On Wed, 2 Sep 2020, Hal Murray via devel wrote:

As of 1.1.9, NTPsec doesn't build "normally" on Debian 7...

Debian 7 is pretty old.  Support ended May 2018

Do we want to support versions of distros that the vendor doesn't support any
more?  My vote would be no.

There are sometimes significant obstacles to upgrading. And if A requires a fairly recent B, and B requires a fairly recent C, and C requires a fairly recent D, and D can't be upgraded for some reason, then the entire chain is held back. Breaking the chain requires applying the Internet Robustness Principle (at least the relevant half) to version requirements as much as possible.

Now of course what's actually tested is a somewhat different issue. Some products have the concept of "support tiers" for OS versions or other similar dependencies. E.g.:

Tier 1) We test this, and will definitely fix any bugs.

Tier 2) We don't test this, but try not to break it, and will consider fixing bugs, especially if actual fixes are supplied.

Tier 3) We don't test this, and don't make any effort to keep it working. We *may* consider incorporating fixes.

Tier 99) Impractical to support, for good technical reasons.

Fred Wright
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