• tal@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        One thing I would keep in mind is that the Win64 API does change from release-to-release and that my guess is that if very few people using a software package are still using a version of Windows, application software developers may stop intentionally avoiding newer API calls and features, and will just have their new release require a newer version of Windows.

        That may be okay for some use cases, like if you just want to keep an existing system working with existing software. But I think that it’s worth keeping in mind that you may increasingly not be able to use:

        • New software packages.

        • Newer releases of existing packages.

        • Software packages that make use of cloud-based services that drop support.

        • New hardware that requires software support.

        They’re probably going to take into account the percentage of people using the thing in setting their compatibility targets for developers and their testing.