2 ms·

I don't know about whether it is deliberate, but I know it's much more complicated than just retaining old APIs. It's incredibly easy to break legacy compatibil

I don't know about whether it is deliberate, but I know it's much more complicated than just retaining old APIs. It's incredibly easy to break legacy compatibility. You only need to provide a server that serves images. What can possibly go wrong? I notice that many text-only websites don't even work with old phones/computers now. It's because some older browsers don't do HTTP/1.1. More importantly, they don't do modern encryption standards, and web servers don't like that at all. Or maybe you have expired (root) certificates on the client, and the OS/your app doesn't provide a way to override/upgrade the certificates. I have seen more legacy apps break because of encryption than any other cause. You patch/upgrade the server software or you renew your certificate, and suddenly the legacy support is gone. It's very tricky. I don't know, but I bet part of what made Gmaps clients so compatible is because the legacy clients didn't do HTTPS, and Google's servers don't require HTTPS.

collinmanderson 9y ago
> they don't do modern encryption standards, and web servers don't like that at all Yes, and come July 1st, many websites will only allow TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 to be PCI compliant, which will knock out a bunch of old clients. > I bet part of what made Gmaps clients so compatible is because the legacy clients didn't do HTTPS, and Google's servers don't require HTTPS. That's my hunch too.
- burfog 9y ago
  Those old clients can have security advantages. For example, my MPC7400 processor is immune to meltdown and spectre. It also isn't supported by a typical javascript JIT, so that wipes out lots of other potential exploits. I'm pretty sure the RAM is old enough to be immune to rowhammer; it is PC133 in slots specified for PC100. The web browser is of course obsolete. Newer ones run slower, take more RAM than the 512 MiB that the system has, expect a GPU, and have lots of dependencies.

collinmanderson 9y ago

> they don't do modern encryption standards, and web servers don't like that at all Yes, and come July 1st, many websites will only allow TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 to be PCI compliant, which will knock out a bunch of old clients. > I bet part of what made Gmaps clients so compatible is because the legacy clients didn't do HTTPS, and Google's servers don't require HTTPS. That's my hunch too.

burfog 9y ago
Those old clients can have security advantages. For example, my MPC7400 processor is immune to meltdown and spectre. It also isn't supported by a typical javascript JIT, so that wipes out lots of other potential exploits. I'm pretty sure the RAM is old enough to be immune to rowhammer; it is PC133 in slots specified for PC100. The web browser is of course obsolete. Newer ones run slower, take more RAM than the 512 MiB that the system has, expect a GPU, and have lots of dependencies.