Old browsers - old OS - TLS

Aug 03, 2026 Last reply: 27 minutes ago 3 Replies

I tend to use the obsolescent Seamonkey for browsing, unless forced otherwise. Firefox will then usually answer in that case, though even they have recently refused to maintain compatibility with older (my) operating systems; something about TLS changes.



Today I was pulling old data sheets from the Analog Devices website - the pages of which Seamonkey can now only display as text indexing, so resorting to Firefox:


- Using Firefox I got denied access to the direct .pdf links.



- Using Seamonkey, the downloads progressed without issues.



. . . this all in now-venerable W7 OS.



Any speculation about what's tripping up the 'compatible' browser? Are recent security changes tripping over themselves in maintaining basic function?



RL


Firefox under Win11 is pretty good. It wants to update fairly often but doesn't seem to change much. It doesn't crash. It opens PDFs just fine.

Some of the add-ins are good too.

I really miss Win7. It did everything right.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

How out-of-date is your Firefox release? I noticed lots of problems accessing "mainstream" sites using Ffox under W7 and grudgingly updated to W10 -- which I am now abandoning in favor of FBSD.

[Note that the only apps I run on an out-facing machine are Ffox & Tbird]

The "problem" is related to changes in those sites as Ffox was quite happy with most other sites visited.

[No doubt some IT dweeb decided to update the corporate site without concern for the folks who might be accessing it -- nor the skill to be able to push a notice to "unsupported browsers"]

Have you tried wget(1)? It likely will give you more clues...

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