Firefox Users on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Moving To Extended Support Release

Firefox Users on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Moving To Extended Support Release

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  ....to the "secure" spying OS if you want to stay "protected" and "safe" online!/s
  
  The biggest problem with Windows 7 being officially abandoned because MS said so is that many are just being made much less secure. You'd think OSS projects that support Windows as a target would be the ones calling them out over it. But in reality they happily move to the next big security compromise just like the suckers that "upgraded" to Win10+. Oh well. Society gets what it deserves, I guess.

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    You don't have to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11. You can go with Linux instead.

    There may be a learning curve. There may be some hard sacrifices to make. But you can do it, if you are truly motivated.

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      I already did well over a decade ago. Heck, I'm typing this on a Debian derivative.
      
      Moving to Linux will protect the data you have on that system (as long as you don't include things like negative CPU rings, the Intel ME, broken ass UEFI firmware, etc.) but it won't do anything about the constant data leaks that come from people around you that still use factory compromised crap.

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    I'll take MS spying on me over the shitshow of what actual nefarious actors do on compromised systems any day of the week. Leave your sarcasm at the door.

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    I agree. By doing this all Mozilla will do is needlessly lose market share while making users less safe for no reason.

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    The biggest problem with Windows 7 being officially abandoned because MS said so is that many are just being made much less secure. You'd think OSS projects that support Windows as a target would be the ones calling them out over it. But in reality they happily move to the next big security compromise just like the suckers that "upgraded" to Win10+. Oh well. Society gets what it deserves, I guess.

    Then again, one of the biggest OSS projects out there is why insecurity exists - Samba.

    You would think Microsoft

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      You must be joking. SMBv1 is only a minor and pretty insignificant source of insecurity. It may pose a problem in a corporate network as a tool to hop between already compromised nodes or to sniff stuff using the compromised node, but not in a home setting, where there is a couple of PCs and a cheap "NAS". It would indeed pose a huge problem if it was exposed to the Internet, but thankfully this is almost never the case, with default Windows settings disallowing it, many routers blocking its ports by defaul

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      A similar situation exists with open-source (non-Windows NPS) RADIUS auth, or at least the stuff that's run over RADIUS because it's very rarely pure RADIUS. When you see a requirement for PEAP auth, which is still very widely used, what you're actually being asked for is MSCHAPv2 aka NTLM. Yes, that NTLM. Single DES, MD4, and a design so comprehensively broken that it's been used in teaching courses on how not to do authentication. Windows has disabled this by default for years, but now you need to re-

• Which API functions are they using that require Windows 10?

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    All of those versions of Windows are EOL, so you shouldn't be browsing the Internet on them anyway.

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      Literally everything I own is EOL.

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      Which didn't answer the question. So what if it's EOL? If it works, let it work.

      Do you tell people driving cars over ten years old they need to chuck it and buy a new one?

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        Literally nothing stopping anyone compiling from source. If Mozilla wants to drop official builds supporting XYZ OS, that's their call.

        Nope. But at the same time, the car maker isn't going to give free support on a ten year old model.

        It may not be a requirement. It may be performance. I know Win10 thread attributes handle better on 10 than 7. So Win10 and up might use that method versus talking to Win7 scheduling. Trying to keep two versions of thread priority would be a pain.

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    In principle, Mozilla is not using any API calls that require Win10. In practice, If they want to support win7, they need to:

    * Code to Win7 level APIs and miss the latest and gretatest features Win10 has to offer (be it flashier UI, or better/faster/easier/more secure ways to do thing under the hood). Hardly a compelling idea, since people often complain that firefox (and thunderbird by extension) is not modern, and also complain of technical debt.

    * Code different codepaths depending on the OS, so that fire

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      Do you have any clue at all what if anything is actually involved with Mozilla continuing to support Windows 7 in the real world? If not what is the value or meaning of the above bullet points if you have zero real world data or knowledge?

      All what effort? You just invented a bunch of bullet points. What is the relevance to reality? How many different targets are there? Mac, Windows, Android, Linux.. at least and yet I'm supposed to believe continuing to support Windows is a BFD.

      Supporting a platform wi

• Somewhat off-topic: My employer (a Fortune 500) is forcibly removing Firefox from all the company machines. So everyone, including web developers who ensure their sites work on other browsers, must use Chrome. The browser monoculture has returned.

  Related: Is anyone else sick of every single site popping up a dialog box in the corner asking "Do you want to login using your Google account?" even for web sites where I have no intention of logging-in ever? It used to be like 1 or 2 sites, now it is a lot of them.

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    Google accounts are not safe. Google can cancel them at any time, and they won't let you talk to a human to get support since it is a free service. If you have a lot of your life tied up in a google account, getting cancelled can be really devestating.

    You may tell yourself "I just won't violate the TOS" but Google uses algorithms to check for violations and those can have bugs. Innocent things you may do could get flagged (there have been stories right here on slashdot about families getting their accoun

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    Yes, it's because Google wants to track you. They can sell detailed information on you when you have an account. Also it means the account holder has probably agreed to some EULA that make deeper tracking and marketing possible.
    Smart thing for everyone to do is to delete their Google accounts. But I doubt anyone will.

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    Google is an infectious disease. I'm waiting for an extension I can load in my browser to squash these Google account login requests.

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    OMG, yes. I search for something, go to a site with the info I was looking for, then get asked if I want to log in with my Google account. Is it just so Google can data-rape every single thing I look at? It sure as shit isn't for my convenience. A few years back I couldn't understand why they wanted all this data, but ChatGPT is making me realize they're just aggregating everything and they'll find a use for it in time. It's both baffling and aggravating as hell.

  • >"Firefox is in trouble"

    We are *ALL* in trouble.

    >"My employer (a Fortune 500) is forcibly removing Firefox from all the company machines. So everyone, including web developers who ensure their sites work on other browsers, must use Chrome."

    Insane. I know I would fight back in a big way. I doubt many of the technical people at that company would agree with such a brain-dead move. Especially if they researched it at all.

    >"The browser monoculture has returned."

    Yes, it has. People walked right into it. It was a nightmare before, and could be much, much worse on a repeat.

    There are so many who think we have 10 or so "browsers" to choose from, when 9 of them are the same "car" with different paint colors and trim levels. All multiplatform browsers that are not Firefox *ARE* Chrom* now. It is bad enough to only have TWO actual browser choices (Firefox vs. Chrom*), but having only one is insanity. It is extremely bad news for security, choice, control, flexibility, privacy, and open standards.

    FIGHT BACK

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      Lots of stuff is broken in FF now. No one cares to make it work - even for paid services. You just get sent to the Indian call center script support loop and go nowhere forever. I'm sure those will VERY soon be "AI" since they do nothing but read a script and will soon be just as useful (not at all, with 0 agency and no ability to escalate to anyone who might be able to do something).

      • >Lots of stuff is broken in FF now."

        Correction to (or clarification of) your wording-

        Some sites are broken because they are not following open standards now, which shows up in Firefox. This is exactly what was happening during the last browser monopoly in the 90's- the "IE only" days. I remember it very well.

        * If you are coding a site to a browser instead of an open standard, your site is broken.

        * If there is no open standard for some part of the needed code and you pick only one browser's implementation, your site is broken.

        * If you don't test your site using an open-standards-based browser. Your site is likely broken. If you slap a "best viewed in" or "we recommend X" on your site, it probably is broken.

        • I never have a mod point when I want one. Your comment deserves it. People forget where the source of the problem actually is.

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      Shouting into the void. Most of the people downloading Chrome aren't interested in the ethics of technology.

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    Yes, I am sick of those prompts.

    There are many things I would like to do to Google but my shoes are not big enough to make an impact, lasting or otherwise.

    And let's not forget the prompts to sign in with your Facebook credentials, or your MS Passport (or whatever Redmond calls it) credentials.

• There is already a version of Chromium with Windows 7 support restored [github.com], hopefully someone can patch Firefox too. In the meantime there is always Mypal [mypal-browser.org] and RTFreesoft [blogspot.com] browsers which also work on XP.
• This is notable as many Mac users stayed on Mojave because it supported 32-bit apps. Now users will be forced to choose from either supporting said apps or having an up to date browser. It is only a matter of time before Intel support gets dropped altogether. (PowerPC got droppet at version 3.6).