[Development] Remove OSX 10.6 Build?

[Sarajärvi Tony]

> 
> On Jan 20, 2014, at 7:55 PM, Allan Sandfeld Jensen <kde at carewolf.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Monday 20 January 2014, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> >> On segunda-feira, 20 de janeiro de 2014 17:36:26, Kurt Pattyn wrote:
> >>> The CI system is still building for OSX 10.6.
> >>> Given the fact that OSX is at version 10.9 now, shouldn't the build for
> >>> 10.6 be removed, and ideally replaced with a build for OSX 10.9?
> >>
> >> Only if we decide to stop supporting 10.6 entirely. So the question is: do
> >> we drop it?
> >>
> >> Mac devs, what say you?
> >
> > Could we drop support for build on 10.6, but still support it as runtime
> > platform? That seems to be how Apple prefers to support older versions.
> The
> > question is of course if out CI system would be able to handle building on
> > 10.7 but running  on 10.6
> 
> 
> IIRC, this has been the official statement since Qt 5.0. And yet, for some
> reason, the CI is treating 10.6 as any other platform.
> 
> If you do the math from the data available here
> http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-
> share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 (that's December 2013), 10.6 accounts
> for slightly less than 20% of all the OS X versions. Let's suppose those
> numbers reflect the reality.
> 
> Is 20% a lot? I don't know. Is that 20% the same proportion for Qt 5 end-users?
> Or Qt 5 developers making a life out of it? Absolutely no idea. Do I see that
> many bugs reported on 10.6? No, not at all.
> 
> The truth is, market share doesn't mean anything. Point in case: According to
> the link above, OS X is less than 8% of the total market share. Should we then
> drop the Mac port completely?
> 
> For all I know, that twenty-something percent of Mac users running 10.6 or
> earlier are all grandma and grandpa who only use Safari, Skype, and maybe
> some spreadsheet software for tax returns. For all I know, none of them use
> any Qt 5 based software. And why would they? They haven't updated their
> system in years. But maybe I'm wrong, and I'd like to be proven so.
> 
> So, can someone tell me what that 20% really means for Qt 5 and its
> developers? This is what it means for me.
> 
> We are not that many working on the Mac port. I can think about 6-8 people,
> including me, and AFAIK none of us works 100% on the Mac port (I'd say the
> average is below 50%, so that's 3-4 full-time people maximum). And the
> widgets Mac style code is a mess because we still support 10.6. And we can't
> still use ARC because of 10.6 and some old Xcode version. And have you seen
> the CoreWLAN bear management plugin and how we support 10.6?
> Fullscreen mode hacks? Thank 10.6. Building WebKit and C++ 11, anyone?
> 
> Don't give me "But 20% market share" or "The XP of Apple" when the debate
> about ending support for 10.6 comes. Give me facts. Give me numbers that
> concern Qt 5. Give me reasons why we should keep parts of Qt in such
> unsatisfactory state.
> 
> I only work on my little things, and 10.6 is a burden for me. So, you who work
> out there, that see people using Qt 5 apps, tell me, is it worth it?

Have you noticed this thread http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2014-January/015078.html ?

You are talking about dropping 10.6 support, whereas we are dropping 10.7 as well from the CI.
I know support and CI aren't the same thing, but you might want to object our plan which as of now hasn't received any criticism.

Our 5.3 plan is here: https://wiki.it.local/display/QTCOM/Qt5.3+Supported+host+platforms

Br,
-Tony