Supermium

Supermium is a free and open-source web browser developed by Shane Fournier who founded the Legacy Software Corporation in May 2023. It is a fork of Chromium with its main feature being support for older versions of Microsoft Windows that are no longer supported by Chromium; this includes all versions prior to Windows 10, starting with Windows XP Service Pack 1.

It includes features like the Google Sync service which even work on Windows XP, as well as multiple UI themes to make the browser reminiscent of older versions of Google Chrome, like the so called "trapezoidal tabs" or Google Chrome 109's UI. The browser also includes several flags from the ungoogled-chromium project for users that have concerns about their privacy and to prevent connections to Google services. The developer plans to introduce features such as Windows 2000 support, WebGPU for D3D9 rendering, and support for Manifest v2 extensions in future versions.

Supermium has 32-bit and 64-bit executables. Its version numbers are parallel with Chromium's, but revisions of the same main version, like R4, are added to the version number.

History

Supermium debuted in May 2023 to supersede the developer's previous approach to bring modern versions of Google Chrome and other modern software to Windows Vista. Initial efforts consisted of a collection of modified system binaries (bundled in an installable package called the ''Extended Kernel'') that adds system functions in order to make the browser compatible with Vista. This approach reached its limit when Google dropped support for Chrome on versions of Windows earlier than Windows 10, with version 110 in February 2023. The initial goal centered on Vista became insufficient, which led to the creation of the Supermium project, and at the same time making new software and drivers compatible with older Windows versions led to the founding of the ''Legacy Software Corporation'' by Shane Fournier, the developer.

Initially, the objective of the first versions of Supermium were to bring back support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, and progressively add support for older versions of Windows as the project stabilizes, in a decreasing order.

The first version published online, version 115.0.5744.0, based on Chromium 115, was released as a proof-of-concept for future versions, and to demonstrate the feasibility of such a project. This initial version of the browser runs on Windows 8 and later, though it can also run on Windows 7 and Windows Vista with the ''Extended Kernel'' with sandboxing features disabled.

Version 119 marks the arrival of the full support for Windows Vista, which no longer requires the presence of the ''Extended Kernel'', as well as the initial efforts to add back support for XP, such as the re-implementation of the GDI rendering. Support for Windows XP was added in Version 121.

As the project progressed, some unique features started to arrive on Supermium. In parallel of the re-addition of XP compatibility, Version 121 started to implement some appearance flags to give the browser the look of older Chromium versions, starting with trapezoidal-shaped tabs similar to those in Chromium versions prior to 67, and a compact UI option to get the proportions UI elements have in version 49. Those cosmetic features went a step farther in the subsequent v122 releases, with the additions of several flags to better replicate the classic look.

Version 132 introduced new features like a legacy sandbox, forced dark mode, disabling GPU driver bug workarounds to use all features on older graphics cards, a compact UI to reminiscent older Chrome versions, as well as a flag to change the UI.

Requirements

Supermium is compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 RTM, and above. It requires a 32-bit (IA-32) or 64-bit (x86-64) processor with at least support for the SSE3 instruction set. Since version 132, there is a special version compiled for running on pre-SSE3 processors. It has been reported to run on processors as old as the Pentium 4.

Reception

In a positive review, Softpedia's Roberto Samir wrote, "Given how powerful nostalgia can be for those who grow tired of the rather sterile and minimalist design of nowadays' operating systems, a brief return to the past can be made easier with Supermium whenever internet browsing is part of the equation."

German IT blogger Guenter Born gives the browser also a positive review at his blog, by saying that "the browser starts extremely fast and also works under Windows 7", and comparing it to ungoogled-chromium by saying " at I liked (compared to Ungoogled) is the fact that Google is already preconfigured as a search engine."

References

External links

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Chromium Legacy
a similar project for old versions of macOS ( 10.7 and above)

{{Web browsers, active

2023 software
Windows web browsers
Free and open-source software
C++ software
Web browsers
Freeware