Dropping Windows XP Support

[another_commander]

Oolite has always aimed at running optimally on as many platforms as possible, regardless of their age. This has been no different for the Windows port, which is confirmed to run fine also on older, low-end systems, with older, low-end versions of the Windows operating system, like WinXP, the current minimum OS requirement.

There comes a time, however, when we need to move on. Technology is advancing and so is the game. New APIs become available and, while they offer new capabilities for doing things that were not considered possible before, they may or may not work acceptably (if at all) on old systems. Trying to remain compatible with what has been long obsoleted means that we may not be able to achieve what we are aiming for and we don't want that; we want to see the game progressing.

Some of the features inserted after the release of version 1.84 have already arrived at this junction. Our recent implementation of secure downloads for the Expansion Pack Manager is already using functionality that is available only post-Windows Vista. Furthermore, even if the game can still run on earlier OS versions despite the presence of those new programming interfaces, we cannot confirm or otherwise test it, because there is nobody in the team with access to a working Windows XP box. As you know, Windows XP reached officially its End of Life on April 8 2014 and Microsoft has not been updating it for more than two years now, which means that, apart from drivers for new hardware etc. being unavailable, XP is not considered at this point a secure operating system to use.

For all these reasons, we are forced to drop Windows XP support for Oolite. This does not necessarily mean that the game will stop running on XP tomorrow. However, we will not be considering compatibility with XP anymore as new features are developed and sooner or later there will come a time when XP systems will not be able to run the game. When this happens, we will not attempt to fix it and the only advice that we will be able to give to any XP user with problems running Oolite will be to upgrade.

The last game version supporting WinXP is 1.84. From now on, the minimum supported OS version for running the game on Windows is Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

[Cody]

If/when you drop support for Win7, I'll sulk!

[another_commander]

Don't worry, I think Win7 support will be around for a good, really good while.

[toudi_sk]

pfff, on my old PC with Win XP SP3 works Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28 and even restarted play videos on youtube, I firmly believe that Oolite them will work for a a long long time ago galaxy far away

[Fritz]

I think there are still more XP users than Vista users, but Windows XP is 14 years old, and that's a very long time in the computer business.

I'm still running XP on a daily basis on one of my office PCs (without Oolite!), but today, after hesitating for some time, I finally upgraded my equally old XP laptop to Windows 10. Two GB of memory instead of one GB, a 250 GB SSD instead of the old 80 GB hard disk, and it is faster than it ever was!

[Anonymissimus]

Almost 15 years. It was released in october 2001.
About 10% of internet connected PCs are still running win xp. Vista usage has never even come close to xp usage.
Recently I saw a ticket machine malfunction at the train station. The diagnosis screen showed checkdsk etc, and a win XP logo. The embedded version is still supported till 2019. I live in Germany btw.

and it is faster than it ever was

Really ? How much of that 2 GB is eaten up just by this hopelessly blown up OS, right after system boot ? Something left for resource-heavy applications, e.g. java ones ?

[Disembodied]

Britain's nuclear submarines still run on a variant of Windows XP (called - without a hint of irony - "Windows for Submarines"). Which might explain their tendency to run into things (like container ships, other submarines, Scotland, etc.)

"Captain! We've received a message. It's a bit garbled, but it's from General Protectionfault again, and he sounds angry."

[Fritz]

and it is faster than it ever was

Really ? How much of that 2 GB is eaten up just by this hopelessly blown up OS, right after system boot ? Something left for resource-heavy applications, e.g. java ones ?

Yes, I was surprised myself. Windows 10 seems to be much sleeker than its predecessors. A co-worker had installed it on two equally old refurbished laptops he made for friends, and only after I saw how well they performed, I dared to use Windows 10 for my laptop.

Right after booting, there is about 1.3 GB left., so Windows uses 0.7 GB. After starting three Office XP applications (Word, Excel, Access), SeaMonkey and Gimp, there is still almost 0.9 GB left. I didn't try Java Applications, but the memory seems more than enough for what I'm doing. It would probably be acceptable with 1.5 or even 1 GB.

[spud42]

Britain's nuclear submarines still run on a variant of Windows XP (called - without a hint of irony - "Windows for Submarines"). Which might explain their tendency to run into things (like container ships, other submarines, Scotland, etc.)

"Captain! We've received a message. It's a bit garbled, but it's from General Protectionfault again, and he sounds angry."

apparently the US navy also still uses XP, i read an article not long after it was announced that XP would no longer be updated, that said the US navy did a deal with microsoft to support them for quite a few years. they have something like 100,000 systems still running XP!!!

[Diziet Sma]

"Captain! We've received a message. It's a bit garbled, but it's from General Protectionfault again, and he sounds angry."

This board really, REALLY needs a 'like' button..

[trupo]

Seems that 1.88 works on Win XP SP2

[Reval]

Seems that 1.88 works on Win XP SP2

As does v.1.90 on my Windows XP SP3 gamers desktop (2010-vintage), silky smooth at 60+ FPS on Extra Detail and nary a glitch or hiccup anywhere.

(Web browsers are another matter, however, where the kiddy-coders are 'dropping support' for this most wonderful OS left, right, and centre ).

[Cholmondely]

Technology is advancing and so is the game.

I could have a really good rant about this one ....

Better to calm down and have a decent cup of tea ... and keep that ghastly contraption* out of my line of sight ...





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* https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 4&start=75