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Firefox to Drop Pre-Windows 2000 Support

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they-dropped-mac-os-9-long-ago dept.

cyclomedia writes "While more and more platforms are getting (or aiming for) Firefox ports, the trunk itself seems to be going the other way. In an effort to clean up the API calls used and reduce the codesize a patch was posted at Bugzilla removing support from pre-W2k versions of Windows. There's a fiery discussion going on over at the Mozillazine forums about this after a counter bug was filed. The official position appears to be that Firefox 3.0 will maintain this un-compatibility, but developers are, obviously, free to work on a separate Win 98 compatible 'port.'"

2 of 491 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why not? by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pre-W2K systems are still in wide use in the home. I know this because my Computer Club regularly services them at PC Clinic. Dropping support for pre-W2K systems puts Firefox in a bad position for these systems. We may have to look at Opera instead.

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  2. Re:Why not? by Chris_Jefferson · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't rush.

    The support is being dropped from Firefox 3. Firefox 2, out later this year, will have windows 98 support. Firefox 3, which probably won't be out for another 18 months after that, will be the one without windows 9x support. By that point I would expect to still see some, but even less, windows 9x boxes.

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