Will Go Executables Stop Running on Windows XP After Go 1.11?

Go 1.10 and Beyond: Windows XP Support

While acknowledging the deprecated status of Windows XP, some developers may still require support for their applications on this operating system. With Go 1.10 and subsequent releases, support for Windows XP has been officially discontinued.

However, as evident in the release notes for Go 1.11, the development toolchain is still accessible on Windows XP. But when will it become impossible to run Go-compiled executables on this outdated OS?

According to Issue #23380, Go will continue to receive bugfix backports until Go 1.11 is released and security backports until Go 1.12 is out. This means some degree of support for Windows XP will be maintained until January 2019.

The lack of support for Windows XP spans both technical and non-technical reasons. First, the active developers involved in Go-on-Windows no longer have an interest in maintaining XP support. Second, autobuilders are required for the Go release/QA process, and these must be supported by someone. Finally, specific bugs related to Windows XP must be addressed and tested, adding to the maintenance burden.

In the absence of support from major entities like corporations, it's up to individual developers to continue providing support for Go on Windows XP, if they desire. It's worth noting that even after official support ends, it's still possible to build newer Go releases from the source on this operating system.

However, a significant roadblock could arise if the Go team encounters technical limitations that require kernel features not present in Windows XP. As seen with Go's support for Windows 2000, certain limitations can lead to the discontinuation of support for an OS.

The above is the detailed content of Will Go Executables Stop Running on Windows XP After Go 1.11?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!