[cfe-dev] RFC: A proposal to move toward using C++11 features in LLVM & Clang / bounding support for old host compilers

[Bo Persson]

Nathan Ridge skrev 2013-11-09 03:30:
>>> A different issue than what VS 2012 can _target_, is what VS 2012 can
>>> _run on_: it cannot run on Windows XP.
>>>   
>>> Say what you want about how old Windows XP is and how close it is to
>>> being end-of-life'd by Microsoft, at the end of the day it still
>>> commands one third (!) of all desktop operating system market share [1].
>>>   
>>> So, by dropping support for VS 2010, you will be making any developer
>>> who uses Windows XP - potentially a large number of developers given
>>> Windows XP's still huge market share - unable to build clang.
>>   
>> I don't see any reason to believe that developers are evenly
>> distributed across the market of desktops, much less LLVM developers.
> Nor do I. But one third of the market is a *lot*, and even if developers
> are a lot more likely to use newer operating system than your average
> user, that's still potentially a lot of developers.
>

Market share doesn't tell you that much. For example, I have one PC with 
Win XP and one with Win 7. Dropping XP support wouldn't affect me a bit, 
even though I'm supposedly part of that 30%.


Bo Persson