Unlike their desktop/laptop rival Microsoft, Apple does not go out of its way to alert their user base that they are withdrawing support for a version of their Operating System. It just happens.
The last security update for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was released last September, but there was no announcement that support was ending. However, a good clue was when Apple released important patches for the Safari browser, but did not include patches for the version used for OS X 10.6. If there was any mystery to it, the case is closed today as Apple has released security updates for OS X 10.7 and higher, leaving Snow Leopard users in the cold!
However you feel about Microsoft’s handling of XP and other issues, they at least publish their “Support Life-Cycle” schedule for all products. Microsoft phases out support by ending what they call “main stream support” first, including for warranty support and for related consumer products. They then end all “Extended Support”, most critically for security patches, 5 years later. It is no surprise that Windows XP extended support ends April 8th of this year.
The problem for users of OS X10.6 and Windows XP is that hackers will zero in on them, knowing that any vulnerability they find will remain unpatched. And they are substantial targets, with 20% of Mac users and almost 30% of Windows users operating these venerable but vulnerable platforms.
While we cannot recommend staying on an unsupported platform, we firmly believe that should be the choice of the computer user. You may have been abandoned by Apple and Microsoft, but not by Xcitium.
Xcitium still has your back!
If for whatever reason you want to stay with OS 10.6 or XP, you can still obtain the best security protection available by using Xcitium Internet Security and Xcitium Antivirus for the Mac to, particularly against so-called “Zero-Day Attacks” where no known fix for the specific vulnerability . Both versions have features to deal with threats that are not currently addressed in the latest virus signature file, aka the blacklist.
Best of all, both versions have full featured editions that are 100% free without limited time periods..
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