When is it Time to Stop Support of an O.S.?

Posted on October 13, 2006, under Development.

So Microsoft’s Windows Vista is nearing it’s release date, and it has me once again asking what Operating Systems I want to support for further product development. This has been a back and forth question for me, that has a lot of deciding factors.

Testing, Testing, Testing

The more Operating Systems you support, the more you have to test and have on hand for bug fixes and releases. Software like VMWare make testing easier, but you still have account for different service packs and other factors for each Operating System you support.

Audience

Looking at your audience and what Operating System they will most likely have installed is another important factor. If you have a program that is geared more toward technology savvy end users, than chances are they are not running Windows 98 or ME.

Do They Support It?

If a company, like Microsoft, stops support of their own Operating System; should you still continue to support it? If an Operating System has reached the end of it’s life, I find it hard to support products on that Operating System.

Platform Specific

A major decision point on Operating System support is if you are using an API or feature that is only available in a certain platform. I come across this a lot with NT based systems. There are a lot of features and functionality in the Windows API, that are only available for NT based Windows system.

Conclusion

Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding what your new killer product is going to support. No matter what decision I make, there always seems to be one or two end users that end up out of luck because they are still on an unsupported Operating System. I would be interested in hearing how you decide what platforms you will support.

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