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Drop Windows XP (and Vista) support in 6.0 #3804

Description

@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.

Activity

  1. added
    windowsIssues and PRs related to the Windows platform.
    semver-majorPRs that contain breaking changes and should be released in the next major version.
    and removed
    semver-majorPRs that contain breaking changes and should be released in the next major version.
    on Nov 12, 2015
  2. mikeal commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @mikeal
    Contributor

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

  3. ChALkeR commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @ChALkeR
    MemberAuthor

    @mikeal Not sure if npm has those stats.

  4. rvagg commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @rvagg
    Member

    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.

  5. MylesBorins commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @MylesBorins
    Contributor
  6. rvagg commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @rvagg
    Member
  7. bricss commented on Nov 12, 2015

    @bricss
    Contributor

    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

  8. fengmk2 commented on Nov 13, 2015

    @fengmk2
    Contributor

    I will post the total stats of cnpm users today.

  9. pmq20 commented on Nov 13, 2015

    @pmq20
    Contributor

    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

  10. pmq20 commented on Nov 13, 2015

    @pmq20
    Contributor

    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.

  11. allenm commented on Nov 13, 2015

    @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 .

  12. fengmk2 commented on Nov 13, 2015

    @fengmk2
    Contributor
    • 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
  13. 54 remaining items

  14. RoboBurned commented on Sep 1, 2017

    @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.

  15. ChALkeR commented on Sep 1, 2017

    @ChALkeR
    MemberAuthor

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

  16. ChALkeR commented on Sep 1, 2017

    @ChALkeR
    MemberAuthor

    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.

  17. gdl-blue commented on Jun 13, 2021

    @gdl-blue

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

    image

  18. hlizard commented on Jul 23, 2021

    @hlizard

    @gdl-888 how to fake?

  19. deleted a comment from gdl-blue on Jul 30, 2021
  20. gdl-blue commented on Jul 30, 2021

    @gdl-blue
  21. hlizard commented on Aug 3, 2021

    @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
    node_v860_xp.jpg

  22. gdl-blue commented on Aug 3, 2021

    @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

    image

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