Also xp is going to stop being supported in 2014, so whether users say xp
or
not is the best are going to have to eventually upgrade.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gamers [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 6:05 AM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] mac versus windows sales plus iOS question
Hi Dark,
Just a correction here. Windows 7 was released in 2010 not 2007.
Windows Vista came out in January 2007. I wanted to point that out as you
seem to be confusing the two here.
However, I do take your point. The reason XP is still widely supported by
websites, some third-party programs, and so forth is that it still holds a
significant portion of the Windows PC market. Windows, Vista, Windows 7,
Windows 8,and Windows 8.1 has not been as successful as Microsoft had
planned, and as a result many software developers know cutting XP off at
this point is equivalent to cutting their own throats. I'll give you a
simple example of that in practice.
One of the things I have been looking at is ways I can improve my game
engine so that Raceway and MOTA will run better on new Windows machines.
The problem is there are a lot of blind users that feel as you do that XP
is
the best there ever was, the best there is, and the best that will ever be
and will not upgrade for any reason. So despite any advantages I could add
to my games by targeting a newer version of Windows I would not be able to
make as large a profit off my games if I exclude half my customer base. As
a
developer I have to support whatever a large portion of my potential
customers are using.
Of course, mainstream companies are less handstrung because they are not
selling to a minority market. At some point the number of mainstream users
running Windows 7, Windows 8, or 8.1 will out number XP and it won't hurt
them to drop XP support. Probably they will begin this migration sometime
next year after Microsoft drops support for XP the way they did when
Microsoft dropped support for 98 and Millennium.
Of course, one problem facing mainstream and accessible technology markets
is there are far more users using XP now, than there were 98 users in 2006
when Microsoft dropped Windows 9x support. So third-party support may
linger
a couple more years until the mainstream market catches up to current
Windows technology.
The only way I can see personally to deal with the situation is attempt to
support both for as long as necessary. What I mean by that with games like
MOTA and Raceway they are already XP compatible because they were designed
that way from the beginning, and there is no need to cut XP support off at
the knees just because something newer came along. I can however release
an
updated version of both that uses some newer APIs like XAudio2 or have
64-bit builds for newer 64-bit machines. That helps target people running
new machines while not removing support for XP in the process. that's the
only way I can see being fair to both groups of users at this point. In a
couple of years I can consider dropping support for XP in newer games and
hopefully people will have made the switch by then.
Cheers!
On 12/18/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi tom.
I do appreciate that in theory, things will stop running on xp, and I
can't
run new versions, heck I'm still running ie8. The problem is that all
the compatibility stuff hasn't yet made any practical difference. I've
not found
any websites, services, applications or things I want to use that
require a
better machine than I have. Fundamentally if there was some really
good new
feature of the updated windows media player, some websites or net
games I wanted to play or something else in updates that I couldn't do
with xp, I would indeed upgrade the system and get used to it.
Regarding security and hardware, well 64 bit actually is a bad thing
for me
since it ruins compatibility with dos programs, and once again nothing
requires it. I can accept that the hardware might be more advanced,
but that is of no bennifit to me personally if there is nothing I wish
to do that requires it.
of course, this situation will not go on forever. I fully expect in
several
years there will be some awsome new features of new os that I will
want to play with, some games or programs that I can't run on xp etc,
indeed I'm quite amazed that this hasn't already come up. Back in
2007 when windows 7
was first produced I fully expected by around 2010 or 2011, there to
be a lot of games, websites, new and inervative media playback and
other peaces
of software that I'd need better hardware or a new os for, making the
hassle of learning the new interface, kicking out compatibility and
mucking
about with virtual machines and other things worth my time.
I'm actually amazed this hasn't happened yet, and despite the
aspersions of certain individuals this is indeed why I have been so
careful to research
Windows 7 to the best of my ability and convenience.
As I said I fully expect this situation to change in the future, but
at the
moment it hasn't.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
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