From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Perry E. Metzger" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Windows emacs-25.1 i686 vs x86_64? Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2016 13:49:42 -0500 Message-ID: <20161107134942.0e418fa4@jabberwock.cb.piermont.com> References: <6e2cffe5-942b-48d4-9ed5-ef39803bcd30@googlegroups.com> <87mvhgsf21.fsf@russet.org.uk> <8360o4monq.fsf@gnu.org> <87vaw4gq0j.fsf@russet.org.uk> <83oa1vlnkk.fsf@gnu.org> <87d1iba6od.fsf@russet.org.uk> <83ins2jq88.fsf@gnu.org> <87eg2p8swx.fsf@russet.org.uk> <831sypjmst.fsf@gnu.org> <83wpggip8j.fsf@gnu.org> <05ba947a-970a-178c-8036-bcdf84485384@cs.ucla.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1478544665 3035 195.159.176.226 (7 Nov 2016 18:51:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2016 18:51:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@gnu.org, Paul Eggert , emacs-devel@gnu.org, phillip.lord@russet.org.uk To: Richard Stallman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Nov 07 19:51:00 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1c3p01-0004iJ-13 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:50:29 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55954 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1c3p03-0002st-Uk for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:50:31 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41865) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1c3ozV-0002sd-De for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:49:58 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1c3ozU-0003o0-FX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:49:57 -0500 Original-Received: from hacklheber.piermont.com ([166.84.7.14]:58542) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1c3ozP-0003fB-06; Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:49:51 -0500 Original-Received: from snark.cb.piermont.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hacklheber.piermont.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A3B2E26D; Mon, 7 Nov 2016 13:49:42 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from jabberwock.cb.piermont.com (jabberwock.cb.piermont.com [10.160.2.107]) by snark.cb.piermont.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60D3B2DE145; Mon, 7 Nov 2016 13:49:42 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 166.84.7.14 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:209255 Archived-At: On Mon, 07 Nov 2016 09:43:23 -0500 Richard Stallman wrote: > Given that Windows is so widely used, and that so many users stick > to old versions of it, it is plausible to me that millions of people > still use Windows 98. Maybe tens or hundreds of millions. It is not likely. There is statistical information that was cited earlier in this thread. Windows 9x and ME are now below 0.01% usage. How much below is hard to measure. Emacs was likely never particularly popular with people willing to hold on to an OS for that long either, as such people are typically not technical users (and in fact, the users of those systems are in fact typically not people at all in the sense that such systems, when they remain, are embedded systems doing things like balancing car wheels and running old cash registers). So, given a fraction of a percent userbase and a fraction of a percent for that OS, I think it would be fairly safe to assume we're talking about a fraction of a percent of a fraction of a percent, probably too small to measure. Such people also are unlikely to have very good ability to use the internet because their machines would be taken over by malware within seconds of attaching to an open network, and because no web browsers exist for such platforms capable of using modern web sites. I would guess, therefore, that they're unlikely to be downloading new copies of Emacs as they arise. There is nothing, IMHO, wrong with telling such users that they will have to use Emacs 25.1 and before and documenting that. I would be quite sincerely surprised, however, if anyone at all was inconvenienced. > That number may still be growing. ISTR that even a few years ago > people were still installing unauthorized copies of Windows 98 on > PCs, because Microsoft made it harder to install subsequent Windows > versions. That has not been true in a long time. As noted, the statistics do not bear this out, and in fact, it is not hard to install a more recent version of Windows even without Microsoft permission. If you're in a country like China you can get your hands on unlocked much more recent versions of Windows without paying for it. Indeed, the situation is such that Microsoft more or less made it possible to install Windows 10 without any license key. The only real effect of this is that you get a watermark in one corner of the screen telling you that you should register your copy. > It would not surprise me if Windows 98 was installed on > millions of new PCs this year. I will bet you this is not the case. Perry -- Perry E. Metzger perry@piermont.com