[Interest] Qt 5.15 LTS vs Qt 6.2 LTS

[Roland Hughes]

On 9/30/21 9:22 AM, Volker Hilsheimer wrote:
>> On 30 Sep 2021, at 15:59, Roland Hughes via Interest <interest at qt-project.org> wrote:
>> On 9/30/21 5:00 AM, interest-request at qt-project.org wrote:
>>> On Wednesday, 29 September 2021 07:40:11 PDT Rui Oliveira wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Both *Windows 7 or 8.x*
>>>>   version support will not be available for Qt 6"
>>>>
>>> https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-support-ended-on-january-14-2020-b75d4580-2cc7-895a-2c9c-1466d9a53962
>>>
>>>
>>> "Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020."
>>>
>>>
>>> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/faq/windows#windows-8.1
>>>
>>> "Windows 8.1 reached the end of Mainstream Support on January 9, 2018, and
>>> will reach end of Extended Support on January 10, 2023."
>>>
>> This has never been a valid argument. Vendors don't get to choose when something dies. The customers do.
>
> If you want, or are forced, to run an old OS, then you very likely have similar constraints for most of your other software as well. That software might still get patched up as a special service, just as Windows is; but it’s certainly not ported over to a new runtime environment like a major new .NET or Qt version.
>
> That is, in my experience, a reasonable default assumption. Nobody expects to run brand new HMIs or latest versions of productivity software on those OS/2 or Windows XP terminals.

That would be a significantly bad assumption or just disinformation. The 
HMIs are updated all of the time as is the UI. I don't know about where 
you live, but here in the states the ATM world has been cranking out new 
HMI implementations like crazy. Has to do with a long drawn out Chipped 
card uptake so machines have to support non-chipped and chipped today. 
Then some tried to go touch screen only only to be hit with Americans 
with Disabilities lawsuits so they had to add back the braille buttons. 
Some when to view rather than touch screen because, unlike the tender as 
a soap bubble "Gorilla Glass" Apple uses on their phones, screens in 
ATMs (and vending machines) have to survive N hammer blows from a test 
machine and still be usable. Bought in bulk they tip the scales at 
around $5K each. The hokey looking 10-key keypads bought in thousand 
unit lots tip the scales at north of $500 each because they have to pass 
the same test.

The HMI for medical devices ends up changing every few months it seems 
as new HIPAA requirements are released.

https://www.hipaajournal.com/new-hipaa-regulations/


DOT-NOT now runs on both DOS and Windows 3.11. Since most of what runs 
on those could run under OS/2 Warp . . .

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/net-everywhere-apparently-also-means-windows-311-and-dos

As far as OS/2 which I haven't touched in a few years

Libre Office didn't stop until 2015 but would start up again if someone 
picked it up
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/os-2-source/298

FireFox is at 45.9.0 from May of 2018 on this site. Probably later 
versions on other sites. To be secure you shouldn't connect to the 
Internet, but so much documentation seems to come in HTML files these days.
https://ecsoft2.org/firefox

Oddly enough Qt 5.13.1 was/is available for OS/2 since August 2019
https://ecsoft2.org/qt-software-development-framework

Pthreads 0.2.4 (I don't know the current number elsewhere) got added in 
March 2019

https://ecsoft2.org/posix-pthreads

OpenWatcom is actively developed for OS/2 as well as both 16 and 32-bit 
Windows. I haven't dug in to see if they added support for C++17
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openwatcom/

gcc 9.2 appears to be ported to OS/2 so not that far behind
https://github.com/bitwiseworks/gcc-os2

Scribus is OpenSource desktop publishing software that maintains OS/2 
support along with active development. It also supports Windows XP and 
current Linux distros. You can find it in Ubuntu's current LTS.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/

>
> But, if you bring enough $$$ to The Qt Company, then I’m sure we can discuss a special Qt 6 version for you that runs on Windows 7. It’s not going to be cheap, but that’s also a choice a customer has to make.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Volker

This is why every OpenSource project of any significance has an 
OpenSource LTS. I haven't been watching the list because Qtc got Qt 
banned from most of the medical device world. Qt is still OpenSource, right?

Found the Thiago reference here interesting.
https://www.techradar.com/news/key-open-source-project-makes-critical-change-locks-out-community-developers

PostgreSQL has LTS

https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/

Ubuntu marks the 04 release of every even year an LTS

I don't feel like digging all of the LTS stuff out. Significant 
**OpenSource** projects all have OpenSource LTS releases.


The point is there is no need to fork over hideous gobs of money for 
OpenSource. If one really needs it they can have it done internally (or 
by a contractor) and release it back to the community. That's how 
OpenSource works. IBM sunk oceans of money into creating Xerces then 
released it. Why? Because they needed a "standard" XML parser.