Why is Firefox 4 not giving up on Windows XP?
One of the most discussed topics in connection with the release of Internet Explorer 9 last week was Microsoft’s decision to leave support only for Windows Vista and Windows 7. This means that the new browser does not work with the old Windows XP operating system.
Many agree with Microsoft’s solution - including PCWorld and Ars Technica . After all, the Windows XP system is almost ten years old. Ten years! Its moldy security system only competes with the inability to support some of the most advanced graphics technologies.
Obviously, Microsoft has a commercial interest in making Windows XP users upgrade to newer versions of Windows. Depriving them of new Internet Explorer is one way to push people in the right direction. But it is also quite a reasonable decision. Ten years by network standards can be equated to a century.
But here is the main problem: many of us did not catch the message. Over 40% of the Internet still uses Windows XP. And this is the first argument that Firefox Development Director Jonathan Nightingale made when I asked him about it. Paradoxically, the future Mozilla Firefox 4 supports not only Windows XP, but also Windows 2000, although even Microsoft itself has already abandoned them in a new browser.
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“This is their own decision, but it definitely surprised us a lot, because according to our most reliable statistics, from 40% to 50% of the web is still on XP. It's too much for us to just drop them, ”said Nuttingale. - Yes, the development has become very complicated, because in XP there is a different hardware acceleration system. There you need to use Direct3D instead of Direct2D on Vista and 7. That is, architecturally we had to do a lot of work so that in both cases was the result of maximum quality. But you know what? We need to do this. ”
This may not seem obvious, but the decision of the Open Source project to support Windows XP in reality stimulates the development of the Web, he says: “It's not just that we want to make a good-looking Firefox 4 on every platform. We do this also for web developers. If they create applications for only 20% of the web, they will have to sit still for a couple of years or make more native ones [Windows 7 - approx. lane] applications for those tasks that the web can handle perfectly, because they will think that most users will not be able to fully use their functionality. ”
Here is the official position of Microsoft on this issue, according to a company representative.
What philosophy will win? This will become known after March 22, when Firefox 4 should come out, in which it remains to clean up only the last little bugs.
We add that not only new versions of Firefox continue to work on Windows XP, but also Opera, Chrome and even Safari. In general, the only company in the world that wants Windows XP to disappear is Microsoft. For all other XP is a rich source of users and income. For Mozilla or Google, it would be suicidal to say "we do not support XP". - approx. per.
Many agree with Microsoft’s solution - including PCWorld and Ars Technica . After all, the Windows XP system is almost ten years old. Ten years! Its moldy security system only competes with the inability to support some of the most advanced graphics technologies.
Obviously, Microsoft has a commercial interest in making Windows XP users upgrade to newer versions of Windows. Depriving them of new Internet Explorer is one way to push people in the right direction. But it is also quite a reasonable decision. Ten years by network standards can be equated to a century.
But here is the main problem: many of us did not catch the message. Over 40% of the Internet still uses Windows XP. And this is the first argument that Firefox Development Director Jonathan Nightingale made when I asked him about it. Paradoxically, the future Mozilla Firefox 4 supports not only Windows XP, but also Windows 2000, although even Microsoft itself has already abandoned them in a new browser.
')
“This is their own decision, but it definitely surprised us a lot, because according to our most reliable statistics, from 40% to 50% of the web is still on XP. It's too much for us to just drop them, ”said Nuttingale. - Yes, the development has become very complicated, because in XP there is a different hardware acceleration system. There you need to use Direct3D instead of Direct2D on Vista and 7. That is, architecturally we had to do a lot of work so that in both cases was the result of maximum quality. But you know what? We need to do this. ”
This may not seem obvious, but the decision of the Open Source project to support Windows XP in reality stimulates the development of the Web, he says: “It's not just that we want to make a good-looking Firefox 4 on every platform. We do this also for web developers. If they create applications for only 20% of the web, they will have to sit still for a couple of years or make more native ones [Windows 7 - approx. lane] applications for those tasks that the web can handle perfectly, because they will think that most users will not be able to fully use their functionality. ”
Here is the official position of Microsoft on this issue, according to a company representative.
“The network is constantly evolving in everything from security to future HTML5 applications that developers are starting to create today. Therefore, browsers are required to support modern graphics and security infrastructure, which has progressed since 2001. Internet Explorer 9 is designed for a modern operating system to ensure performance on the latest hardware and operating system innovations. In addition, web developers can now take advantage of the features of Windows 7 (snap, jump list, pinning) integrated into Internet Explorer 9, which makes the web more native. Windows XP users have a fast, secure, reliable, and secure Internet Explorer 8 browser. ”
What philosophy will win? This will become known after March 22, when Firefox 4 should come out, in which it remains to clean up only the last little bugs.
We add that not only new versions of Firefox continue to work on Windows XP, but also Opera, Chrome and even Safari. In general, the only company in the world that wants Windows XP to disappear is Microsoft. For all other XP is a rich source of users and income. For Mozilla or Google, it would be suicidal to say "we do not support XP". - approx. per.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/115829/
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