Re: Should We Start Dropping Windows XP Support?

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 30/12/14 13:30, Emmanuele Bassi wrote:
> > > I've been arguing for a year or more that we should phase out XP support
> > > - but the more senior devs don't agree.  Why?  Because a surprising
> > > number of our Windows users are still running XP (probably more than a
> > > third).  XP is still far more common than you might think.
> >
> >
> > I agree that we should base this decision on numbers.
>
> I would not use a single application usage data, however skewed it may
> be, though, to be quite fair.

Hey Emmanuele :)

Just to be clear, I didn't mean app stats, but how many people are 
generally using Windows XP these days.

> if we look at OS usage statistics for websites, XP goes from <5%
> (below Linux! we won! oh, wait…) to ~14%, which is far below 33%. it's
> also steadily decreasing month to month, and Microsoft terminating
> support for XP was likely the final nail in the coffin. yes, we all
> know people not upgrading their machine because everything else is
> terrible, but it's a balancing act, and we need to ask ourselves if
> we're targeting the retro-computing scene or not.

Yea, this is more what I had mind. Though from my recollection, Windows 
dropped support for Windows 98 before we did with GTK+ 2.x. I could be 
wrong. At the point where Microsoft drop support, I would base the 
decision on the maintenance burden. If it is really a minor amount of 
work to keep support there, then why not (I think you said that too 
Emmanuele :) ).

--
Regards,
Martyn

Founder & Director @ Lanedo GmbH.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/martynrussell