Reasonable expectation of support for new operating systems?

Question

My company has a desktop application originally developed for Windows XP. Since then, the original programmer has been fired (fired with extreme prejudices that I might add). I fixed the application at different times, but in general I try to avoid it, this is a mess, and the only real way to fix it is to completely rewrite it, which may take a year.

We tried to “forget” about this application and instead direct customers to our web version, which is more relevant, easier to maintain, simplified and expanded, and WAY easier to maintain. Most customers agree, the web version is best around.

However, we have one client who insists on using a desktop application. The application needed a little adhesive tape to work with Vista, but now it completely breaks down in Windows 7. I'm not even sure that all the fixes should make it work on Win7 (the current time estimate is a "miracle"), but after installing the RELEASE assembly and When DEBUG builds from Visual Studio, the application has errors for almost every user action and from what I see from a high-level test run, none of them are connected.

Since Windows 7 did not exist when this application was developed, does my company really have to make all the necessary changes to make it function as smoothly as it did on XP?

EDIT: Management wants to know: "What is the industry standard for new OS support?" because I really don't have a good answer for this.

Answer 1

Windows 7 XP mode would be the best choice here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

lol took a long time to publish this, but yes, support it so that it works in XP mode, otherwise it is not worth it to support the development of a new application. If he wants to continue execution, put it in XP mode.

video

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/default.aspx

Answer 2

Obvious question, sorry, you tried http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Answer 3

Of course, each case is different. But I would suggest that this will depend mainly on whether the company wants to continue selling / supporting the product.

For example, although StarCraft was released 12 years ago, if Windows 7 came out and StarCraft didn't work on it, I think Blizzard will fix it. What for? Because it is still for sale! It doesn't matter what is old, if you want your customers to be happy and keep getting new customers, you will fix it.

On the other hand, some companies simply decide to abandon the product after a while, if it does not make sense to support or sell them. For example, Microsoft recently decided to abandon MS Money . If you already have MS Money, you can continue to use it, but if MS came out with a new version of Windows (Windows 8?), And your old copy of MS Money did not work, you probably would be SOL. They are no longer interested in this.

In this particular case, you are selling your customer a work product that they redistribute to their customers. (You did not say this in your question, but I know that this is true). If their customers cannot use the product with minimal effort, the product is useless to them. Consumers downloading this product will gradually switch to Windows 7, so that this program is still useful for your client, you need to update it. Therefore, the question that you really need to ask is: " refuses to update this program, knowing about this client?

However, I am not sure if you have a support agreement with your client. If your question is: "We must update this program to compatibility with Windows 7, even if we did not sign a contract that said that we would not pay us," then legally I would say that the answer is no. If you have a support agreement, the specific wording of this agreement prevails. Most likely, if you do not have a contract stating that you will maintain application compatibility with the new OS, you are probably not required to do this.

Hint: I suggest specifying which platforms and OS versions your product will work in your contract!

IANAL, TINLA , etc.

Answer 4

My personal perception (as a user, a former IT specialist and developer in a rather specialized market):

If this is a product that you still sell and support, then overall customers can expect you to support new operating systems in a reasonable amount of time. (The definition of a “reasonable time frame” depends on your customers — a more specialized market or customers that are slower to update the OS means you can take longer, a market with a more commoditized or shorter client means you can be short-lived.)

If you can work with your customers, and if you are in a more specialized market (where you are faced with competition in the mass market), then you can leave with a delay in supporting new OSs for some time. (For example, we have never received real demand for Vista support, and I’m sure that there are still IE6-only web applications there.) However, lagging too long can put your company at risk of being unprofessional or second-rate. (At least that was always my profession when I was working in IT and had to support legacy applications. Non-technical clients could easily have different views.)

As for your specific problems, as others say, Windows 7 XP mode is a great idea.

Answer 5

This is a question for you and your client. If they are worthy for you, yes, if not, and cut them out.

Answer 6

Just a thought: "Since Windows 7 did not exist," this is not a reason for collapse in Windows 7. I, as a client, expect the application to work flawlessly in Windows 7 if it works flawlessly in Windows XP. The fact that you do not support the new Windows 7 features is fine, but a failure usually means that there is something inherently wrong (for example, writing to a file in the program directory - you should not have done this in Windows XP, as well as in Windows Vista and later you stopped even on home systems). In some cases, when the application is incompatible, I expect it to be fixed.

That was my thought as a client. Here is my developer's view:

So no, you don’t have to make changes so that it runs on Windows 7. You had to write a program so that it worked on Windows 7 in the first place, even if it was written for Windows XP. Nevertheless, I would expect, although you said that it is not so, that all related errors, for example, writing to a log file in the application directory or loading a 32-bit DLL when compiling for any processor running on 64-bit Windows . Windows 7 is almost everywhere compatible with Windows XP.

Anyway. If it is really important to run on Windows 7, inform the customer about the launch of the application in Windows XP mode, available for Professsional and above, because this thing was added specifically for cases when someone (that is, a company) relies on software providing Windows XP, which for some reason is not compatible with Windows 7. Thus, although it is not very convenient, it seems that a large number of user software does not start on Windows 7 initially. Especially if the application has a successor and is no longer supported.

Or, good. You can create an application that launches your web application in the WebBrowser control and inform the client that this is a new version of the desktop. Perhaps he just doesn’t want to open a browser to use your application.

Answer 7

Yes, it is reasonable for the client to expect that you will support your product in later versions of Windows. It is also wise for your company to decide that it no longer wants to support the product, at the risk of losing customers.

But it doesn't matter what the industry standard is, does it? You either need to convince this client to switch to the web version, make your product run on Windows 7, or refuse this client.