[Bf-committers] Windows XP support

[patrick boelens]

"I am happy to continue providing builds but I would really like to discontinue support after 2.77"

I think would be the most optimal solution. I don't know how the current distribution is, but I seem to recall last time this was brought up that a lot of XP downloads (and there was a substantial amount back then) came from less wealthy countries. Being able to provide 3D software to these users seems like a very positive endeavour, though of course Blender can't support XP forever either. If pushing out builds for as long as possible is a viable option, that would 100% have my vote. I only find it reasonable to drop support for it and newer/ incompatible features then.

Just my two cents,
Patrick

> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 18:03:56 +0100
> From: martijn.berger at gmail.com
> To: bf-committers at blender.org
> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Windows XP support
> 
> Hi Mat,
> 
> the issue is not so much technical difficulty of getting a build, that is
> trivial compared to the cost of not supporting newer API's in terms of
> performance and accepting bug reports from people with an ancient non
> supported system and usually hardware to match.
> I am happy to continue providing builds but I would really like to
> discontinue support after 2.77
> 
> Martijn
> 
> On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 4:32 PM, matmenu <matmenu at live.fr> wrote:
> 
> > HI Matijn,
> >
> > It's ok to drop xp for 2.8. It would be good to keep everyone on board
> > for 2.7x but if it's really to much hassle, I think everyone can
> > understand. Bliblubli on BA did a xp compatible build of latest master
> > with OpenVDB. Maybe you can join forces?
> >
> > Mat
> >
> > On 29/01/2016 09:50, Martijn Berger wrote:
> > > Hi Sergey,
> > >
> > > I think that we should drop window XP after 2.77. And switch to msvc 2015
> > > for 2.78 and 2.8 also.
> > >
> > > We should clearly advertise windows 7 SP1. As most issue are with FMA /
> > AVX
> > > support and windwos 7 pre SP1 has some issues there.
> > >
> > > Martijn
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 9:31 AM, Sergey Sharybin <sergey.vfx at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hey everyone,
> > >>
> > >> There are some difficulties in maintaining Windows XP and additionally
> > >> there are some glitches in the toolset needed to compile Windows XP
> > >> compatible binaries.
> > >>
> > >> So proposal is: make 2.77 a last release which officially supports
> > Windows
> > >> XP and for the further releases switch to Windows 7+ platforms only.
> > We'll
> > >> still be doing 64bit and 32bit builds, but just wouldn't waste time
> > trying
> > >> to support new features on a platform which is no longer supported by
> > >> others.
> > >>
> > >> Thoughts?
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> With best regards, Sergey Sharybin
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