Until now I have basically supported Win95 by default… ie: most of my software just happened to run fine on Win95. But since I started using certain functions to allow programs to get version information about themselves, a dependency on KERNEL32.DLL has been introduced which causes problems for at least one Win95 release. Normally in this situation I would attempt to avoid the dependency, but I am at the point where I haven’t got the time or resources to be bothered. I have therefore decided to officially NOT support Win95. Win98 will now be the minimum OS requirement (the new installers will refuse to install on Win95 systems). I hope that this change doesn’t disadvantage anyone too much down the track, but the bottom line is that maintaining compatibility with old versions often means foregoing the advantages of newer versions, which somewhat defeats the purpose of having a newer version in the first place.
Doesn’t Windows Suck?
Not as far as I’m concerned, for the simple reason that loads of people use it. Something like 70-90% [made up figure] of computer users out there (my potential market) are using PC’s running Windows. Clearly it is meeting people’s needs. The idea that I would resent them for this is ridiculous, as it means that 70-90% of people in the world could potentially download and run my software. Alternatives like Linux may be powerful, robust, reliable, well designed etc… but unless massive numbers of people are using it then it is of no use to me. The one thing that I think is absolutely bloody marvellous about Linux is that it is free (I think… although maybe you have to pay for particular distributions??? That is how little I know about the Linux world)
Busy
Have been knocking together preliminary installers for Edit, Reader and eLibrary. Note the name changes there: JujuEdit is now Jujusoft Edit, and BookReader is now Jujusoft Reader. This is basically because I want a consistent naming convention, and I want the names to be reasonably representational. That said, I so far can’t decide whether JujuTool should be changed to Jujusoft Tool. Sounds kind of stupid…
Self termination…
The likelihood of me actually making these programs available in the near future (this week) has been greatly increased by the implementation of an expiry date into most of my software (test versions only). Knowing that the test versions will not run after a certain period of time (a few months is the general plan) is a comforting thought to me as an independent developer hoping to achieve some degree of Quality Assurance (QA). Of course the methods I’m using are not the most sophisticated, and I’m sure any hacker types who felt so inclined could easily circumvent the measures I’ve put in place, but the main point is to remind people to get the latest version, and what better way to do that than for the old version to self-terminate.