Windows Vista support

[2008WindowsVista]

Hello all, I wasn't really sure where to post this, but anyway here goes.
As my username suggests, I am still a proud user of Windows Vista. I know that this operating system is not particularly loved by very many or widely used these days, but I believe as an operating system, after SP1 and SP2 were released, Vista became a very stable and usable OS, with the Platform Update improving it even further. Unfortunately, while it may seem impossible to believe, Windows Vista is now coming close to the end of its extended support phase, and will stop receiving security updates on April 11, 2017, just one year and four months from now. As we all know, Windows XP faced the same fate back in April of 2014, and as a result, the main branch of Pale Moon stopped supporting it. I'm also willing to bet that developing for XP was difficult and costly since it's based on the old Windows NT 5.x kernel. Windows Vista however, is a different story. Vista started a new foundation, Windows NT 6.0, and all subsequent versions, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 (which are NT 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 10.0 [really 6.4 in disguise] respectively) have all built on this foundation, and as a result, share much of the same code and remain a close sibling to Vista (especially Windows 7). Windows Vista and 7 are particularly very similar compared to other Windows versions. With the Platform Update, Vista even supports Directwrite font rendering, DirectX 11, and received many new Windows 7 APIs that make it almost identical to at least Windows 7 RTM. I would like to ask, while Vista may be considered "obsolete" by Microsoft in 2017, bearing in mind that Vista should not be too difficult to develop for considering the similarities to Windows 7, will Pale Moon continue to support it? Even if they don't test the browser on it, would it be possible to not disallow installations on Vista? I can understand dropping XP support since like I stated before, was its own kernel, whereas Vista shares the same kernel with 7, which is the world's most popular operating system.
Also, Windows Server 2008, the original Vista-based release, recently received a support extension of 3 years, lining it's end of life date with that of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 (January 2020), so in a way, Vista will still be supported by Microsoft until 2020, but only the Server version. Taking all of this into account, I fail to see any real reason as to why dropping Vista support would be a good idea. Firefox will most likely continue supporting it post-EOL, as they have been known to do so with Windows 2000 and now XP. If Pale Moon drops support for Vista (with the platform update) while continuing to support its extremely close sibling (Win7), I believe that it will be due to laziness, rather than technical limitations. That's just my two cents, I won't say anymore, lol.
Thanks in advance.

[half-moon]

Off-topic:
I'm not trying to be rude, but please use paragraphs next time

I think too, that vista was a pretty decent OS (although I never used it) and I don't see any reason why near-future versions of PM should fail to work. TBH, you might want to think about switching to a later version of Windows or some other OS for day to day usage when the day comes.

[2008WindowsVista]

Haha, please don't use this to judge my language arts skills, I typed this from an iPhone so it wasn't exactly easy to type, let alone make paragraphs, my apologies.
If Firefox continues to support Vista, I'll probably switch to that. It's similar enough to PM and it's at least far better than any Google product.
I hope Moonchild will consider supporting Vista until at least 2019/20, but if they do drop support, I think at the very least that they could still allow installation on Vista, but make a disclaimer that they're no longer testing for it. That would be better than just straight up blocking it IMO.

[Moonchild]

There is no reason to drop Vista support at the application level for us -- but we can't give any guarantees that everything will work smoothly on it.
As you indicated yourself, Vista is of the same major kernel revision as Win 7, Win 8.* and Win 10, so from a compiler/system lib point of view, it's pretty much the same target platform and subsystem. Not so fot XP, unfortunately, being of the NT5 era which has quite a few limitations in comparison.

So, even if the OS is "at your own risk" past EoL, there's no direct danger to Vista as a supported target platform.

[2008WindowsVista]

That's good to know. I didn't think there would be any technical reason why Vista support couldn't be kept up, especially ever since the Platform Update came out.
And even after 2017, given Vista's low market share and better security compared to XP, I seriously doubt continuing to use Vista would pose any security risk, especially compared to Windows XP. Unlike XP, when Vista was being developed, improving security was a top priority, and I believe that Vista stands a much, much better chance than XP in that regard. And with Malwarebytes, Comodo, safe browsing habits and common sense, I think Vista would pose no security risk to keep using. As I said before, its low market share alone is enough to deter those supposed "hackers" from targeting it, whereas XP was (and still is) a very popular operating system, making it a much bigger target.

[Trippynet]

Although that is a fair point, do note that because Vista shares a lot of code with Windows 7, it means that future Windows 7/8/8.1 etc. vulnerabilities may also be present in Vista. Hence, a vulnerability is discovered, Windows 7 and above are patched, but Vista remains vulnerable to the exploit once it reaches the end of its extended support phase. A hacker develops a virus or whatever which attacks this exploit, and it therefore is successful in exploiting un-patched Windows 7 machines and Vista machines as well.

Just something to bear in mind. Vista can be exploited without an attack being specifically targeted at it.

[2008WindowsVista]

That is true, however I think most malware and viruses these days come from inexperienced users clicking on every ad or popup they see, along with falling victim to those malicious pop ups like the ones that claim that you need to "update Flash" or "Install this cleaner to speed up your PC." As long as you don't do those things, I think Vista will be fine from a security standpoint. Using Comodo's secure DNS and Firewall, MBAM, MBAE (anti exploit, it supports PM), Avast Free, and working under a standard user account would probably pretty much take care of most if not all potential threats to Vista.
Like I said before, if you're really concerned about security, Windows Server 2008 is the pretty much the exact same OS as Vista, and it can be made into a workstation, as I've done so several times myself. It will be supported until January 2020, like Windows 7. While some people may disagree with using Server 2008 as a workstation, you should really try it for yourself, as MS offers an evaluation version to download. I think you'd be pretty surprised with the results. There may even be a way to "trick" Windows Update to fetch for Server 2008 updates instead of Vista updates after 2017, sort of like POSReady 2009 and XP. Server 2008 and Vista are identical operating systems, they even share the same NT 6.0 build 6002 label, so I doubt that the Server 2008 updates would cause any harm.
In fact, with the infamous telemetry and the forced Windows 10 upgrades, you have to be careful with updating Windows 7 these days, unless you don't care if 10 installs itself automatically. I've heard that MS will be making it a recommended update sooner or later. At least we know Vista won't be affected by these things.

[11ryanc]

Been meaning to ask about Vista support myself. Happy to see there's no intention to totally block it, as I'm a user of the OS myself. Always appreciated the more open nature found under Mozilla-like projects, of no exception here. Needn't I say the Chromium invasion is an ugly world, Lol.
As far as security patches go, that's a fair point. I'd be willing to bet the majority of security flaws and malware exetubles would work on either target system. I have seen instances of XP failing to execute some recent malware kits though, find that quite funny However, I view Microsoft a more vigorous enemy than any other hypothetical security flaw as of now. Of the 7 installs that I manage, refrain from installing any patches past early 2015. Not willing to fall victim to my data being collected, and/or tossed onto another OS upon waking up in the morning. With good habit, data backups, and fair deal of security software. I'm not overly concerned. Yep @, same suite here. MBAM, Anti Exploit, Comodo Essentials.
Yes, most server variants of Windows can fill the role of a client in proper setup. Less convenient though imo. Bear in mind licensing cost too. Vista probably would install some of the Server updates, already share same Service Packs and such. I suppose it could make a good replacement for an enthusiast in the minority that desires updates for a while longer.