As Google’s popular Chrome browser for the desktop continues to add new features and improvements over time, Google also occasionally removes support for older platforms and devices in order to keep everything running smoothly. Unfortunately for users of older Macs, it looks like OS X 10.5 Leopard is next for the chopping block.
Ars Technica reports that the latest developer build of Chrome 22 has completely dropped support for OS X Leopard, which was released back in 2007. Unfortunately, while it had to happen at some point, this also cuts off users of older Macs from updating to new versions of Chrome in the future.
Some users continue to use OS X Leopard, as it is the last version of OS X that supports the older PowerPC processors. OS X Snow Leopard and later can only be installed on Macs with Intel processors. Fortunately, current versions of Chrome will continue to work as normal.
Chrome is currently at version 20, and considering Google’s upgrade cycle, and the fact that Leopard support will remain until Chrome 22, users will still have a few months before being cut off from upgrades.
