[tor-talk] Dropping Tor Browser support for Mac OSX 10.6?

[Tor Talker]

The question was whether any users need Tor on Mac OS 10.6, and I made the case for the users of a new system we are about to announce.  Also, all we really want is the tor executable, not the browser component, but we want it to be signed by the Tor Project (or an equally trustworthy authority).

It might not be difficult to package the OS X TBB with a tor executable the is compatible back to 10.6, even if the browser required x64.  FWIW, x64 support is not needed in tor: AES instructions are available in the ia32 instruction set (on processors with AES support); and, anyway, tor doesn't visibly load even my older computers.  Of course it might be a major effort to build and test this component for the older OS.  I trust the Tor developers to make a good decision here.

As for supporting the Tor Project.  Absolutely!  If we make any money I intend to donate part of it, but the client software will be free (GPL3) and the protocol is designed to prevent tracking so there is no way to bill users.

On 3 Sep 2014, at 2:14 PM, Herbert <herbert.danzinger at gmail.com> wrote:

> if you're releasing a paid product which depends on torbrowser running on 10.6, are you willing to donate for 10.6 support maintenance?
> 
> as a developer you might be aware of the caveats when supporting 32 and 64 bit versions. apart from not having to write hundreds of #ifdefs, testing 50% less configurations also makes a difference when it comes to quality, when you have very limited ressources.
> 
> i'd rather see the tor dev team working on a better tor, than on supporting outdated os, seen security wise.
> 
> and this is what the majority of tor community members demand: more security.
> 
> just my 2c