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Ask HN: Why doesn't Google release Chrome for Windows 2K?
It would seem that doing so would offer significant competitive advantage to Google:
1) it would allow lots of people with low end hardware to be able to run a very fast, standards compliant browser on the Windows platform.
2) it would put pressure on MS to backport IE9, and if MS did so it would hurt Windows sales.
3) Win2K lacks the same level of copy protection as newer versions of Windows, and is very widespread in the 3rd world.
So does anyone have any speculation (or first hand knowledge) about why this hasn't happened?
- Detrus 16y agoStrategy and development priorities. By the time they reach significant penetration, that Win2K audience will be smaller. If they spend a lot of effort supporting old systems now, they'll have less resources for making Chrome better on modern OSs, which will slow down HTML5 and hurt penetration.
- clark-kent 16y agoMy experience is that Windows XP is more popular around the world than Win 2k. I don't remember Win 2k ever being mainstream. Windows 98 was the more popular option before XP.
- ndl 16y agoGoogle is aiming into the future. Targeting legacy systems can be a great way to solve customer pain and get easy users, but it's usually not a long term growth strategy.
- stretchwithme 16y agoMore importantly, why ain't there an OS/2 version? This is Google's chance to pressure IBM into resurrecting Web Exploder.
- brudgers 16y agoMicrosoft isn't even porting IE9 to XP, so I doubt Chrome for Win2k would cause them panic.
- Raphael 16y agoIt's open source. Go nuts with your defunct platforms.