{"id":15010,"date":"2011-06-01T23:12:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=15010"},"modified":"2011-06-01T23:12:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:12:40","slug":"google-push-for-modern-browsers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/01\/google-push-for-modern-browsers\/","title":{"rendered":"Google push for modern browsers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here is a quote from this Google blog post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[…]soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we\u2019ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we\u2019ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.
\nAs of August 1st, we will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All I have to say to this is: Bravo Google! \u00a0Enough is enough!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As pretty much anyone with a computer science degree, I was a big supporter of backward compatibility at the beginning of my career. \u00a0Backward compatibility just comes naturally. \u00a0Each and every textbook, boss, and mailing list opponent tells you to care about each and every user out there. \u00a0Often, with a complete disregard for your own costs. \u00a0Completely forgetting that backward compatibility is extremely expensive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There has also been a huge change in software development since my college times. \u00a0The change is called the Web. \u00a0Backward compatibility was more important in the old days, when software was installed on a computer and when it had to be distributed via such inefficient ways as compact disks. \u00a0Since then, software development had\u00a0largely moved into the Web. \u00a0Updates can be pushed out to users several times a day and they require no effort on the client side.\u00a0 That has to count for something. \u00a0All that is asked in return is that your web browser is of a reasonably recent version. \u00a0And not even that it is of any particular brand – you can chose from a few options, and you can have the choice no matter what kind of computer or operating system you use.<\/p>\n

To those scared of the updates and what such changes can bring to them, consider other example, which exist in open source software. \u00a0Fedora Linux distribution, supports less than two releases back. \u00a0Painful? \u00a0Maybe. \u00a0But it’s a desktop oriented software collection, with a very painless upgrade process (albeit a few examples, such as a recent Fedora 15). \u00a0What is the result? \u00a0Most of Fedora users are upgraded to the latest or so version. Compare that with a huge chunk of enterprises running Windows XP, which is a 10 year old operating system, and you can see the difference.<\/p>\n

Most modern browsers provide automatic upgrade functionality, which makes user life so much easier that there is really no reason not to upgrade. \u00a0The only argument for older browsers that I’ve heard to now is support of legacy applications that only work in specific versions of specific browsers. \u00a0And you know what, I have no problem with getting rid of those. \u00a0The world will be a better place. \u00a0It’s been years since we have web standards, browsers that support them, and plenty of tools that assist in development and migration. \u00a0If you haven’t moved your application in all these years, chances are you’ll never will. \u00a0In which case, you deserve all the troubles that you are about to get. \u00a0The world shouldn’t hold its breath waiting for you to upgrade.<\/p>\n

Heck, when even Microsoft is jumping out of its pants for people to upgrade MSIE 6 to something newer, you know there is a problem. \u00a0And solving it once and for all (rolling release version support) is an excellent approach. \u00a0I hope more people will follow this example.<\/p>\n

P.S.: Please excuse the lack of links. \u00a0The things I mentioned have been discussed many times all around the web and I do see them as obvious truth. Those of you who need references, shouldn’t have any troubles finding some. \u00a0If you do – let me know.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Here is a quote from this Google blog post: […]soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we\u2019ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we\u2019ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the … Continue reading Google push for modern browsers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62,1334],"tags":[918,20,2068],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-15010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","category-web-work","tag-announcements","tag-browsers","tag-google"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18845,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/23\/google-apps-end-of-support-for-microsoft-internet-explorer-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":0},"title":"Google Apps : End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 9","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 23, 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Apps : End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 9","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18820,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/20\/high-resolution-browser-logos\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":1},"title":"High resolution browser logos","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"GitHub Explore daily email brought in this awesome repo today. \u00a0It's a collection of high resolution web browser logos with transparent backgrounds. \u00a0 It's not just the five or six major browsers. \u00a0The collection covers more than 50 (!!!) different browsers, with different logos for different versions. \u00a0This is one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"browser logos","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/browser-logos-500x215.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19976,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/28\/browserling-interactive-cross-browser-testing\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":2},"title":"browserling – interactive cross-browser testing","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"January 28, 2014","format":"link","excerpt":"browserling - interactive cross-browser testing","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"browserling","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/browserling-500x371.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11355,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/03\/google-chrome-a-new-punch-in-the-browser-fight\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":3},"title":"Google Chrome – a new punch in the browser fight","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"September 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last few days, the biggest thing in the technical news is Google Chrome browser (check the comics book, introducing the browser, download beta).\u00a0 Sure, we had our share of browser wars, and we still do, but this is something completely different.\u00a0 Most of today's browsers started back in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23722,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/18\/microsoft-doubles-msie-web-pain-with-spartan\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":4},"title":"Microsoft doubles MSIE web pain with Spartan","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Verge reports that Microsoft is killing its Internet Explorer brand. \u00a0Don't confuse it with the browser though. Internet Explorer will\u00a0still exist in some versions of Windows 10 mainly for enterprise compatibility, but the new Project Spartan will be named separately and will be the primary way for Windows 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MSIE","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MSIE-500x333.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14962,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/26\/does-microsoft-internet-explorer-really-hate-google-chrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":15010,"position":5},"title":"Does Microsoft Internet Explorer really hate Google Chrome?","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"May 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day I wanted to install Google Chrome browser on the nearby Windows PC. \u00a0Here is what I saw when I opened the download page in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To help protect security, Internet Explorer blocked this site from downloading files to your computer. I know, it's probably a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/google_chrome_blocked_in_msie-500x303.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15010"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=15010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}