Starting with Firefox 13, Mozilla will switch from VC2005 to VC2010 for Windows builds, in order to provide greater optimizations, including those necessary to support the SPDY protocol; however, VC2010 does not allow builds targeting versions of Windows older than XP SP2, so users of Windows 2000 (and those who for some reason need to stay at SP1 or RTM of XP) will be left hanging when Firefox 12 and the first ESR both go EOL (around the middle of the year) and stop being supported with security patches: http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2012/01/firefox-support-ending-for-win.php

Asa Dotzler recommends switching to Opera at that time, although I imagine Opera Software will be making the same compatibility-breaking changes for the same reasons by the end of the year: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/01/end_of_firefox_win2k.html

1/28/2012 7:25:04 PM

ATTN Win2K Users: Switch to a more recent OS.

1/28/2012 8:52:04 PM

^

1/28/2012 11:52:58 PM

This will help all 3 of the Win2k users in America.

1/29/2012 12:42:19 AM

I humbly request (beg?) that lewisje be given the Tech Talk BlackDog treatment. Every single thread he makes here is absolute shit and relevant to approximately no one.

[Edited on January 29, 2012 at 1:51 AM. Reason : Actually, if it comes down to it, I'd like to see them swap places. Blackdog was actually better.]

1/29/2012 1:50:13 AM

Even my rents have at least Vista.

1/29/2012 11:05:23 AM

Thanks for the tip.

1/29/2012 11:50:44 AM

while there are good reasons to still have a win2k machine, none of them include having a browser

1/29/2012 12:12:29 PM

Does that os even support ipv6?

1/29/2012 6:02:33 PM

yes: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=915446

1/29/2012 7:29:11 PM

Quote :

"while there are good reasons to still have a win2k machine, none of them include having a browser"

True. We have several win2k machines hanging around running older pieces of equipment. Hell, we still have at least three Windows 3.1 machines running equipment. (Those are fun to replace when one dies, btw.) But you're damn straight they are not connected to the network.

1/30/2012 9:59:12 AM

^the download link doesn't exist and the docs say "for education/research only" and "not intended for deployment."

1/30/2012 10:00:07 AM

Quote :

"ATTN Win2K Users: Switch to a more recent OS."

1/30/2012 10:24:03 AM

^^well g-damn I never actually followed the links all the way

1/30/2012 3:09:58 PM

Quote :

"^the download link doesn't exist and the docs say "for education/research only" and "not intended for deployment.""

Pretty obvious that this kid has an incredibly shallow understanding of anything useful. Probably just pasted the first hit on google. Real impressive, bruh

1/30/2012 3:24:35 PM

pretty obvious this douchefag has a vendetta against me

just look at his post history

1/30/2012 3:56:27 PM

No need to look, I can confirm.

1/30/2012 4:26:41 PM

I don't have a vendetta. I just assume you post relevant information and get frustrated when it's useless.

No worries though - I think im'ma quit @ 10K

1/30/2012 10:06:16 PM

Quote :

"I just assume you post relevant information"

Obviously this is your first time visiting a lewisje thread.

1/30/2012 11:04:05 PM

its not often i laugh in tech talk, but this shit is golden.

1/31/2012 8:42:39 AM

ohhh! Opera is so neat! I like how the window moves around and how smooth it scrolls. I stopped using it a long time ago because something on a webpage didn't support Opera for some reason. That is weird, why do websites sometimes not work with some browsers? like USAA forces you to use crappy Explorer to scan checks. why is that? isn't it all HTML?

2/4/2012 9:07:43 AM

oh and to all of you ppl who think it's funny to be running Win2K, don't you realize that 90% of ppl over 40 HATE puters and if they are lucky enough to have gotten comfortable with something, they try to stick with it because they dread having to learn something new? No they are not dumbasses, they just prefer to think about other things. I'm talking about like writers, grandmas, museum people. I wish I could just do everything on my Tivoli NPR edition radio with Walnut. it only has 3 knobs. actually, it's factory preset with the bass a little too high for listening to NPR.

2/4/2012 9:15:35 AM

The short answer is differing levels of support for Web standards (this was especially bad in the days of dominance of IE6 and earlier versions, and in the late-'90s browser wars where you couldn't build a snazzy-looking website that worked on both Netscape and IE).

also it's not always "all HTML"

There's a good chance that USAA's check-scanning service uses some crappy custom-built ActiveX control (they're like plugins except that they work in IE...and only IE) that was never ported to the NPAPI that most other browsers use; also it's possible that it relies on some VBScript (again, supported only in IE; most browsers that support scripts only support Javascript, and IE does support that, as the JScript dialect).

BTW I know both Firefox and Chrome (on Windows) have extensions called "IE Tab" so you can use IE-only sites without leaving your favorite browser...but I haven't seen one for Opera or Safari (although for Opera some complicated configuration involving MeadCo's Neptune plugin can be done, and it works like a shitbrick and frequently crashes Opera).

2/4/2012 9:17:49 AM

ok well I am willing to go to extra trouble to stick with something obsure that I like...AS LONG AS IT ACTUALLY WORKS. I used to race bikes with a really cool shifting mechanism called Mavic Mektronic.

4/5/2012 12:37:54 AM