Companies now block older browser versions from accessing their websites!
🌐 Many companies now block older browser versions from accessing their websites!
This follows many browser makers ending updates 4 older operating systems, leaving legacy devices unable to use web services without an OS upgrade.
This kinda reminds me of the Java website block by browsers a few years ago, just in reverse. (Revenge? ;)
Old Android versions are also increasingly blocked from accessing the Google appstore.
Truly about security or perhaps Planned Obsolescence?
Update: "old devices can only use old os > old os can only use old browser > old browser cannot use web> poor uneducated people = screwed once again!"
"Only suggesting corporate browsers, kinda like an ad."
It can be both. Plus companies not wanting to spend time (and money)btesting their site on old browser versions. It's already uncommon enough for websites to be tested against anything more than chrome based browsers.
A single semester of an intro to web development course where you test against multiple browser versions should show that even with all the various "auto-cross-compatibility tools" that basic CSS styling isn't consistent across browsers. Even when it's a defined standard.
Ultimately, if you're on a PC, it's not hard to spoof your user agent to appear as a "supported" browser, and after that it's caveat emptor.
It's tempting to believe it's some sort of evil conspiracy, but the reality is that it usually isn't worth the time or effort for a fraction of a percent of users. Not like your boss would give you the time for it anyway. You could call it laziness at worst.
good points, just seems weird to completely block customers, they could also just post a warning "your browser is not supported, use at your own risk" or something like that
99%+ of sites could be written to degrade gracefully and still function just fine as long as they’re standards compliant.
Yeah, at least this way people get forced to move to corporate browsers that track ya, everybody happy, win win, happy end ;)
This is not a new thing.
This path does make sense though. Allowing browsers that are too old leaves a huge potential attack surface due to unpatched vulnerabilities and/or bugs.