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Firefox 52 will be the last version of Firefox for Windows XP and Vista

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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Firefox released Firefox 52 earlier this week to the public, and it has a few notable thingies.

First of all, FireFox 52 is the last version of FireFox which will support Windows XP and Vista, from this point on a user who wants to snag the latest versions with the newest features of Firefox will have to use Windows 7 and above for support. Firefox will, however, keep this version updated with security fixes for an extended period of time.

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It is kind of disappointing that Firefox 52 would be the last version of Firefox for Windows Vista which is a few years younger than XP. Vista was released in January 2007 while XP was released in October 2001. XP still also have a lot of users which may feel disappointed that they now won't get any new web browser updates for Firefox.

But, it is good that Firefox will still release security fixes for an extended period of time.

XP is also still somewhat popular with 8.45% of the world's marketshare of online desktop devices according to Operating system market share . It is also still the world's third most popular desktop Operating system.

XP has more users than Windows 8.1/8, MAC OS X 10.12 and older versions of OS X, Linux, Windows Vista and 2000, etc.

But, People who use XP and Vista can always dual-boot to a Free Linux OS like Linux Mint and Ubuntu Linux if they want to continue using Firefox in the future. Linux should run well on most computers which came with XP, and Vista, but users may need to upgrade the RAM to 1GB if their older Vista and XP PC only has 512MB of RAM.
 
hrmm, I'm still at FF 51, I wonder why mine hasn't updated yet?
 
Demon_Skeith said:
hrmm, I'm still at FF 51, I wonder why mine hasn't updated yet?
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Maybe, Firefox did not send the command to update Firefox 51 to update to 52. You can manually download Firefox 52 from Firefox.com and install it with the FF installer file which you downloaded from Firefox.com .
 
Fun fact: are you also aware that some websites will not show up on XP computers because of the SSL certificate being used?
 
Danielx64 said:
Fun fact: are you also aware that some websites will not show up on XP computers because of the SSL certificate being used?
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I think users can use an Android or Linux emulator to browse on specific sites which don't work on XP because of SSL certificate problems.

I guest, users who are still on XP can use a Linux emulation/virtual machine software like VirtualBox or VMware to run Ubuntu Linux on top of XP with VirtualBox, so they can use Firefox 53 when it is released for Linux.

But, XP users may need to upgrade their processor to a dual-core or quad-core CPU, and upgrade the RAM to at least 3GB of RAM, or install Windows XP 64bit to upgrade to over 4GB of RAM, so VirtualBox, Linux, and Windows XP run fast when all three things are running.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
I'm guessing because of the SSL, the XP OS can't read it and just display a blank page?
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In plain English yes but there is a little more to that.

"
OK, so looking at the example of mpql.net, we start with the SSL Labs analysis.

The problem appears to be that the server only supports elliptic curve cryptography (the various TLS_ECDHE_xxx suites) and, according to the MSDN articles Secure Sockets Layer Protocol and TLS Cipher Suites, Windows XP doesn't include any of the elliptic curve protocols. This is not related to the certificates per se, but to the way the web server is configured.

Firefox still works because it uses its own cryptographic library rather than using the SSL support built into Windows. Of course, if you were using a version of Firefox as old as Windows XP is, it probably wouldn't work either. :)
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"

Why can't Windows XP handle newer SSL certificate versions?
 
froggyboy604 said:
I think users can use an Android or Linux emulator to browse on specific sites which don't work on XP because of SSL certificate problems.

I guest, users who are still on XP can use a Linux emulation/virtual machine software like VirtualBox or VMware to run Ubuntu Linux on top of XP with VirtualBox, so they can use Firefox 53 when it is released for Linux.

But, XP users may need to upgrade their processor to a dual-core or quad-core CPU, and upgrade the RAM to at least 3GB of RAM, or install Windows XP 64bit to upgrade to over 4GB of RAM, so VirtualBox, Linux, and Windows XP run fast when all three things are running.
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For most home users, they are not going to understand how to do any of that. Maybe it just me but things like dual booting and using VMs are a power user thing.
 
Danielx64 said:
For most home users, they are not going to understand how to do any of that. Maybe it just me but things like dual booting and using VMs are a power user thing.
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I agree, many home users may have a difficult time learning about Virtual machines and dual-booting. But, Virtual Machines are easier to learn since they are just PC Programs which open a virtual drive file.

Learning VMs like VirtualBox is possible for home users by reading a few VirtualBox tutorials online, and watching a few videos on VMs online. Home users may need to spend a few days to weeks to fully understand VMs, and how to use them. But, if they dedicate a few minutes a day or more, they maybe able to learn VM.
 
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froggyboy604 said:
I agree, many home users may have a difficult time learning about Virtual machines and dual-booting. But, Virtual Machines are easier to learn since they are just PC Programs which open a virtual drive file.

Learning VMs like VirtualBox is possible for home users by reading a few VirtualBox tutorials online, and watching a few videos on VMs online. Home users may need to spend a few days to weeks to fully understand VMs, and how to use them. But, if they dedicate a few minutes a day or more, they maybe able to learn VM.
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Maybe it just me but home users just want things to work. They don't want to be messing around trying to get something up and running.
 
Danielx64 said:
Maybe it just me but home users just want things to work. They don't want to be messing around trying to get something up and running.
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I think this is true that most home users just want things to work. But, there are also home users who want to try a new program or device like smartphone or tablet if they think it is cool, or need to use it.

A lot more home users now use video and photo editors, and virtual machines because they can be useful for people who need them.

Power users were home users. Home users need to start learning basic computer tasks before learning more advance tasks like virtual machine, and dual booting.
 
Didn't realise people even used Windows XP anymore to be honest. I don't think I could stand looking at something as outdated as that every day :grin:.
 
kingcool52 said:
Didn't realise people even used Windows XP anymore to be honest. I don't think I could stand looking at something as outdated as that every day :grin:.
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A lot of people who used XP are using it because they can't afford a better computer, or their school or workplace can't afford a better computer. There is also older software and hardware like printers made in the past which may not work well or not work at all on Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, and 10, and non-Windows OS like Linux, Mac, and Android.

Some people also treat their computers like cars, appliances, and electronics like TVs where they use it for many years until it breaks, and becomes too difficult or expensive to fix themselves, or hire someone to fix their computer, and XP.

A lot of people also like saving money by continuing to use XP instead of buying a new PC with Windows 10.

There are desktop theme programs which make XP look like a newer version of Windows like Vista and 7.

I kind of like the classic look of Windows XP, and XP's classic theme from Windows 95-ME which run faster on slower computers.
 
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