4 ms·

I generally agree but it sets a worrying precedent. "Today they came for XP and I said nothing" etc. A public deprecation plan would be better next time.

Freak_NL 10y ago
But there was: Microsoft ended support for XP with a more than amiable deprecation plan. Anyone running XP after the final deadline knew they were on borrowed time, and any Dropbox customers remaining on XP after that were on a grace period. How many people still use XP with Dropbox on an internet connected computer? And how many of those are paying customers? For Dropbox it makes no sense to go with more than what they are doing now. Why spend a lot of money in postponing the inevitable? It won't net them any returns, whilst dropping supported for a legacy OS does have tangible benefits (e.g., reduced build times, less (untestable) code, less support). If you really need to run software on an unsupported, unpatched OS, you are way out of the realm of of-the-shelf supported software. You need a custom agreement with the vendor to get that level of support, and you would have gotten ample warning on the impending loss of support with such a contract. It would be different if Dropbox axed support for Windows 8 with only a month of warning, even though they are fully within their rights to do so.
- oliwarner 10y ago
  You're missing the point. Yes old buggy, unpatched software is awful. I know that. I SAID that a few posts ago. The problem here is about how Dropbox communicated with their customers. Or —as in this case— how they didn't communicate. Dropbox has known about the death of XP from 2014. It shouldn't have taken them over two years to remove XP from being a headline supported operating system. They should have said something months ago. They're the service provider. The onus is on them to communicate this stuff in good time. Notice is important because organisations (of all sizes) have legacy systems that can take years to migrate to newer operating systems. Long notice about when your software dies allows you to plan. 30 days notice is going to ruin August for some people.

Freak_NL 10y ago

But there was: Microsoft ended support for XP with a more than amiable deprecation plan. Anyone running XP after the final deadline knew they were on borrowed time, and any Dropbox customers remaining on XP after that were on a grace period. How many people still use XP with Dropbox on an internet connected computer? And how many of those are paying customers? For Dropbox it makes no sense to go with more than what they are doing now. Why spend a lot of money in postponing the inevitable? It won't net them any returns, whilst dropping supported for a legacy OS does have tangible benefits (e.g., reduced build times, less (untestable) code, less support). If you really need to run software on an unsupported, unpatched OS, you are way out of the realm of of-the-shelf supported software. You need a custom agreement with the vendor to get that level of support, and you would have gotten ample warning on the impending loss of support with such a contract. It would be different if Dropbox axed support for Windows 8 with only a month of warning, even though they are fully within their rights to do so.

oliwarner 10y ago
You're missing the point. Yes old buggy, unpatched software is awful. I know that. I SAID that a few posts ago. The problem here is about how Dropbox communicated with their customers. Or —as in this case— how they didn't communicate. Dropbox has known about the death of XP from 2014. It shouldn't have taken them over two years to remove XP from being a headline supported operating system. They should have said something months ago. They're the service provider. The onus is on them to communicate this stuff in good time. Notice is important because organisations (of all sizes) have legacy systems that can take years to migrate to newer operating systems. Long notice about when your software dies allows you to plan. 30 days notice is going to ruin August for some people.