Extended support for Firefox 115, the latest ESR (Extended Support Release) vehicle, has been prolonged by Mozilla until March 2025, an extension of six months beyond the usual duration. This means that users can rely on Firefox 115 for a year and a half, instead of the typical year. The additional time for Firefox 115 will run concurrently with the new ESR release, Firefox 128.
The reason behind this extension for Firefox 115 is the necessity to provide updates that are compatible with Windows operating systems 7, 8, and 8.1, as well as MacOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14. The Firefox 115 branch is the final version that will support these systems. It is also noted that in March, there is a possibility that support for the Firefox 115 branch may be extended once more.
According to Mozilla’s statistics, despite Microsoft discontinuing support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 in January 2020, 10.5% of Firefox users continue to use these operating systems. This figure has decreased from 13.7% a year ago and 19.1% two years ago. Google Chrome stopped supporting Windows 7 and Windows 8 in February 2023, making Firefox the only major browser to provide continued support for these older operating systems.