On Oct 23, 2013, at 7:07 AM, HawkOwl <hawk...@atleastfornow.net> wrote:
> Hi everyone, > > I have raised the question of Windows XP support in Twisted earlier today in > #twisted-dev. Since the Microsoft "extended support" cut-off is within six or > so months, and there is continuing trouble with the XP-based buildslave, I > think it would be a good idea to get a figure of how many Windows XP users > there are currently using Twisted, so informed decisions can be made in > regards to supporting it. > > If you use Twisted on Windows XP, please comment on ticket #6798 [1], so we > can get an idea of the usage numbers. > > -hawkowl I have 2 concerns with XP support; one is that an existing user will be unable to upgrade to a new version of Twisted, but an equally valid concern is that Twisted would be unsuitable for a *new* application because of a requirement to run on XP. And although Microsoft doesn't support it, there are still millions and millions of computers with it installed. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems> Perhaps more interesting than that ~30% number, though, is the fact that ~7% of the Steam user base is still actively using XP on machines they play games on: <http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey> And I'd definitely like Twisted to stay true to its roots and remain an attractive option for game developers. I'm pretty sure no games on the Steam store currently use Twisted, but I would like that to change ;-). "First, sacrifice 7% of your potential revenue" seems like a bad starting point for the pitch for why Twisted would be great to use in their game. Nevertheless I can definitely understand the appeal of dropping support for XP, too. I really hope that the "extended support" cut-off is going to provoke a massive drop in those numbers, but somehow I suspect that a substantial fraction of the people on those systems are going to keep using them until they physically fail, and do not know or care whether Microsoft "supports" them. Also, aren't the majority of the problems on the Windows buildslave just race conditions that we don't seem to hit with our other builders right now? It would be good to have it be regularly green *before* it's decommissioned. (If you're referring to operational issues keeping it running, then, by all means carry on.) -glyph _______________________________________________ Twisted-Python mailing list Twisted-Python@twistedmatrix.com http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-python
