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Chrome 50 Updates Push Notifications, Drops Support For Old Windows and OS X Versions (venturebeat.com) 168

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Google today launched Chrome 50 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, adding the usual slew of developer features. You can update to the latest version now using the browser's built-in silent updater, or download it directly from google.com/chrome. As announced in November 2015, Chrome now no longer supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.7 Lion, nor OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Chrome 50 allows sites to include notification data payloads with their push messages. This eliminates the final server check -- the initial version relied on service workers to proactively fetch the information for a notification from the server, leading to problems when there were multiple messages in flight or when the device was on a poor network connection. Push notification payloads must be encrypted. Sites can now detect when a notification is closed by the user, resulting in better analytics and allowing for cross-device notification dismissal. The look of notifications can now be customized with timestamps and icons. Chrome 50 also brings support for declarative preload.
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Chrome 50 Updates Push Notifications, Drops Support For Old Windows and OS X Versions

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  • XP I understand (Score:4, Insightful)

    by clonehappy ( 655530 ) on Thursday April 14, 2016 @08:15AM (#51907043)

    No one should still be running XP unless it's on a specialized system, and those shouldn't be used for general web browsing anyway.

    But OS X 10.8? That came out in 2012, not 2001. Even 10.7 is still fairly modern. 10.6/Snow Leopard is getting long in the tooth, so that might make sense to drop support, but this will just make people using the older Macs run out of date browsers or find another product.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tax Boy ( 75507 )

      But OS X 10.8? That came out in 2012, not 2001. Even 10.7 is still fairly modern. 10.6/Snow Leopard is getting long in the tooth, so that might make sense to drop support, but this will just make people using the older Macs run out of date browsers or find another product.

      Every version of OS X since mavericks in 2013 has been free and runs on pretty much any mac built after 2007. So really folks, get with the program and update.

      • by spoot ( 104183 )

        I still have a system running 10.6 and can't update it without spending a pretty large chunk of change. It's running protools 8 ish and use it for my voiceover business. I don't need to spend at minimum close to a grand to update protools hardware/software to 12 just so I can run the latest mac os and chop up mono audio files. This isn't google's problem and I get eventual dropping support, but it's legacy, and like other folks out there, it's not just as simple as updating my os. If I do, the protools hard

        • by eht ( 8912 )

          If all you are doing is chopping up mono audio files then I am not sure why you need Pro Tools, large number of other products out there including free and or open source ones for Mac.

          • by spoot ( 104183 )

            Yea, except for the fact that I've been using protools since, well, longer than I can remember. Know all the hot keys, and exactly what I'm doing to get exactly what I want. So, switching to audacity or some other audio clunkware, well, that dog don't hunt.

            • by PRMan ( 959735 )
              Audacity is free and works on every platform. As soon as you learn its (admittedly clunky) interface, you will never be tied down again.
              • by _merlin ( 160982 )

                Yeah, but Audacity is a sound file editor, not a DAW. It simply doesn't have the functionality a lot of people need. You could have recommended Reaper, BitWig or something else that runs on Linux, but suggesting Audacity as a replacement for a DAW just makes you looks ignorant.

        • by kick6 ( 1081615 )
          Is that a machine you need the latest browser on, though?
          • Is that a machine you need the latest browser on, though?

            Probably not. Like Windows XP, OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is no longer supported [computerworld.com]. Security updates to a web browser won't help if the operating system itself has forever-day vulnerabilities [schneier.com].

            • by vux984 ( 928602 )

              Security updates to a web browser won't help if the operating system itself has forever-day vulnerabilities.

              Sure they will. If the browser is secure, OS flaws won't be exposed.

              Agreed that any browser flaws that do get exploited on an old OS ensure the OS does get pwned too... but there is no reason not keep updating and securing internet facing/accessing tools after the OS isn't being updated.

              Provided the OS is behind a working firewall, any exploits that do hit are going to come through those internet facing/accessing programs. So if they are secure, then nothing reaches the holes in the OS.

              And as in all things

              • If the browser is secure, OS flaws won't be exposed.

                Flaws in the IP or TCP implementation, in other services that the same machine exposes, or in system libraries that the browser uses can still be exposed. For example, computers have been broken into through web fonts that exploit defects in the operating system's font parser. (Google: truetype exploit)

                Provided the OS is behind a working firewall

                That's a big "provided". How many users of home or small office firewall appliances keep said appliances' system software updated?

      • by OzPeter ( 195038 )

        Every version of OS X since mavericks in 2013 has been free and runs on pretty much any mac built after 2007. So really folks, get with the program and update.

        My iMac still works perfectly fine but can't run Mavericks. So what program should I get with?

        Off topic. I was considering replacing it with a mac mini, but with the last refresh gutting the mac mini's specs I now don't know what the best upgrade path is. I'm almost to the point of building a hackintosh.

        • So what program should I get with?

          The program you need to get (with) is firefox since it'll run on your mac just fine!

          ba dumm tschhh

          I'll be here all weak, try the steak!

        • It was a very weak upgrade, but I wouldn't call it "gutted." For real life purposes the new Mac Mini is still faster than what preceded it. It's still a small, quiet, power-sipping, relatively inexpensive computer that runs fine, if you just want to run it for basic purposes. I expect a new version will come out this year. Who knows, but I'd be tempted to hold out.

          Mac OS X is nice but not magical. Before running a Hackintosh and all the potential issues, switch to Linux.

        • If you're running an ancient iMac, then any mac-mini will be better than what you have today. Hell, you could get a 2year old *used* mac-mini and be fine.

        • I am in this position right now. I don't want an iMac, but their current Mac Mini lineup is... well... garbage.

          So I said "Hell with it" and took a decently spec'ed PC, and turned it into a hackintosh. I had spend a little time doing some tweaks, bluetooth and audio is slightly quirky, but beyond that it runs perfectly fine for my needs.

          I really hope Apple doesn't let their entire desktop line slide downhill even further, but I'm not holding my breath. They don't seem to understand that there is a class of

      • You imply that forced updates are a good thing. Maybe OS X users will wake up one morning to find Windows 10 running on their Mac. Updated. Done.
      • older OS X versions (Score:4, Interesting)

        by WheezyJoe ( 1168567 ) <fegg@excite.cCOFFEEom minus caffeine> on Thursday April 14, 2016 @09:25AM (#51907537)

        Unfortunately, there IS a reason some people may not want to upgrade OS X: some older Macbook Pros have a hardware flaw in their GPUs [apple.com], and later versions of OS X panic (i.e., crash) with these machines where the older versions don't. Then there are the poor souls who just can't bring themselves to retire their PPC-based models. I mean, c'mon - the Luxor Lamp iMacs [pinimg.com] still look pretty damn cool. Generally, OS X upgrades are very worthwhile, but some people with hardware that's 5+ years old but otherwise working fine are getting the pinch.

      • I have an ISP imposed bandwidth cap so there's no way in hell I can download it without incurring some hefty fees. You offering to pay?
      • The updates are not worth it. Who cares if it's free or not free, it's not worth the pain to upgrade and get a new and broken UI, new broken features (have to turn on secret settings to get root to be root on ElCapitan). Apple has not abandoned those stable releases either. It's like a free tattoo, some may not want the pain or the disfigurement.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      It's more to do with development.

      You can't legally VM Mac OS. It just doesn't have compatible licensing.

      So to make apps for these old versions, you REQUIRE specific versions to test with, which means a physical machine each, which means lots of Macs just to test and each has to be managed, updated and imaged separately.

      And, no, you can't just use the latest XCode to compile and expect it to work on older MacOS, and nor can you use the latest XCode on an old MacOS, etc. And, pretty much, if you're targetin

      • This makes perfect sense. Thanks!

      • by Anonymous Coward

        "You can't legally VM Mac OS. It just doesn't have compatible licensing."

        Licensing has changed, and you should verify this. While I'm not familiar with your exact scenario, virtualizing OSX on Apple hardware is (and has been) permitted for a while now...

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by JBMcB ( 73720 )

        I never got why people like development on Mac.

        Because of this:
        https://developer.apple.com/li... [apple.com]

        Yeah in Windows you have PowerShell, which is so awesome Microsoft is doing this:

        http://www.theverge.com/2016/3... [theverge.com]

        • Re:XP I understand (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday April 14, 2016 @10:48AM (#51908199) Homepage Journal

          Is a shell really a big deal for most developers? For what I do with it as an embedded and desktop developer I only make light use of it, and the web/cloud guys hardly use it at all. If you are administering servers it's all SSH anyway and Windows has plenty of good SSH clients like Putty.

          What sort of development tasks does an advanced shell help with?

          • by JBMcB ( 73720 )

            Complicated build and deploy environments. I know guys who have scripts set up to auto-provision VMs with newly updated code to run regression tests.

            Most of the web development guys I know are Mac guys - mainly for *nix-centric tools (using grep/awk for log parsing, finding stuff quickly in source files, etc...)

            Yeah there are ports on Windows but they are kinda hokey to use with DOS style paths.

          • It's not just the fact that Mac has a bash shell, although that's a major component.

            A Mac, out of the box, can interact with any operating system seamlessly, using the exact same toolset, whether it's Redhat, Ubuntu, AIX, Solaris, or Free/Open/NetBSD. I'm sure it could probably interact with mainframes as well, but I've never personally tried so I can't say for sure. With windows, you are unable to do a single blessed thing until you start downloading and installing craptons of 3rd party utilities to do a

            • Windows is the only operating system on the planet that insisted on going it's own way for basic OS fundamentals, making it fundamentally incompatible with literally else out there.

              Really? Not to defend Microsoft, but the way Windows works goes all the way back to MS-DOS over 30 years ago, and MS-DOS is based heavily on CP/M from the 1970's. In the same time frame, Apple had the Apple II, Mac OS, and OS X, all of which are completely different and pretty much incompatible with each other too. And if you

              • You are absolutely correct, however, I (if it wasn't clear) was talking about *today*, not 30 years ago. In the early days of computers, *everybody* went their own way, because there was no established path to take. Now that time has passed and the dust has settled, we're basically down to two camps: Windows, and everybody else.

                Windows has a very very long history behind it, and forces a bajillion compromises when a new version comes out. It also makes Apple's move to OSX that much more interesting, cau

          • by Anonymous Coward

            For web dev it's great because you have a UNIX environment... it comes with apache, php, python and ruby out of the box, so it's as easy as it is in Linux to run package managers like npm, composer, gem, build tools like make or gulp, deployment tools like capistrano, cli compilers and precompilers like sass, less, coffeescript, and other useful UNIX stuff like rsync, scp, etc. ... you'll also find configurations in /etc, logs in /var/log, modify permissions with chown and chgrp... which allows to use the s

          • Is a shell really a big deal for most developers? For what I do with it as an embedded and desktop developer I only make light use of it, and the web/cloud guys hardly use it at all. If you are administering servers it's all SSH anyway and Windows has plenty of good SSH clients like Putty.

            What sort of development tasks does an advanced shell help with?

            Anything to do with searching/munging text files which your IDE doesn't natively support?

            I can't imagine trying to develop -- for any platform -- without find, grep, awk, cut, paste, sort, wc and the ability to combine them in various combinations with pipes and wrap those combinations in loops, etc.

            I suppose young'uns who never learned just how powerful the shell is might not see a need for it, but their lack of knowledge makes them less productive.

      • Re:XP I understand (Score:5, Informative)

        by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Thursday April 14, 2016 @09:08AM (#51907411)

        It's more to do with development.

        You can't legally VM Mac OS. It just doesn't have compatible licensing.

        From the El Capitan license agreement:

        (iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software
        within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control
        that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b)
        testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, noncommercial
        use.

        http://images.apple.com/legal/... [apple.com]

        • Unless those terms also exist in the licenses for earlier versions, it is no help: one cannot legally run OSX Lion in a VM on an El Capitan machine.

          • by Anonymous Coward

            Actually, you can. Mac OS X can be run in a VM officially and legally as long as the host hardware is a Mac and the host OS is Mac OS X. Mac OS X 10.6 or older must be the server version of the OS though.

            You may notice all the "Apple OS X" options available in VMWare Fusion when you go to create a new VM (if you use VMWare).

      • by DdJ ( 10790 )

        You can't legally VM Mac OS. It just doesn't have compatible licensing.

        You can if it's 10.7 or newer and your host is a Macintosh itself.

        Prior to 10.7, you had to run the server flavor of the OS and be on Macintosh hardware. Which is why I own a copy of OS X Server 10.6 -- lets me run it in a VM.

        But after 10.7 came out, Server changed to an app you run on top of the regular OS instead of a distinct version of the OS, and they updated the licensing at that time.

        If you're confused about what you are and aren

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The down side of free OS upgrades and very high adoption rates is that people who really need an old version for some reason aren't well supported.

    • No one should still be running XP unless it's on a specialized system

      Does "XP Mode" in Windows 7 count? I use it because it's a free (semi)supported virtual machine (semi)built-in to Windows 7, including features like Undo Disk with rollback (free VMware doesn't offer this, IIRC).

      I'd love to replace it, but I don't know of anything else that's free. There's VirtualBox, but I've had difficulty with the cut-and-paste to and from the host, and in any case I'd have to pay for another license for the copy of Windows I run in there. XP Mode is basically a free XP license built-i

  • "proactively fetch the information" is crucial and intentional part of design. HTTP is not meant to be an interactive protocol, but strictly request and response. By moving away from this in order to push more ads you are removing a great deal of assumptions and introducing a whole set of previously impossible attack scenarios.
  • by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Thursday April 14, 2016 @08:20AM (#51907077)
    The 2 remaining users will be highly upset.
    • You can't get them upset anymore. After all, they have vista.

      • Vista eventually ran properly after MANY updates. I would argue an updated Vista is probably better than a non SP1 Windows 7. VISTA was garbage at launch, that I won't argue. I still have 3 users running VISTA on older laptops that we are about to replace and I have yet to hear complaints. Maybe they've lost the will to live... I don't know.

        Global stats shows Vista at 2% of North American desktops. Won't be long before it's gone.

        • by PRMan ( 959735 ) on Thursday April 14, 2016 @09:41AM (#51907635)
          You can do any sort of speed test you want on Vista and then upgrade to Windows 7 IN PLACE and that same speed test will be improved. This is true regardless of Vista or Windows 7 version, because they rewrote the kernel for 7 removing tons of dead code and increased the multi-threading that the OS does by default.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • You can do any sort of speed test you want on Vista and then upgrade to Windows 7 IN PLACE and that same speed test will be improved.

            That is true of ANY OS from MS. Win95 Win98 WinXP ... I left out ME because it was as dress up, not a new OS. The H/W level optimizations are only as good as the OS support for it.

            My comments were more inclined towards common complaints about Vista at the time. In this case, OS stability.

        • by alqu ( 2451662 )
          We're happily running all 4 of our boxen on Vista 32bit, upgraded from XP last year when XP reached its end-of-life (small rural non-profit). After having turned off and disabled themes they're running just as well as XP did, with the exception of videos - those stutter on anything greater than 240p. Office 2007 is running just fine, I can't honestly notice any difference. Hopefully some good soul will donate Win7 licenses next April just like it happened last April. Chrome's end of support is a big deal fo
          • The bump that Vista got around the XP end-of-life was kind of amusing, when everyone decided that with XP being dead they might as well use that Vista sticker on the side of their computer. The place I was at had more Vista machines running in 2014 than it did in 2009.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    God, why can't Firefox use a sane versioning system like Chrome!? It seems like there's an update every week! Everybody really should just ditch Firefox and use Chrome instead because of things like this.

    Oh... wait! This *is* Chrome. And nobody cares when Chrome does something, but when Firefox does it, this place turns into one long bitch fest.

    • People bitched about Firefox because it turned into Chrome Junior. Chrome went to the higher version numbers, so did FF. Chrome changed the interface to hipster minimalist bullshit and so did FF.

      • by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

        People bitched about Firefox because it turned into Chrome Junior. Chrome went to the higher version numbers, so did FF. Chrome changed the interface to hipster minimalist bullshit and so did FF.

        GP's point is people bitch when Firefox does it, but not when Chrome does it

    • Degrading an ad delivery platform doesn't hurt, degrading a functional browser does.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Don't know if it was at version 50, but Chome no longer supports 32-bit Linux. Chromium still does, though.

  • Is this lack of support for XP, Mountain Lion, etc, because the code is now using API calls available only in the later OSes? Or are they simply checking the environment at install or run time and refusing to run if it detects an earlier OS version?

    The first reason, I could understand. But since it's occurring across OS's, I have to think it's the later. Which makes no sense. If someone is using their browser as their primary interface, it would seem like, even though it's not recommend, it is their preroga

    • Supposedly Chromium is dropping support for XP and Vista too. Though it's open source so you should, in theory, be able to go in and make it work. Now, there's a bunch of changes with the Windows API between XP and Vista, so my guess is that Chromium is using parts of the API that are just not available on XP. On the other hand, there isn't a whole lot of difference between Vista and 7, so if it runs on Windows 7 I would expect it to run on Vista without too much difficulty.

  • When Chrome stopped issuing Mac updates for the 32-bit processor in 2014, it was the death knell for my venerable 2006 MacBook (now running Mint Linux). As the 8-Bit Guy demonstrated in his YouTube, the 32-bit MacBook can run the latest 32-bit Windows OS and 32-bit Chrome.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJw8aSxEFwQ [youtube.com]

  • Google sure hates Linux these days.

  • They have a nasty message that Ubuntu 12.04 is EOL - despite that from Canonical's POV it's still supported for another year.

  • Also several significant changes how Chrome operates with web APIs. That broke a lot of stuff that now has to get fixed, thanks Google!

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