Apple last refreshed its Safari browser on Snow Leopard in May 2012, on Lion in August 2014, and on Mountain Lion in August 2015.īeginning in April, Google will patch and upgrade the desktop version of Chrome only on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, OS X Mavericks, OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.Ĭhrome's desertion of Windows XP was expected - in fact, Google had previously pegged the end of this year as the retirement timeline - but the abandonment of Vista and the three OS X editions had not been hinted at earlier. Microsoft no longer patches bugs in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) on Windows XP, although it still updates IE9 on Windows Vista. Only Windows Vista continues to receive security updates from Microsoft it won't get the heave-ho until April 2017.Įven Microsoft's and Apple's own browsers have been largely retired for their outdated OSes. Microsoft retired Windows XP, for instance, in April 2014, while Apple put Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion out to pasture in September of 2013, 20, respectively. With the exception of Windows Vista, all the operating systems facing the Chrome support guillotine have already been abandoned by their maker. 'If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer operating system to ensure that you continue to receive the latest Chrome versions and features.' 'Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware,' said Marc Pawliger, the director of engineering for Chrome, in a brief post on a Google blog. Last month, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion accounted for 14.6% of all OS X editions whose users went online, according to Web analytics company Net Applications. The trio, also labeled as OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8, respectively, were introduced in 2009, 20. Google will also axe support for three older editions of OS X, the operating system exclusive to Apple's Macs: OS X Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. By dropping support for older editions of Windows and OS X, Chrome could lose about 14% of its user share if all those abandoned switched to another browser.

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