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mullvad / mullvad-browser

Privacy-focused browser for Linux, macOS and Windows. Made in collaboration between @torproject and @mullvad
https://mullvad.net/browser
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website: windows downloads: win10+ qualification is ambiguous #25

Closed Thorin-Oakenpants closed 1 year ago

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 1 year ago

https://mullvad.net/en/download/browser/windows

says on the tin

Works on Windows 10 or later (64 bit only)

It actually works on windows 7 or later, and is discouraging some windows users. I don't expect this to change until ESR128

edit: unless the windows 10 has something to do with the VPN part, in which case it's confusing

Minimalist73 commented 1 year ago

I guess that they don't want users to use the browser on a "deprecated" operating system. The VPN application dropped support for older Windows version since version 2022.1 (Blog post) so it can explain why they set that to W10.

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 1 year ago

I'm not a VPN expert, but there are questions around the system VPN vs extension VPN, indeed I dropped hints about extension limitations in https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1#issuecomment-1496120477

some else smarter than me said

however I think the Mullvad extension in Mullvad browser is not meant to be used as the in-browser VPN but they expect you to run the VPN globally. I say this because there's no UI for connecting to the VPN in the browser itself, or at least I couldn't find it.

anyway, since the site actually "encourages" (IDK if that's the right word) users to use the browser without the VPN as well, I think the wording could be modified - it is discouraging users (I have seen comments saying they can't use it because they are on win7) and will do so for over a year to come - which is at odds with Tor Browser itself

"Requires windows 10+ for VPN" or similar seems better - I'll leave it up to you guys

ruihildt commented 1 year ago

The supported versions on the website corresponds to the platforms we test. We currently test on the following platforms:

Because testing takes time and resources, we decided to only test on the platforms we support.

Outside of the listed platforms, the Mullvad VPN and Mullvad Browser may work. Since we don't test, we can't be sure and in turn we can't recommend it.

I think I understand the case for changing the wording, so I'll bring this point internally and will provide an update when I have an answer.