The 5 operating systems that will become significantly less secure when Chrome cuts off updates to them next year

Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista operating systems, along with Mac’s OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7 (Lion), and 10.8 (Mountain Lion), will all become significantly less secure come April 2016, as that is when Google’s Chrome browser will stop providing the five OSs with updates to its platform.

The decision, which was announced earlier in the year with far less specifics like which OSs would be impacted and when the support would end, comes after Windows and Apple stopped supporting the browser in an official capacity. 

“Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware,” Chrome Director of Engineering Mark Pawliger said in a blog post, explaining the company’s decision.

The one operating system that could be most impacted by this decision is Microsoft XP. The company’s 14-year-old OS is still widely used in homes and organizations all across the world. Microsoft officially stopped supporting the system last year, but several organizations — including the US Navy — has not updated their computers to a newer system yet. 

The news is also bad for users who want to keep old hardware like the Intel Macs up-and-running with newer versions of the Chrome browser. Google never officially created a version of Chrome for older computers that use PowerPC processors, due in large part to the fact that this particular suite of computers has seemingly been stuck in a state of arrested development, what with their inability to update beyond OS 10.6.8. Other computers (including the mid- and late-2006 versions of the iMac), meanwhile, include hardware deemed too antiquated to allow for an update to a Chrome-supported operating system. 

It’s certainly a tough spot to be in, but once the deadline passes, there won’t be much choice, especially for users who want to keep using their old computers. They will simply have to update their hardware to something more compatible with today’s software, or otherwise be left to defend their computers on their own. 

Via PC World and the Chrome Blog