One of the corking benefits of Apple moving to Intel CPUs is that we have admission to Google's Chrome browser, which rapidly displaced Firefox as the culling browser of pick among Windows users later on its release in Sept. 2008. For some of us, that is coming to an stop in Apr.

Warning message from Google

Google Chrome 5.0 (May 2010) was the first version available on Macs and Linux; previous versions were Windows-only. Information technology never supportedOS 10 ten.4 Tiger and initially requiredOs Ten 10.5 Leopard, which it abandoned on Sept. xv, 2012 with the release of Chrome 22. Version 39 (Nov. 2014) left behind 32-bit merely Macs (Core Solo and Core Duo models from 2006), although information technology worked just fine on 64-bit Macs running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

This fourth dimension Google isn't just leaving backside 1 or 2 versions of OS X – it'southward dropping OS 10 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.vii Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion. Those were release in August 2009, July 2011, and July 2012, respectively, with Mountain Lion last updated in Oct 2013, so betwixt them they were current for a period of more than four years and the near contempo version was updated just two-1/2 years agone.

Google Chrome blogAnyway, here's what Google has to say about information technology:

Earlier this year, we announced that Google Chrome would continue support for Windows XP through the remainder of 2015. At that fourth dimension, we strongly encouraged users on older, unsupported platforms such as Windows XP to update to a supported, secure operating system. Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and take a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware.

Today, nosotros're announcing the terminate of Chrome'due south support for Windows XP, every bit well equally Windows Vista, and Mac Bone X x.6, 10.7, and 10.8, since these platforms are no longer actively supported past Microsoft and Apple. Starting April 2016, Chrome will continue to function on these platforms only volition no longer receive updates and security fixes.

If y'all are still on ane of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer operating system to ensure that you continue to receive the latest Chrome versions and features.

Posted by Marc Pawliger, Manager of Engineering science and Early Notifier

Google hasn't been alone at leaving behind older versions of Mac OS X. Firefox 4 didn't back up OS X ten.4 Tiger at all. That was way back in 2010. Firefox sixteen works with Bone 10 10.5 Leopard, but version 17, released Nov. 20, 2012, does not. Firefox still supports Bone X 10.6 Snow Leopard with version 44 and looks like information technology will proceed to do and so.

Update: Firefox 47 (released June 2016, concluding version 47.0.one in June 2016) was the last version to back up Snow Leopard, merely Firefox 45esr (released March 2016, terminal version was 45.9.0 in April 2017) has more upwardly-to-appointment security.

Allow's not even go into how quickly Apple drops back up for legacy versions of Bone X with its Safari browser. That'due south probably one of the big reasons people using older versions of OS X are looking to Chrome and Firefox instead of Safari.

I can empathise Apple doing this. They want you lot to buy new hardware. That's why you lot tin can download Bone X for free starting with 10.ix Mavericks (the first version since 10.6 that I've used considering of this). If your Mac can run Mavericks, Yosemite, or El Capitan, you tin can have a fairly up-to-appointment version of Safari, iTunes, and Apple'due south other apps.

I can't sympathise why Google is doing this. Since when does Google intendance if Windows XP, Vista, and Bone X 10.vi, 10.vii, and 10.8 are actively supported by Microsoft and Apple? Possibly it's Google'south development tools that requires Windows 7 or Os X 10.9. Maybe it's but that Google Chrome is the most pop browser in the world, so what if you lose a few legacy users?

Our site stats for February, which do skew toward people with older hardware, shows eleven.iv% of site visitors using an Intel Mac are using OS X ten.half-dozen Snow Leopard, and half dozen.ii% are still on 10.7 Lion, while 10.8 Mountain Lion is in its expiry throes at merely 3.0%. Os X 10.9 Mavericks, just two versions old, is behind Snow Leopard at eight.seven%, and ten.ten Yosemite has already dropped from a high of 52% to 18.8% while ten.xi El Capitan accounts for virtually half our Intel Mac traffic at 49%.

Firefox logo

Firefox looks like the lone holdout amongst the big three Mac browser makers. The Mozilla team has not announced its intention to get out behind OS X 10.6 Snowfall Leopard users, at to the lowest degree not all the same. Every bit one of them – I have Snow Leopard on my 2007 Mac mini – I am grateful.

If you lot utilize Snowfall Leopard, Lion, or Mountain King of beasts, I hope you are grateful as well. Apple tree'due south Safari has abased yous. Google's Chrome has abandoned y'all. But Firefox has not!

If you haven't tried information technology lately, possibly this is a good fourth dimension to check out Firefox 44.

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