Windows 2000: Do you think Second Life Should Stop Support for Windows 2000

/me replaces Jed's OS with Folgers Crystals...

Nope i didn't, the orginal poster was sure about it.
According to him there won't be any W2k specific bugs that don't show in XP anyway, so no point reporting them seperately.

You're reading a different message than me.

I would say keep it, I do something have to fall back to that hd when I corrupt xp.

Notice that the Lindens have mentioned up-thread that dropping support for 2000 wouldn't necessarily make SL incompatible with 2000, just that they would not be taking paid coders away from focusing on more popular platforms to ensure everything works in 2000.

Again, that's not the part that we're concerned about.

It's the bit where they won't fix it if it breaks on 2000. THAT part is a real problem.

Yeah, move on.

I don't see the point in keeping official 2000 support around given that Quicktime on that platform's a year out of date with no recourse for the bug, first off. Second, as was already pointed out, W2000 users are in the desperate minority. Third, W2000 users have the hardware to run Linux, and W2000 works marvelously inside Virtualbox...

I do not know anyone who uses Windows 2000. I give support for WIN 2K a big Thumbs Down!

If it stopped working on Win2k, my sister would no longer be able to log in. However, she's still using a hacked old viewer, so as long as the server won't balk, and it's not refusing the old viewer, then no big.

That's another advantage of Windows 2000, people won't be tempted to turn streaming video on because it doesn't work.
So are active creators and scripters, and they're more likely to be using the best version of Windows they can if they have to run Windows... and that's Windows 2000.
Video performance under Linux is not even in the same ballpark. If it was, I wouldn't be using Windows at all.

Then you'll get a whole lot more advantages when SL stops working on Windows 2000.

Features not working is an advantage? Not in my book.

Whether or not Windows 2000 is the best version of Windows is debatable. It may be for you, but it certainly isn't for most people.

In any case, I haven't seen the Lindens, or anyone else, present any compelling evidence that support for it should be dropped.

Video and audio streaming is a privacy hole in SL.

In addition, Quicktime doesn't work in Linux. Should Linden Labs abandon that? I certainly don't think so.
Every version of Windows since has caused problems for more people. If it wasn't for Microsoft forcing people to upgrade by dropping Windows 2000, and now XP, it's unlikely that most people who had the opportunity would have switched to 2000.

Only if it really, really upsets Baloo.

I agree with
And should Win 2000 be on longer supported.
But some other features in should be dropped also. The damage system has long fallen into disuse by the residents and serves no function. Either revamp it or drop it.

That's not true; more like the Windows bigots wouldn't have any recourse for their moronics.

I've been accused of being a Mac Fanboy a few times (and a Mac hater almost as often), but I don't recall EVER being called a Windows bigot before.

You might want to read again; I wasn't accusing you of being one, Argent. I was referring to the person who shot the ad hominem that all I do is complain about Windows, never mind I'm only pointing out other available options when there is no such option available on Windows (an ongoing example: Windows doesn't have any drivers that support vertex buffer objects for quite a few ATI Radeon models, but Linux does. The two possible fixes are "well don't use VBO then" or "Try the Linux version, ATI hasn't put out a decent Windows driver since the early 1990s".

Well, to be fair, Baloo, I was *thinking* that even if I didn't post it.
Or "You know, an nVidia such-and-such costs less than the time you'll spend getting Linux up and working if you're not familiar with it". After all, I've been working on free software on UNIX and working on free UNIX lookalikes since before the GNU Manifesto was published, and I still hesitate to stick my interface into the whole "free UNIX video and audio support" morass again. I've been burned too many times.

Hi Baloo, I was more replying to the thread in General. This response was not for one single quote, sorry for the confusion.

Hi Everybody, so after reading the history of this thread it would appear so far that we are more or less ok with the ending of Win2k support. I understand the position of holdouts and there is a decent case to be made for their preferred OS, but I would like to mention again that this does not mean Win2k will stop working with SL. The fact of the matter is that Win2k QA is done at the expense of QA time spent elsewhere and Win2k represents less than a percent of our active users. We basically just need to put our Lindens to work on support that affects more of our active resident population. Thanks for all the responses!

Garry: we're not concerned about your QA process, we're concerned about what you're going to do if you run into some glitch that tickles Windows 2000 the wrong way and it's discovered by users or SLDev. Fixing these kinds of things is not likely to be expensive, but not doing so is likely to have more of an impact on scripters and other technical types.

Given that the SL viewer is also an open source project, I would imagine a Windows 2000 user affected would be more than welcome to submit a patch to fix it via the JIRA. LR just wouldn't be throwing good money after bad when it comes to paying employees to work on the viewer.

Indeed, and I'd be sure to do so. What I'm looking for is some indication that they won't close it as "won't fix" immediately just because it's Windows 2000.

Given the fate of some other JIRA entries, I'm not at all inclined to take that on faith.

Wait, seriously? Did you read the thread? The vast majority of people who voted against Windows 2000 quite obviously don't even have any knowledge about the operating system, and in many cases seem to equate it to Windows ME.

And there's alot of people who voted FOR Windows 2000.

I saw dozens of copies of XP at the local Best Buy and Office Max stores last weekend. It's still available through Newegg, and probably every other e-tailer in the world. It's still very easy to find a copy.