support strategy

Winsage
February 21, 2025
Mozilla has extended support for Firefox 115 ESR on unsupported versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, until March 2025. Initially set to end support in September 2024, Mozilla reassessed the situation due to the continued presence of users on Windows 7 and decided to extend support for an additional six months. Mozilla plans to reassess its support strategy in August of this year. Meanwhile, the latest versions of Firefox, including version 135 on the Release Channel and version 128 on the Extended Support Release Channel, are available for users on newer operating systems.
Winsage
February 16, 2025
Microsoft has released the processor support lists for Windows 11 version 24H2, adding support for Intel's Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200 series processors. Support for Intel's 8th, 9th, and 10th Generation processors has been discontinued, following Intel's shift of its 7th to 10th Gen integrated graphics processing units (iGPUs) to a legacy support model. The official CPU support lists were published after several months of Windows 11 version 24H2 being available. The removal of support for the 10th Gen Comet Lake processors, such as the Core i9-10900K, has raised concerns, especially when compared to older models that remain supported. On the AMD side, Ryzen 8000 chips have been added to the support list, but there are discrepancies, including the mislabeling of the Ryzen 7 Pro 8945HS. The non-Pro variant is absent from the list, and Ryzen 9000 and Ryzen AI mobile chips, like the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX, are not explicitly supported. Microsoft has stated that new processors based on existing architectures will still be considered supported, even if not listed. Systems with CPUs outside the official support lists can still receive Windows updates, indicating a flexible support strategy.
Winsage
November 8, 2024
Microsoft is offering a paid option to extend support for Windows 10 by one year, pushing the end of support to October 2026. However, support for Windows 10 will officially end in October 2025, after which Microsoft will stop providing free software updates, technical assistance, or security fixes. The company's website now discourages downloading Windows 10 and encourages users to transition to Windows 11, which has seen an increase in adoption with approximately 50 million users switching in the past two months. There are around 850 million users still on Windows 10, with about 400 million likely using hardware that does not meet Windows 11 requirements. Additionally, about 50 million users remain on older, unsupported versions of the OS.
Winsage
September 24, 2024
The Thunderbird development team is planning to phase out support for older operating systems in the upcoming major release of Thunderbird, with the last version compatible with Windows 7/8 and macOS 10.12-10.14 being 115.15.x. Unlike Firefox, which will continue to receive security updates for Windows 7 and 8 for an additional six months, Thunderbird will not extend support in the same way. The decision is based on a smaller user base for Thunderbird on these operating systems, limited resources for the development team, and the need to focus on essential updates. Users are encouraged to update their operating systems and hardware for security reasons. Thunderbird 115 and earlier versions are expected to continue functioning on Windows 7 for the foreseeable future, but the option to download the last release may be withdrawn if the software becomes unsafe. Thunderbird is currently managed by MZLA Technologies Corporation, which aims to revamp the software with a new interface and improved email functionalities.
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