP/Vista users from where it is now.

Since now is late 2016, that means just half again a year hence, by which time I doubt "a lot less" might be more than half the current users... and, if so, XP shall still command about 5% of the desktop market share, and that's actually more than twice the desktop market share linux ever has had, and threfore it still ought to be quite far from a trifle.

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On 9/22/2016 at 10:09 AM, JodyT said:

And I just learned in another thread that XP x64 Edition is still supported by the 64-bit variant of Waterfox.  I wonder if the Vista/7 version of MSE still works on it.

According to this thread, MSE was designed for use strictly on consumer OS such as Windows XP, Vista and 7.

That being said, people have succeeded in installing the XP version on Server 2003. "Technically" it can be installed but is unsupported. Since XP 64 is based on Server 2003, it would probably work. However, you'd probably need the final XP version 4.4.304, and I think you'd be stuck with the 32-bit executable because Microsoft never provided an XP 64 executable. I am providing the Internet Archive's link for the 4.4.304 version from November 21, 2013.

I hope this is helpful; as far as the current Vista/7 version, you'd have to actually try it; I don't have a Server 2003 setup handy to test the Vista/7 executable.

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Actually when I used XP x64, I used the Vista/7 64-bit MSE and it worked fully.  And I used the x86 version of the Vista/7 install on Server 2003.

I know that the Server 2003 arrangement I described still updates on v4.4.304.  I just wondered if the XP x64 setup still did.

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I'm sure someone will release an FF fork that can run on XP (and maybe even 2000) without any fancy hacks.

That being said, Waterfox still claims XP-64 support with a 64-bit executable, which Mozilla dropped some time ago (though the 32-bit release still works), so maybe they'll continue supporting XP-32 beyond Mozilla's XP EOL?

Time will tell....

c

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Firefox 53 will officially be released on 18 April 2017 according to the release calendar. At that time, Firefox will start adopting a nine-week rapid release cycle. And it will come just one week after Microsoft officially drops Windows Vista support.

Since Firefox 53 will no longer work on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista, there will be dead code that the developers will have to remove. This will most likely make it difficult, if not impossible to get Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista working beyond FF52.

After the release of Firefox ESR 52.8, these OSes will be EOL by Mozilla sometime in May 2018. That puts is over 1 1/2 years before Microsoft officially drops Windows 7 support in January 2020.

Such a change comes after Mozilla ended Windows 2000 and Mac OS 10.5 support in February 2013 and Mac OS 10.6-10.8 last month.

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1 hour ago, dencorso said:

Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 Extended support will end on April 9, 2019...

and were Confucius alive, he'd become 2570 years old on Sep 28, 2019!    :yes:

That Time we will have any good comp-ability layer so we will be using xp for more 2570 years , isnt we?

Edited by Dibya
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Note that the above plan is tentative until fully approved by our leadership team.

says some another Product Manager.

This could yet go down the path of Electrolysis, the addon signing requirement, and other famously slippery schedules Mozilla has set :P

On 2016/9/21 at 7:14 PM, sdfox7 said:

I wouldn't worry too much about this. It's important to note the wording "support", which is quite different than "won't work".

The thing is, if they start using newer toolchains without bothering about XP, the executables/DLLs will be incompatible with XP even if there's zero change in would-be program functionality. This alone wouldn't be that difficult to custom build or patch or fake around, but it would narrow down the user base mostly to us hobbyists who aren't afraid to mess with such things :ph34r:  

What I find strange is how cavalier many "community-minded" not-for-profit organizations (not just Mozilla) can be when it comes to supporting their legacy userbase. And in the particular case of Firefox, which has been losing market share with no trend reversal in sight, I somehow doubt that shaving off a still significant percentage of users will result in all those users immediately upgrading their OS just to continue to use Firefox... :dubbio:

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