pouët.net

Hi!

Back in 2005, when we released the first versions of Crinkler, it was important (and still is) to make it the most compatible 4k compression method for Windows. At that time, many people were using Windows 2000, so it was essential that Crinkler-compressed intros would work on both XP and 2000.

We are currently working on making Crinkler compatible with Windows 7. It is turning out to be difficult to add Windows 7 compatibility while maintaining Windows 2000 compatibility, so we are considering to drop Windows 2000 compatibility in the next version. This will also free up a fair number of bytes in the header (no need for a dummy import), giving 4k intro makers a little more space to play on.

It is our belief that the number of Windows 2000 machines among sceners which are otherwise (in terms of hardware) able to run modern intros is vanshingly small, meaning that dropping Windows 2000 support will not affect compatibility in practice. But we do not know for certain. Therefore our question to you is:

Do you know of anyone running Windows 2000 and (this is the crucial part) expecting to be able to run 4k intros from 2009 and onwards on it?

Any kind of feedback on this decision is welcome.

Supporting Windows2000 is like supporting Windows95, DOS 5.0 and CP/M. There are always going to be people *demanding* support for it. The thing is, you should ignore them.

Since the support is there right now, just add a radio button...

I want DOS 5.0 support.

Drop Windows 2000-support. Seriously, nobody uses it any more. If there are anyone who actually uses it as their day-to-day OS, they won't have the hardware to run current (and future) 4k intros anyway.

Windows 2000 market share in casual-ish game players: about 0.4% right now (unity stats). I would only guess that people who watch demos have better hardware and more recent OS.

In other words, just drop Win2000 support. No one will notice.

I don't think you need to drop support in practice.. just drop it in the new version and keep the current one around for legacy support. People can use that if they really want 2k support.

Let the whiners whine. Who's supporting Intel GMA 950, VBE 2.0 or GUS nowadays? Or Covox Speech Thing?

I'd actually vote for a switch like prodigy suggested.

steam stats - apparently more people use Windows 7 than 2000.

how about just having crinkler spit out 2 binaries.. one for 2000/xp and one for xp and newer.. most 4k's get distributed in a zip anyway, so including an extra 4k won't matter..

I still use Win 2000 ... but only for an ancient laptop that got re-commissioned as a home print-/file server.
So nevermind

Why? Nobody uses Windows 2000. Should Crinkler keep spitting out Win95 executables as well? Maintaining less code = good.

Ha, spitting out 2 binaries or using a radio button is what we like to call "the linux solution": Give the user tons of half-decent options instead of a single excellent one.

WINDOWS7 SI TEH FUTARE, WINDOWS2000 SI TEH PAST.. STOP LIVING IN TEH PAST! :P

Yeah, there's probably no reason to support an operating system that was released almost 10 years ago. If someone is still using it on a computer that could actually run modern 4k intros, it's their loss :)

My opinion is to drop it, all the people I knew that used 2000 have switched by now :)

I think that those who still wants to support w2k, should split /their/ binaries to two.

No Win 2000 support !!!! Who need it ????

Here i use it on my P2 notebook with 233Mhz, Because it wont run Windows XP. It is slow, but reliable.

you should be using dx10 features in the intros anyway

Just keep the current version of Crinkler available for "legacy" users.

I am proudly supporting the GMA950, the BEST video chip EVER, and hereby demand support from everybody else!!!

(to be honest, I probably wouldn't do it if I wasn't coding demos on a machine which is powered by this most supreme product)

i DO use wnidows 2000 and am planning to use it further.