Drop Windows XP (and Vista) support in 6.0

[ChALkeR]

I'm assuming that 6.0 target release date is around April 2016, based on this schedule.

1. Windows XP does not receive security updates for more than 1½ years now. By the Node.js v6 release that would make 2 years. The platform itself is insecure, users should not be encouraged staying on it. Ref: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/end-of-xp-support
2. Chrome will be dropping Windows XP and Vista support on April 2016. To my understanding, that would mean that any v8 updates (even the security-related ones) could break on Windows XP — they won't test it or care about it. Ref: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/11/updates-to-chrome-platform-support.html
3. Currently, Windows XP (and Vista) support causes visible maintance burden, that's wasting developers time for no good reason. Refs: Getting the error "Assertion failed (wrap->ssl_) != (nullptr), file src\tls_wrap.cc, line 320" while module installation by npm #2979, tls: use parent handle's close callback #2991 (comment), fs: optimize realpath using uv_fs_realpath() #3594 (comment), fs: add uv_fs_realpath() libuv/libuv#531 (comment), Windows installer for x64 fails on Vista #909, win: build fixes #512, node.js Setup Wizard ended prematurely #4092.
4. Whomever is still using Windows XP has more serious problems than not being able to run latest Node.js versions.

[mikeal]

Can we get some stats from npm on how many users this would effect?

[ChALkeR]

@mikeal Not sure if npm has those stats.

[rvagg]

The main problem with finding stats on this is that the largest share of XP users are located in China where they have mirrors of npm and nodejs.org to use, so we can't see the real number.

[MylesBorins]

Is there a way to get in touch with the people running the mirrors?

[rvagg]

/cc @fengmk2

[bricss]

Almost all enterprise sectors already migrated from XP and Vista to Win7 or even Win10, only where it can affect an anybody it's only home users.

+1

[fengmk2]

I will post the total stats of cnpm users today.

[pmq20]

Biggest Chinese IaaS vendor Aliyun is also stopping supplying Windows Server 2003 servers[1]. So I'm +1 on dropping XP. Not sure about Vista though.

[1] http://help.aliyun.com/knowledge_detail.htm?spm=5176.2020520101.0.0.a4Yecu&knowledgeId=6541028&categoryId=8314835

[pmq20]

For Windows XP proponents I would say, there will be one day on which the feeling of looking back at Windows XP is just like that of today looking back at Windows 95.

[allenm]

I'm Chinese developer, we use "nw.js" create desktop application. If node 6.0 don't support Windows XP , then nw.js will not support soon. But we have 20% users still use windows XP now. So please support windows XP longer .

[fengmk2]

• registry.npm.taobao.org access.log can't detect Windows XP request from npm cli's user agent.

218.66.59.149 - 10.159.63.124 [13/Nov/2015:17:56:16 +0800] "GET /babel-preset-es2015 HTTP/1.0" 304 0 "install babel-preset-es2015" "npm/2.14.9 node/v4.1.0 win32 x64"

• According npm.taobao.org web access.log detect Windows XP from browser's user agent, only 0.02% requests.

$ wc -l access.log
678337

$ grep 'Windows NT 5.1' access.log | wc -l
139

[jwueller]

It may very well continue to work, but how are we supposed to actually
support it without V8 supporting it? We cannot guarantee anything at that
point.

Allen.M notifications@github.com schrieb am Fr., 13. Nov. 2015, 11:23:

I'm Chinese developer, we use "nw.js" create desktop application. If node
6.0 don't support Windows XP , then nw.js will not support soon. But we
have 20% users still use windows XP now. So please support windows XP
longer .

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#3804 (comment).

[pmq20]

@allenm I do not know nw.js well. To what extent does it depend on Chrome technologies? Could it still support XP when Chrome dropped support of XP?

[fengmk2]

According cnzz stats of https://npm.taobao.org (http://www.cnzz.com/stat/website.php?web_id=5874717)

• Windows Vista: 2.04%
• Windows XP: 0.87%

[fengmk2]

@pmq20 you should know http://www.dingtalk.com/, dingtalk is base on nw.js.

[pmq20]

@fengmk2 Thanks for the information but they probably have to let Windows XP users use an old version of Dingding and drop the support of XP in newer versions, unless they divide not to adopt the latest Chrome technologies which is unlikely. See http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/11/updates-to-chrome-platform-support.html?m=1

[alsotang]

https://cnodejs.org/ is the biggest Node.js forum in China.
According to Google Analytics, 66% of our users use Windows.

and within these users, only 2.62% use Winxp, almost nobody use vista.

I think new version of Node.js should drop xp and vista support.

[Fishrock123]

Looks like this is something we should work towards for 6.0.0 then.

[mgol]

The blog post linked before presents incorrect information about Vista. Vista is still supported by Microsoft, support ends in April 11, 2017, see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle.

(this doesn't change the fact that hardly anyone still uses it, though)

[mikeal]

@alsotang what time period are you profiling for those stats?

[ChALkeR]

@mzgol Do you mean this:

… since these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft …

Well, active support phase for Vista ended in 2012. Extended support is still available for Vista (but not for XP), and that includes paid support (for the non-security updates subscription) and security-only fixes (free).

Refs: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/lifepolicy.

The article authors could have meant that.

[mgol]

Ah, so this is what "actively" means... OK, that explains a lot.

[ChALkeR]

@mzgol That's just a guess, I'm not the author of that post =).

[Fishrock123]

Question: does dropping support mean actively warning or something on those platforms, or just not caring anymore?

The problem with the latter is it may work for a while and then break, and people may complain.

[orangemocha]

PR landed. Goodbye XP, RIP

[RoboBurned]

I am going to waste about 2 days to move my application to a new server because you dropped support of Windows Server 2008 as well. Thank you.

[ChALkeR]

@RoboBurned You mean 2008 or 2008 R2? 2008 R2 should still be supported.

[ChALkeR]

Note that Node.js 4.x LTS is not affected by this change and is supported until April 2018.

Windows 2008 R2 / Windows 7 or later requirement for Node.js 6.x and later was imposed by upstream v8: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7100626.

[gdl-blue]

Node.js up to v6.12.3 works fine on XP if you fake the Windows version as Windows 7.

[hlizard]

@gdl-888 how to fake?

[gdl-blue]

Better and permanant way than faking.
@hlizard https://github.com/gdl-888/run-node-v6-windows-xp/blob/master/README.md

[hlizard]

@gdl-888 Thank you for your tip. Now I remove the restrictions directly through compilation,
even to version v8.6.0, see https://github.com/hlizard/node8-xp

[gdl-blue]

Node v8 works too? I didn't know. Thanks for telling me.(Because I got error in v7.6, so I thought v8.x won't work either.) Edit: I read your readme, so patching a bit is needed

it will be nice because it supports async/await.

thanks for your work