Is it okay to drop Windows XP support?

Crimson Wizard · Sat 18/08/2018 13:04:24

Recently morganw found an issue that would be easier to solve if AGS Editor would run on .NET Framework 4.5, but that would make it totally incompatible with Windows XP. If I understood correctly, this is not the only way, but over time such situations will happen more often.

Here is the table of Windows XP share among all AGS uses built from anonymouse user statistics: https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/issues/489#issuecomment-413011191

It shows decline of Windows XP percentage in the past several years, but few people are still using it (unfortunately it does not show which versions of AGS).
There are also couple of anomalies, like the one around 2016-06 when Windows XP share suddenly rised from 3.64% to 71.50%, and 2017-04 when it rised to 12% for one month, but I cannot explain these.

I am also curious about people running AGS on Wine under Linux, which versions of .NET it supports?

eri0o · Sat 18/08/2018 13:58:22

My experience as a Wine user says testing is the only way to findout.

WineHQ entry on .NET 4.5, which says it works without issues.

Cassiebsg · Sat 18/08/2018 15:05:55

I'm not using XP, but it's now a fairly old and outdated OS, so I guess if ppl want to use XP they can always use an older version of the engine. So I vote drop.

ChamberOfFear · Mon 20/08/2018 00:39:52

My vote is drop support for Windows XP, but maybe wait to update .NET until AGS v3.5.0 so that Windows XP users can keep using prevous versions and receive minor bugfix support on v3.4.x

Snarky · Mon 20/08/2018 00:42:39

Yes.

Crimson Wizard · Mon 20/08/2018 00:51:26

Quote from: ChamberOfFear on Mon 20/08/2018 00:39:52
My vote is drop support for Windows XP, but maybe wait to update .NET until AGS v3.5.0 so that Windows XP users can keep using prevous versions and receive minor bugfix support on v3.4.x

The question is about dropping it for the current WIP version, now known as 3.4.2 (but these numbers are temporary), because the mentioned problem is from one of its new internal features.

Engine itself should be able to continue running on Windows XP (although I did not test that yet).

morganw · Mon 20/08/2018 09:51:21

I think there was a suggestion of rebranding 3.4.2+ as 3.5 anyway, just because of the level of change?
Release version is on .NET 2.0, and 3.4.2 is currently on .NET 4.0, so it has already been upgraded.

The usage numbers for XP were actually much lower than I was expecting, so I'd vote to drop it.

Crimson Wizard · Mon 20/08/2018 10:26:39

Quote from: morganw on Mon 20/08/2018 09:51:21
I think there was a suggestion of rebranding 3.4.2+ as 3.5 anyway, just because of the level of change?

My point was, these are just numbers, and I was wondering what version ChamberOfFear means feature-wise.

Danvzare · Mon 20/08/2018 11:00:15

Hmm, Windows XP is still used by quite a few people.
But support for Windows XP has been dropped by just about everyone else (simply getting an internet browser for that operating system is a pain), so no one will be expecting the newest version of any program to be able to run on Windows XP, let alone AGS.

So I think you should drop it. But we need to make sure that we highlight the most up to date version of AGS that can run on Windows XP, for anyone who is still using Windows XP and wishes to dive into the engine.

Joseph DiPerla · Mon 20/08/2018 13:57:17

Agree with Danvzare.

Matti · Wed 22/08/2018 09:43:25

I agree with Danvzare too.

Dave Gilbert · Thu 23/08/2018 14:25:27

+1 in favor of dropping it. The manual still says Windows 98 and ME are supported, too. I assume that's no longer true.