Mozilla has changed the original end of support deadline for Firefox on Windows 7 and Windows 8 devices. The organization’s original plan was to end support in September 2024.
This coincided with the release of the next Firefox ESR base and would allow Mozilla to unload legacy code from Firefox.
Byron Jourdan, Mozilla’s Senior Director of Product Management, confirmed on Reddit that support will be extended.
He wrote:
We’re planning to extend support for Windows 7 users past the currently planned date and give them better options for migrating to a new PC when they choose to.
The confirmation was posted during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session of Mozilla’s leadership team on Reddit in June (spotted by Sören Hentzschel)
Jourdan does not provide specifics on the extension, only that support will be extended for as long as usage numbers are still high.
About 10% of Firefox users are still using Windows 7 or Windows 8 / 8.1 at the time of writing. That is significant enough for Mozilla to extend support.
Firefox users who run the browser on Windows 7 or 8 devices were moved to Firefox 115 ESR some time ago. This is the Extended Support Release, which offers better stability as new features are only introduced when the ESR-base changes.
This happens when Firefox 128 is going to be released on July 9, 2024. The previous ESR, 115 in this case, continues to be maintained for a bit longer.
Mozilla planned to drop support for it on September 3, 2024 with the release of Firefox 115.15.
While the official release schedule has not been updated yet, it seems likely that Mozilla will extend the end of Firefox 115 ESR.
Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge are no longer supporting the old Windows versions.
Closing Words
Firefox users on Windows 7 or 8 will continue to receive security updates for the foreseeable future. Mozilla has yet to update the official support pages to reflect the change.
Do you use Firefox? Are you affected by the change?
I’m running presently latest Firefox ESR, that is version 115.12.0, on Windows 7.
“Mozilla planned to drop support for it on September 3, 2024 with the release of Firefox 115.15.”
“The previous ESR, 115 in this case, continues to be maintained for a bit longer.”
If I understand correctly, last Windows 7 supported Firefox release will remain the 115 ESR version branch, but will continue to be upgraded beyond planned version 115.15.
That’s good news of course for the 10% of Firefox users still running Windows 7. Remains to be known until when Firefox 115+ will continue to receive ESR specific security fixes. Certainly not ad vitam aeternam 🙂
Jaded point of view, but I see change as a desperate move on Mozilla’s part to maintain a few more customers for statistic’s sake.
What it really means is that many people still use Windows 7 and 8; since only Firefox will run on those antiquated OS systems, if Mozilla were to stop supporting the two Windows versions, it would lose a significant market share in browser competition.
It would mean going from having around 2.33% to around .05%.
Time to move on!
No, Pale Moon still works, and is updated, on Win 7 machines. I still have one Win 7 machine, and can state confidently that this is accurate. I admit it isn’t my “daily driver”, and so I see no need to change it. If I did I would make it a Linux box anyway.
That’s good news! I was getting a little depressed just lately at the thought of having to switch to Windows 11 for buying stuff online safely, but Mozilla’s decision resolves that dilemma in one go.
Actually, I’m still using Floorp, but it’s officially not supported on Windows 8.1, but still works, or at least version 11.13.2 does. I did update once to the latest version which is 11.14.1, but that didn’t work at all on my system. It’s a bit of a nuisance having to dismiss the latest update prompt all the time, but I can live with that.
You still have to upgrade your operating system if you want to “buy” stuff online safely”. I don’t get it how some people don’t understand that a maintained operating system is crucial for their security. An up-to-date Firefox doesn’t solve the security issues of your system at all.