[Scummvm-devel] Dropping Windows 9x/ME support

[Travis Howell]

On 9/03/2016 7:11 AM, Simon Sawatzki wrote:
> personally I still have a retro PC and would find it a nice-to-have
> if ScummVM is still supported on Windows 9x/ME. Some time ago when I
> last tried ScummVM, I noticedhowever that the normal EXE build won't
> run but only a specific compilation with several modern features
> removed. I haven't checked whether this is still the case.

Does ScummVM 1.8.0 still work? I'm not aware of any recent breakage, but
we don't get many reports from people still using ScummVM on Windows
95/98/ME.

FLAC 1.3.x is known to break Windows 9x/ME support, along with more
recent versions of GCC for MinGW.

> I don't have a strong opinion against dropping support. However, I
> would have found it nice if dropping the support would have been
> delayed until The Last Express was fully supported in ScummVM. :)On
> the other hand, this may never happen.
>
> It would be nice if a sort of "goodbye" last version for Windows
> 9x/MEwould be created and if the cut would be well documented in the
>  commit history.

If Windows 9x/ME support is dropped in the future, it would be mentioned
in the news. Most likely as part of a release version, stating the last
supported version.

On 9/03/2016 7:34 AM, Daniel Franzini wrote:
> We should drop Win9x support if and only if it starts making trouble
> for us to keep the build up and running. We can run the automated
> parts of the build/test and deliver on as-is basis. If people
> complain we can then, and only then, fix the problem and integrate
> the fix into mainstream development. This way we don't leave users
> apart from playing their favourite games just because they have an
> old computer.
>
> If Win9x starts to make trouble and cumbersome to mantain, we can try
> to find a volunteer for this (I'm a volunteer on this, btw) or we can
> just drop it and justify why we are dropping but always leave the
> door open for anyone who wants to work in this.

Continued Windows 9x/ME support is going to depends on the amount of
users still using ScummVM. It will most likely be based on the downloads
for ScummVM 1.8.1 at this point.

Windows 9x/ME requires an ancient system to run on, as already mentioned
several times. There is no point is continuing Windows 9x/ME support,
unless there is still a decent amount of people actually making
use of ScummVM. Anyone still using Windows 9x/ME, can run these games
natively, which can even be an advantage (we still suffer from bugs in
various games).