x/build: plan to remove windows-[386|amd64]-2008 builders

[cagedmantis]

Windows 2008 has reached end of life status. We should remove this builder and investigate if there are any other steps that should be taken in the process.

@golang/release
@bufflig

[dmitshur]

These builders are used by Go releases right now. Go 1.17 and 1.16 are documented to require Windows 7 or newer. Before we can remove the builders, we need to start using a newer builder for releases if possible, otherwise wait for them to become unused.

[sanjayvora]

Is there any timeline by when Go would stop supporting windows 2008 R2?

[cagedmantis]

@sanjayvora Windows 2008 R2 has reached its end of life. We should be moving toward not supporting it in the near future.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/363474 mentions this issue: dashboard: add windows-386-2012 builder

[cagedmantis]

Not an official one. We are starting to work on that.

[mappu]

Windows 2008 R2 has reached its end of life. We should be moving toward not supporting it in the near future.

Unfortunately no, it's still supported, Windows 2008 (NT 6.0) and R2 (NT 6.1) still receive security patches until January 10, 2023. These are part of the ESU program, which has a cost for self-managed installs, but is free if you have virtualized your 2008 / R2 box to an Azure VM.

While looking up a citation for this, i discovered that Azure VMs for 2008 and 2008 R2 even get an extra year of official security updates, all the way out to January 14, 2024:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/extended-security-updates

With this, customers will have until January 14, 2024 for Windows Server 2008/ 2008 R2 [...] to upgrade to a supported release.

[cagedmantis]

Hi @mappu thank you for providing this link and information.

@golang/release @bufflig Do you have any thoughts on this?

[bufflig]

I'm not in a position to make any decisions here, I think, but it does look premature to drop the support for WIndows 2008 R2 if Azure workloads still get security updates. But I think the @golang/release team understands this much better than me.

[zx2c4]

Woooahh there, this is a big deal.

Dropping Windows 7 support is a very, very big deal.

I've tried various times to sunset support for it in my own software (most recently here - https://lore.kernel.org/wireguard/CAHmME9rZeksrVkbn1qOAFEtKs4F872N07EJNU5iHXSsGLi_TSg@mail.gmail.com/ ) and have not had much success. There are simply too many users: https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide/

Even Chrome, which was supposed to sunset Windows 7 this year, then pushed it to next, has pushed it ahead yet another year. And Microsoft still sells support for it too.

So, I would really like to kill Windows 7 support, because developing for it is a massive pain. But I don't think that'd be the best decision to make, so despite my desires, I'm keeping it alive a little longer.

If Go drops Windows 7 support, then Go will have forced this decision for me, and for others. That will surely elicit grumbles and maybe even howls. So maybe this issue should be tabled for another year or two, unfortunately.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/366656 mentions this issue: dashboard: do not sunset windows 2008