Sounds reasonable to me +1,
I speak as someone who barely ever touches Windows and never for Jenkins 
though

Thanks
Tim

On Friday, 10 April 2020 13:26:51 UTC+1, Oleg Nenashev wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> As you probably know, Jenkins core and some plugins contain native code, 
> and hence they rely on operating systems and platforms. In principle 
> Jenkins can run everywhere where you can run Java 8 or Java 11, but in 
> practice there are some limitations. Notably we use Java Native Access  and 
> Java Native Runtime libraries which provide wide support for platforms, but 
> there are other components. In the case of Windows platforms we use Windows 
> Service Wrapper (WinSW) <https://github.com/winsw/winsw> and Windows 
> Process Management Library (WinP) <https://github.com/kohsuke/winp>, 
> which depend on Windows versions and, in the case of windows services, on 
> .NET Framework.
>
> In the Jenkins Platform SIG <https://jenkins.io/sigs/platform/> we have 
> an open topic about Windows support policy in Jenkins. Currently we have no 
> documented support policy for Windows, and it becomes an obstacle for 
> maintainers of Windows-focused components and plugins in the 
> Jenkins project. As a maintainer of WinSW and WinP, I have to be very 
> conservative about Windows support. But it comes at a cost to users, not 
> just maintenance overhead. At the end of the day it also blocks us from 
> adopting new Windows features and making Jenkins more stable/maintenable on 
> modern Windows platforms.
>
> I know for sure that there are Jenkins users running on Windows XP, but 
> IMHO it becomes more and more legacy use-case. Last popular industry 
> version had EoL in 2019 (WinXP Exmbedded POSReady 
> <https://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-xp-dies-final-death-as-embedded-posready-2009-reaches-end-of-life/>),
>  
> and IMO it is time to drop WinXP support in new Jenkins releases. Same goes 
> to 32bit systems and non-mainstream architectures like Itanium, we could 
> at least reduce the support level there.
>
> I suggest the following policy:
>
>    - All installers and service wrappers require Windows 7 / Windows 
>    Server 2012 or above (and .NET framework 4.0+). They support 64bit 
>    platforms only. Support for other platforms are provided via manual 
>    jenkins.war deployment
>    - Jenkins master runtime requires Windows 7 / Windows Server 2012 or 
>    above. It may work on older versions, but we do not guarantee compatibility
>    - Jenkins agent runtime requires Windows 7 / Windows Server 2012 or 
>    above. It may work on older versions, but we do not guarantee compatibility
>    - For all Windows service installations .NET Framework 4.0 or above is 
>    required. It is a default version in Windows versions specified above
>    - Jenkins master and agent Docker images are not required to provide 
>    images for the supported platforms. They can move ahead as maintainers 
>    prefer
>    - Plugins can define their own support policy, but they are strongly 
>    advised to align their Windows support policy with the Jenkins Core 
>    versions.
>       - We have no way to communicate potential Windows support issues 
>       via update center at the moment, so following the Jenkins core 
> requirements 
>       is what we can recommend as the best option
>    - Custom Jenkins packaging may have different requirements 
>    (Jenkinsfile Runner, WARs built by Custom WAR Packager)
>
> Would appreciate feedback from maintainers and Windows users! Any comments 
> and change suggestions are welcome.
>
> If other Plaftorm SIG folks agree with me, I would suggest to add this 
> area to the Jenkins Roadmap <https://jenkins.io/project/roadmap/>. I also 
> created a JENKINS-61865 
> <https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-61865> EPIC to track 
> changes there. I will create tasks in the EPIC once there is a consensus in 
> this thread.
>
> Best regards,
> Oleg Nenashev
> Platform SIG
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>
>
>
>

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