Re: [boost] Windows XP support survey

Subject: Re: [boost] Windows XP support survey
From: Thomas Trummer (th.trummer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-05-07 09:09:08

The sad reality in a lot of industries is that we still have to support
Windows XP for the foreseeable future. Though, I understand the desire to
drop support for it. Believe me, everyone would be more than happy to just
require Windows 7 as default and be done with it.

However, it is hard to convince costumers to make the switch when there is
only risk and no tangible benefit attached to it. In addition to this we do
have the problem that we control complex (and expensive) hardware that
consists of components that don’t have drivers for Windows 7 because the
manufacturer discontinued them.

For these people the end of support from Microsoft isn’t really an argument
since the computers are not connected to the Internet and continue to work
fine, not to mention that you can still buy extended support from
Microsoft.

The huge outcry from the C++ community when Microsoft wanted to drop
support for XP in Visual Studio should be a clear indicator that a lot of
people livelihoods still depend on it. Unfortunately since then the install
base hasn’t really shrunken too much. So even Visual C++ 2015 will continue
to support it.

So, as long as a Visual C++ version supported by Boost can build for
Windows XP and there isn’t a significant cost attached to it, Boost should
also continue to support Windows XP.