Still testing – this is my first post from Supermium, still on my test laptop. Everything looks fine, Discourse is happy, I’m happy. It pretty much looks just like Chrome I’ll probably install it on my main desktop in the next few days.
@thorny_locust, this looks like the best hope for Mac users with old OS’s (that can’t upgrade of course.)
Everyone about WinPC upgrade paths, I’m going to suggest this is a good time to spin it off, you’re not answering the OP and this isn’t really the right forum for this.
If you are responding to something in a thread that is basically off-topic or likely to lead to a hijack, try this:
How to Reply as a linked Topic:
Click Reply, in the upper left corner of the reply window is the reply type button, looks like a curving arrow point to the right.
Choose Reply as linked topic and it starts a new thread. As an example, you can choose GD, IMHO or The Pit for it.
That is actually the best method.
@wolfpup, I hope that works out for you and thank you for reporting back. As that is very much on topic, please continue.
Well, this is Discourse. If anyone remembers interacting with its principle designer in his time here as an SDMB participant (before Discourse was a thing, while he was researching ideas for it), his standing perspective was that users are wrong and have no choice but to come around. Otherwise, they don’t matter anymore anyway.
Closed while waiting for a Forum Moderator to decide what to do with this thread. Staying on topic appears to be a non-starter.
Moderator Note
Let’s keep in mind that Discourse provides our hosting as well as our tech support, and therefore they are considered to be Staff here. This post comes across a bit too much as attacking the staff.
No matter what your opinion of the Discourse devs, let’s all be respectful. You are free to disagree with how they do things, just be polite when presenting your opinion and do so in a manner that doesn’t come off like an attack.
A post was merged into an existing topic: New Cheap PC for Windows 11 or supporting Discourse discussion or Obsoleting OP Systems and Browsers.
A post was merged into an existing topic: New Cheap PC for Windows 11 or supporting Discourse discussion
I moved as much as possible out of this thread so that this could be for possible non new hardware answers for the OP and others with this issue.
Please use the new thread for all the side conversations.
Thanks. I’ll keep folks here updated but I suspect there won’t be much to report until the fateful day in May when all the older browsers stop working.
I did have one disturbing thought, and I don’t think anyone can provide an answer other than the Discourse developers, which is the following. Exactly how does Discourse determine that a certain browser will no longer work with the updated site as of May and pop up the warning banner? If they’re just checking the browser name and release number, they’ve probably never heard of Supermium, so that might not trigger the warning. OTOH, if they’re actually probing for support of the required features, then all is good.
Regardless, since Supermium is a recent release and is automatically updated just like Chrome, and its whole purpose is to maintain current functionality, I’m hopeful. Worst case, I do have my emergency Windows 11 laptop that I bought back in January (and haven’t even set up yet!).
Just a small update to the above. Supermium appears to follow the same version numbering as Chrome(ium). The Discourse notice says that “the minimum Chrome(ium) version [that will be supported as of May] is v119 (Oct 2023)”. According to Google the latest current version is 134.0.6998.183. Supermium reports its version as 132.0.6834.191. So, looking hopeful.
Discourse only knows what browser you are using because the browser sends a User Agent string which gives information on what browser you are using. You can use a browser addon/extension to change what information is being sent.
I mean I think that updating the user agent information to a current browser means that 1. There won’t be any changes immediately in May happening but 2. In the long run when bugs occur and they need to be fixed, the fixes won’t be tested on older browsers so the browsers could break then.
But doesn’t anyone here understand about user agents and can explain this?
Just to clarify, as the OP: I don’t want a Windows computer. Everything I’ve done on computer in well over 20 years is on Mac systems, my tablet is Mac OS, my records are in Mac programs, and I have no desire whatsoever to spend whatever bits of cash I can scrape up on a computer running on a different system.
So a “new cheap PC for Windows” may be a good solution for others but it’s not a solution at all for me.
And I really will have to come back to this another time (though obviously before May, if only at least to try logging in on the iPad) as this week is already out of hand entirely with additional things I have to deal with.) Thanks to all for the assorted Mac suggestions and I may get back to you eventually.
That’s often how sites determine whether the browser is supported or not, but according to the discussion in the Discourse thread linked in the OP (under “learn more”) someone wrote a fairly simple HTML script that allegedly tests for the three features Discourse will be requiring, which is allegedly the test that Discourse is doing before putting up the warning.
I ran it on several browsers and it came back with at least two of the three features not supported. Then I ran it with Supermium … 
I am sorry I could not be helpful. I know nothing about Macs.
Also, it would make me sad if you left the SDMB. I really hope you find a solution.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: New Cheap PC for Windows 11 or supporting Discourse discussion {Also obsoleting Browsers & OP systems}
For @thorny_locust (no rush, BTW) and anyone else on an old Mac (of at least macOS 10.14 Mojave), I just wanted to confirm that Orion also passes all the tests (which are at Discourse Feature Test) and should be able to continue to run Discourse:
So if you can install that, it should buy you a little more time. Orion has its bugs and quirks, but at least it’ll let you keep posting in the meantime. You don’t have to use it for anything else.
I would also encourage anyone affected by this to directly complain to Discourse on their own forum about it: Dropping iOS 15 & other old browsers in May 2025 - Announcements - Discourse Meta
It only takes a second to make another account there (while your browser is still supported, lol) to let them know it’s affecting you. A lot of web devs live in the near-future, writing these apps on the latest & greatest machines, and don’t have a good idea of those “long tail” of regular users that their seemingly minor changes could hurt.
Letting them know you are one of those real people who will be cut off from your community because of these minor changes will hopefully get them to rethink the situation… maybe.
It may be possible to use an existing mac as a keyboard/touchpad input device for your iPad using the Universal Control feature. It’s described here:
It looks like it needs iOS Ventura or later, which may work on computers from 2017 or so. The OP’s computer is from 2014, so no help there, but maybe it would work for others in a similar situation.
Summary
User agent sniffing was already going out of style when I stopped doing webdev in 2012.
The website designer cannot trust that the UA string isn’t being faked. Usually by somebody trying to run obsolete versions.
So capability sniffing has been the norm for a decade or more. Don’t ask “are you a version of [whatever browser] at/after version [xxx], because we think that version supports doing [blah blah blah]?”. Instead try to do [blah blah blah] and watch whether the browser errors out or does it right.
This is not the thread for this part, please take this conversation to the other. New Cheap PC for Windows 11 or supporting Discourse discussion {Also obsoleting Browsers & OP systems} - #56 by filmore
They probably have info on exactly how many people are hitting their sites with which browsers. What they don’t know is how many people with old browsers just haven’t bothered to update, and how many are hardware limited. They may also have software suggestions of their own for people on old hardware.