- At least they aren't intentionally breaking Win7 support by using some random later version API function unconditionally.
Some developers seem proud doing that, somehow feeling that extra 5-10 lines of code for backwards compatibility is too much.
- Slightly related: does anyone know why it's being deprecated on brew? https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/openrct2
- You can follow the link to the cask code on GitHub and the line disabling will (usually) leave a clear reason. In this case, because of Gatekeeper/codesigning because that costs money https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2/issues/15879?utm_source...
- I remember when the Dolphin emulator dropped Windows 7 a few years ago. The absolute consternation, whining and even threats(!) against the developers was utterly sickening
Even as someone who enjoys "retro tech" far more than anything modern anymore, I'm hardly going to berate people to bend over backwards to keep supporting my ancient systems with modern software.
If someone wants to backport newer software as a hobby (such as Cameron Kaiser with TenFourFox, and the many downstream derivatives that spawned over the years) it's a welcome delight. But it should never be an "obligation"
- Many (all?) of the people using windows 7 as their only OS at this point are zealots. It’s not surprising that some would respond that way. It’s largely a group of people who will never willingly change their habits and any removal of support is an assault. There were many valid reasons to not upgrade to 10 but the rational people have given up and upgraded or migrated to Linux/mac over the past decade.
- They are committed. I found this kernel extensions project: https://github.com/i486/VxKex
Perhaps that'd be the OpenRCT2 fanatics' salvation.
- Why as their only OS? I assume many people connect their old PC to their TV and install a bunch of emulators. I suppose Linux could be an alternate solution for those machines.
- A PC like this that doesn’t support Windows 10 is so outdated that even a $50 investment would get you a massive improvement.
The only reasons to keep Windows 7 are for niche SW/HW that only work on it and have no replacement, or because you want it out of principle. Neither of these are reasons to expect everyone else to bend over backwards to accommodate you.
- Other than needing more RAM, all the hardware that works for Win 7 will work with Windows 10 and 11. Most software should as well.
Windows 7 drivers are compatible with windows 10 and 11 so there really isn't a reason you couldn't continue using basically any hardware after an upgrade.
- I was thinking of the odd XP era PC which could run W7 but just barely. Those would be truly outdated machines with no reason to be around a livingroom.
I have netbooks which ran XP ok but W10 is a pain to run on them, or tablets with more modern Atom CPUs which ran W10 ok at the beginning but by the latest update they became close to unusable.
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- What is the issue with building for Windows 7 target on Windows 10/11 host? Not that the team is obligated to support ancient OSes, but I am not following their justification. If it is just the fact that they can't properly test if the build works on 7, then they could call it "best effort" support.
- > Due to GitHub upcoming lack of support to Windows7/8 action runners, this will be our last release officially supporting those platforms. As they have been unsupported for years by Microsoft, we recommend you upgrade to play OpenRCT2 for security reasons!
Those "security reasons" start more and more to look like "think of the children". The biggest entry point for exploits nowadays is the web browser, yet nobody cares about it (just look at the list of CVEs fixed at every browser release).
- There actually used to be a time using outdated browsers was a massive issue. The thing is that portion of the problem is solved now, every browser auto updates at an extremely high pace and it has become accepted. Auto update of evergreen operating systems is still extremely unpopular and occurs at a much lower pace. All things involved have massive piles of CVEs getting fixed all the time, it's still an improvement to consume them.
- Where are all the stories of these Windows 7 users getting hacked due to memory corruption CVEs or whatever? Whenever I hear hacking stories nowadays, it's from simple password reuse or SIM-swapping, stuff like that. Or Ransomware, sometimes, but you can counteract that with backups.
You might say, well the stories aren't there because of how many people upgrade their OS's nowadays, but apparently enough people are on Windows 7 to make a stink (rudely, unfortunately) when Dolphin dropped Windows 7 support. And we all know how bad the Android OS upgrade situation is.
- The remaining Windows 7 users (at least the intentional ones) will loudly make a stink in various niches on occasion when they want to be heard but they individually have no reason to harass anyone about how they are still using Windows 7 if it turns out badly for them. And, honestly, the person who knows enough to be able to care about being attached to Windows 7 probably has better general understanding of security & attacks than the average non-tech aware user as well. That doesn't imply using Windows 7 is great security advice, it's just part of the selection bias of who cares to stay.
If you wait long enough much of the modern malware becomes incompatible though :D.
- > The remaining Windows 7 users (at least the intentional ones) will loudly make a stink in various niches on occasion when they want to be heard but they individually have no reason to harass anyone about how they are still using Windows 7 if it turns out badly for them.
Yes, I want to be absolutely clear that I'm not defending this behavior! (Really, there is no reason to harass anyone ever.)
> And, honestly, the person who knows enough to be able to care about being attached to Windows 7 probably has better general understanding of security & attacks than the average non-tech aware user as well.
I agree but that's why I find a lot of the messaging about "we're dropping X for your own good" to be really frustrating.
Again, to be clear, if they want to drop it that's their prerogative. Just don't claim you're doing it to protect people.
Analogous to this: if you drop OS support, please don't be hostile about it. This includes: please document the removal and the last working version, please don't autoupdate the working version to a version that won't run with no way to disable the autoupdater, and please don't go out of your way to sabotage forks that add back support. I'm not familiar with legacy Windows but I'm extremely familiar with legacy macOS, and there are specific apps which have done these things, often in the name of protecting people.
(And even if the developer is hostile, that's still not a reason to harass them, just to say that again.)
- It only sounds like propaganda to the ones intentionally staying who, in turn, only become the majority once the average users have already been pushed off by such things. In net, it's a good even if it annoys users who already understand the situation clearly.
But, again, it's only just part of a joke here - the entire debate about how a subset of Windows 7 users could be annoyed if it had really pushed this seriously is all theoretical from the comments section. It's exactly the type of "a minority of users might get really worked up about any perceived sleight around the topic" kind of thing one finds in this area - you can't even make a joke involving it as a better reason than playing a game.
- On the website, their joke has some formatting: “we recommend you upgrade <strikethrough>to play OpenRCT2</strikethrough> for security reasons!”
- While I agree that there are lots of problems around security communication, I don't feel like the number of CVEs fixed is a good proxy for bad security, I would assume it's more the opposite. Like the more incident reports an airline company has, the safer it tends to be - the unsafe ones don't care to file them.
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- ကျွဲဂိမ်းစလော့
29 points by jandeboevrie 11 hours ago | 22 comments