I am trying to decide whether it is worth it or not to put in the time to make an app work on Windows 2000 and/or Windows 98, so I'm curious to find out how many people are still using these operating systems.
Thanks, as always.
A:
Here is a great link to OS Usage in the US over time http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-US-monthly-200811-200912. You can even select varying date ranges, countries, regions etc. Works great for Mobile OS, Browser as well.
PortageMonkey
2009-12-12 00:25:21
Interesting to note the discrepancies between the data from statcounter.com and arstechica.com ...
Al C
2009-12-12 00:35:30
If you have StatCounter set to worldwide data like Ars shows, they are close, with Vista 5% different and XP 3% different.
Jordan Miner
2009-12-12 00:53:55
D'oh! ... You're absolutely right, of course. I saw "global" in the StatCounter title and somehow missed the rest :-)
Al C
2009-12-12 01:01:05
+1
A:
w3 operating system statistics (win 2000: 0.7%)
w3 counter operating system statistics (win 2000: 0.54%)
Frankly, its going to be a lot of work to support those operating systems, and unless you have specific reason to, you probably shouldn't. You should probably just support XP and up for an "average" windows application, as that won't be difficult to code, and because the next earliest version, win 2003, is below 2% in both of those charts. :D
Also possibly of interest: .net framework installation statistics
CrazyJugglerDrummer
2009-12-12 01:00:40
A:
I'd say that you should NOT add support for ancient versions of operating systems unless there are customers who are really desperate for it.
People who are still using 9X and 2000 need to be given every encouragement to move to a newer OS platform. It is really for their own good.
Stephen C
2009-12-12 01:01:22
You're right. I'm writing for a school market and, not uncommonly, when people make the decision to upgrade they want to donate their old machine to a school. ... Still, I don't think I'm going to support Win98 or Win2000 thanks to the responses here.
Al C
2009-12-12 01:05:24
There are always customers who are desparate for it. I had to write a program just recently for an old Commodore! Now THAT'S ancient
baeltazor
2009-12-12 01:19:45
@baeltazor - desperate enough to pay you 10+ times the going rate? Otherwise, that's not desperate enough IMO.
Stephen C
2009-12-12 02:45:20