Microsoft ended support for Windows XP last year, but it’s still installed on a lot of computers. Sure, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft apps aren’t getting software updates anymore, but there’s always Google Chrome, right?
Not for long. Google has announced it’s pulling the plug on support for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and OS X 10.8 and earlier.
If you have the latest version of Chrome installed on a computer running one of those operating systems, it’ll continue to run indefinitely. But after April, 2016, Google will no longer make software updates available… which means you don’t get new features or security fixes.
None of this is all that surprising: It’s been 14 years since Windows XP was released and 7 years Windows XP Service Pack 3 rolled out. But a lot of folks have found that Windows XP still meets their daily computing needs and they haven’t felt the need to upgrade.
I suspect the only thing that will change that is when software developers like Google stop supporting the OS… so maybe the end is finally near?
Firefox still supports OS X 10.6. I’d be surprised if Firefox drops support for Windows XP anytime soon. XP still has more market share than ALL Versions of OS X + Vista. I see this as more as Chrome’s loss than XP’s.
OS X – not OX (moo!)
In other news: Firefox stocks rocket sky-high today as 2 billion people in China and India are downloading and installing it right now on their outdated but sill working machines! More on this from our field reporter. Ollie?
https://i.imgur.com/N1rLar2.png
Thank you, Ollie!