[Python-Dev] Is Windows XP still supported on Python 2.7? (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Mon Jul 24 12:48:16 EDT 2017

On 7/24/2017 5:04 AM, Victor Stinner wrote:

We have a Windows XP buildbot for Python 2.7, run by David Bolen: http://buildbot.python.org/all/builders/x86%20Windows%20XP%202.7/

testbsddb3 fails randomly on this buildbot: http://bugs.python.org/issue30778

If that turns out to be an unfixable intermittent failure of two particular functions, then it becomes expected. To keep buildbots green, skip the one that crashes and turn the failure of the other into a skip.

But Windows XP clearly reached its end-of-life, Microsoft doesn't support it anymore. So my question is if it makes sense to spend time on it?

When an entity sells 'support', that means an active effort to fix. For free, volunteer-built Python, 'support' for system Z means that we (continue to) allow system Z specific code, new patches, and a system Z buildbot. If we make an installer, it installs on system Z.

In that minimal sense, xp is still generally supported, although experts for specific modules may refuse to review and merge patches for 'their' modules. But that exception typically has nothing to do with xp in particular. But it could.

When XP became unsupported in 3.5, xp-specific code was removed, the xp buildbot was removed, we started rejecting xp-specific patches, and our windows installer refused to install on XP. Are you are proposing this for 2.7?

We have a rule for new x.y.0 released, but not if a Microsoft Windows support expires during the lifetime of a Python release (2.7 here): https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0011/#microsoft-windows

Firefox made great efforts to support Windows XP last years, but they decided to drop support last March with Firefox 52, last release supporting XP and Visa: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/end-support-windows-xp-and-vista

The link says that they continue with security patches until next September, at which point they will review installation numbers. The extra 5 years of support for 2.7, above the originally intended 5 years, is mainly for security fixes, although some people continue with routine non-security bugfixes.

-- Terry Jan Reedy

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