Mozilla will continue supporting the Firefox browser for both the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems until September 2017. XP and Vista users will then enter Extended Support Release (ESR) by March 2017 until full support officially ends.
The company further stated that there will still be security updates for Firefox users still using those operating systems and no additional action is needed to acquire them, Mozilla announced on the official blog site. They further explained user numbers on both Vista and XP will be reassessed by the middle of next year before a final support end date is announced.
It is also stated that users are highly recommended to upgrade to an operating system that Microsoft still officially supports, such as Windows 7 or Windows 10. Unsupported operating systems like XP and Vista pose security risks given they do not receive security updates and reportedly have known expoits.
Firefox ESR is a unique version that is mostly used for schools and universities, businesses and groups requiring mass deployments, according to Venture Beat. This version of a browser are often supported only for one year.
Mozilla dropped Firefox support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.7 Lion as well as OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Approximately the same time Google dropped support for the aforementioned OS X systems as well as Windows XP and Vista.
In comparison, Microsoft halted mainstream browser support for Windows XP in 2009 and its ESR was retired in 2014. Mainstream support for Windows Vista ended by April 10, 2012 while its ESR will officially be halted by April 11, 2017. This means Mozilla will continue support for XP and Vista users even longer than Microsoft will.
The reason for this is reportedly due to the fact that many XP and Vista users cannot use Google Chrome as they no longer receive Chrome support. Firefox remains the only remaining option for many users but even this will be pulled by next year.
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