5 ms·

The OS itself might not be broken (though I find 7 way better) but for some native app developpers like me the continued XP support is not welcome at all, since

by stinos 13y ago

The OS itself might not be broken (though I find 7 way better) but for some native app developpers like me the continued XP support is not welcome at all, since it means some of our customers will probably still not upgrade which means we still have to support them. And that means we cannot use all C++/C# features we want or have to resort to ugly workarounds. Just compiling C++ for XP means having to set a flag in Visual Studio, and if you want to do that for multiple projects automatically you've gotta do it system wide. Thats' not nice. Worse is .Net 4.5 is simply not supported at all, so no new goodies which are quite welcome.

taylodl 13y ago
That's your fault for choosing Microsoft as your development platform. You've put them in the driver's seat of your business, which is never a good thing.
- johnduhart 13y ago
  Yeah! Who needs to target 75% of the desktop market! http://www.netmarketshare.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9 http://www.netmarketshare.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9
  - taylodl 13y ago
    Just because Microsoft dominates the desktop market doesn't mean you have to use their tool chain when developing for it - this is especially true when creating commercial applications, not so much for creating business applications for internal use. Microsoft often places restrictions on their tool chain for marketing rather than technical purposes and if you're a commercial software outfit you should be very wary of using their tool chain for that reason.
- stinos 13y ago
  You should consider a broader point of view. Aka never say never. Let me illustrate: first of all, I did not choose that platform directly (though if I could, I would, it is very hard to beat Visual Studio once you get into it), the branch we're in did. This is not some allround web/mobile app but a dedicated high performance desktop application that targets eg the automotive industry. And it's commercial. So if a big player (think Bosh/Siemens) asks you for software that runs on XP, you deliver it, simple as that. The other option is loosing them as a client, which would be about the worst mistake you can make in a startup you have to live from. And by far the easiest way to deliver what we need is by using Visual Studio, don't even try to deny that. Btw another thing about automotive and other huge industries is the typical life-cycle of a product (which in turn is used to produce other, erm, products) is waaaay longer then your typical application. Hence, XP still kinda lives there in some places. Also a lot of the hardware used there is built to last, e.g. your typical National Instruments ADC easily lasts 25 years. Which sometimes leads to (sometimes rather bad) decisions like 'well, then the software should keep on running for 10 years straight from now with no updates. And that again adds to the reasons why XP is still around.
smileysteve 13y ago
Can't your product just stop supporting XP? Like web developers charging for ie6 compatibility, push your true costs of supporting XP to XP - if the conundrum "should we pay $200 more for software X or we can get Windows 8 and it's $200 off the software" seems like an easy answer given no other software in the picture.
- stinos 13y ago
  Can't your product just stop supporting XP? not really an option at the moment. We really thought about it, but then we were like 'it's only for one more year'. And then something else came along, see my other comment below.

by stinos 13y ago

taylodl 13y ago

That's your fault for choosing Microsoft as your development platform. You've put them in the driver's seat of your business, which is never a good thing.

johnduhart 13y ago
Yeah! Who needs to target 75% of the desktop market! http://www.netmarketshare.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9 http://www.netmarketshare.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9
- taylodl 13y ago
  Just because Microsoft dominates the desktop market doesn't mean you have to use their tool chain when developing for it - this is especially true when creating commercial applications, not so much for creating business applications for internal use. Microsoft often places restrictions on their tool chain for marketing rather than technical purposes and if you're a commercial software outfit you should be very wary of using their tool chain for that reason.
stinos 13y ago
You should consider a broader point of view. Aka never say never. Let me illustrate: first of all, I did not choose that platform directly (though if I could, I would, it is very hard to beat Visual Studio once you get into it), the branch we're in did. This is not some allround web/mobile app but a dedicated high performance desktop application that targets eg the automotive industry. And it's commercial. So if a big player (think Bosh/Siemens) asks you for software that runs on XP, you deliver it, simple as that. The other option is loosing them as a client, which would be about the worst mistake you can make in a startup you have to live from. And by far the easiest way to deliver what we need is by using Visual Studio, don't even try to deny that. Btw another thing about automotive and other huge industries is the typical life-cycle of a product (which in turn is used to produce other, erm, products) is waaaay longer then your typical application. Hence, XP still kinda lives there in some places. Also a lot of the hardware used there is built to last, e.g. your typical National Instruments ADC easily lasts 25 years. Which sometimes leads to (sometimes rather bad) decisions like 'well, then the software should keep on running for 10 years straight from now with no updates. And that again adds to the reasons why XP is still around.

smileysteve 13y ago

Can't your product just stop supporting XP? Like web developers charging for ie6 compatibility, push your true costs of supporting XP to XP - if the conundrum "should we pay $200 more for software X or we can get Windows 8 and it's $200 off the software" seems like an easy answer given no other software in the picture.

stinos 13y ago
Can't your product just stop supporting XP? not really an option at the moment. We really thought about it, but then we were like 'it's only for one more year'. And then something else came along, see my other comment below.