TheJackal Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 With XP support being eliminated, I have a decision to make. Do I upgrade my laptop (the only computer I use) to Windows 8/9 or do I buy a new one? I haven't decided which way to go, either way is fine. My question is, will the sequences and visualization I made in XP run on Windows 8/9 without modification? I would also like to know if LOR will run on Windows RT 8.1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 There is no Windows 9 (yet). S3 will run on any version of Windows XP or better (including 8.1). You can keep running XP, even when MS drops support for it. I would not install Windows 8.1 on a machine that old. Your sequences and visualization will work just fine, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien407 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 With the recent announcements in regard software enhancements, are there any considerations of porting to OSX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 With the recent announcements in regard software enhancements, are there any considerations of porting to OSX? Probably not. That's not a snub to you Apple fans, but a strictly a numbers thing. About 91% of desktop computers run a version of WIndows, while less than 8% run OSX. There are a lot of expenses in software development. and those expenses would far exceeded the 8% of additional customers that could be gained. In fact, that number is probably far lower since OSX folks can already run S3 by using an emulator like Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlowe Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 (edited) I agree, get a new pc if you plan to update from XP to Wibdows 8. If your pc came with XP, then it's fairly old at this point. But to clarify, S3 (and plenty of other software) will NOT run on Windows RT. Edited March 15, 2014 by jlowe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien407 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Fair enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien407 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Probably not. That's not a snub to you Apple fans, but a strictly a numbers thing. About 91% of desktop computers run a version of WIndows, while less than 8% run OSX. There are a lot of expenses in software development. and those expenses would far exceeded the 8% of additional customers that could be gained. In fact, that number is probably far lower since OSX folks can already run S3 by using an emulator like Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Fair enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobschm Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 You can still get windows 7 and it works. I'd dump XP since there will be NO security updates anymore. Eventually it will fall out of favor as a target for hackers, but it could get ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 You can still get windows 7 and it works. I'd dump XP since there will be NO security updates anymore. Eventually it will fall out of favor as a target for hackers, but it could get ugly. Better run for cover then, since almost all of the worlds ATMs still run on XP In fact, I will argue that XP is MORE secure without new security updates than any 'newer' MS operating system that does have updates. XP has been supported for so long, as well as being the OS of choice of businesses, that MS has patched it up pretty well. That's not to say that there aren't holes still in XP. There could be. But, an OS is really only as safe as your computer hygiene practices. If you don't participate in unsafe computing, you won't catch a CTD. The real killer is that MS will no longer back port patches/features to XP. This is the reason why we dropped 95/98 support when we released S3. S3 simply relied on too many new features that came out with XP so that it was impossible for us to support < XP. In the next few years we will have the same issues as MS drops support for x86 architecture and moves completely to x64. We use many 32-bit library calls to keep backwards compatible, even if a more efficient 64-bit library call exists. When that time comes, those libraries will simply not exist anymore, our hands will be tied, and you'll need an x64 OS to run Swhatever. Wow, I am really digressing here.... Several years ago a lot of media handling programs took it in the shorts when MS decided to drop support for one of it's core libraries - the one used to interface with Windows Media Player. Now, in defense of MS, they did warn everyone that support would soon be ending and that we should be using this NEW DLL in favor of the old one. One day people installed updates from MS and their media programs simply stopped working. MS had decided to not only stop back-porting to the old DLL, they killed off the DLL completely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien407 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 So in the end, once you make your port to the .net environment and your new LORnet, you will tell us what the minimum computer requirements are and what the suggested or preferred ones are. Then we either move forward or we don't (I will). I would assume that regardless of what you do with the new software version, it will still work with your legacy hardware via RS-485 or some sort of interface bridge. Can we also assume that you will continue to support industry standards for streaming DMX over ethernet (E1.31)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 As of right now, we don't expect there to be any changes to the OS versions we support. We are still shooting for XP-Windows 8.1 (and whatever else comes new). We expect to support both x86 and x64 architectures. We do not expect the minimum computer requirements to change, however we are positioning ourselves to be able to use all the new hardware out there. That is not saying you are going to be able to run 15,000 channels on a 20 year old 80386. What that means is if you are using that old 80386 to run your 48 channel show today, it should be able to run the same show on the new .net versions on the same computer. High channel counts will require more horsepower and memory. That also doesn't mean that we will ALWAYS support a particular OS or architecture. MS at any time can force our hand to drop support for a particular OS - XP and Vista being the 2 most likely to be cut down soon. It could very well turn out that MS decides to kill off all the .net libraries in XP for whatever reason. If/when that happens, you'll need to move up, and we will stop supporting that OS for future versions. The software will always work with our hardware. LOR wouldn't be in business if it didn't, right? I'm not sure where the rumor started that we were going to dump E1.31 support. I say that because I've seen it mentioned several times. I am not aware of ANY plans to remove E1.31 support. From the discussions I've been part of, LORNet will be an adjunct not a replacement. The choice to move up is always yours. Your existing software does NOT expire or stop working. If you want to run S1.6 on a Windows 95 machine, you can (but why would you? ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien407 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 That's good to know. I am glad to have you reinforce the fact that you will continue to support the legacy hardware and support E1.31. Mine is a mix of the two and it looks like I won't have to reinvest. I am truly excited about the future direction you are taking the software. I believe that moving to an object or prop based approach to sequencing rather than a channel based one (although I understand that we will still be able to do that if we want to) is a hugh move forward. It begins to move from the technial to the creative. I hope the preview capability (visualizer.....) will let us see a full stage as we create. Thank you for all that you do and I look forward to a very bright (no pun intended) future with LOR. It should be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheJackal Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone have a link for the full version of Windows 7. I'm thinking I'll put it on my wife's laptop and I'll figure out what to do with mine another time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone have a link for the full version of Windows 7. I'm thinking I'll put it on my wife's laptop and I'll figure out what to do with mine another time.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H09BB16/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00H09BB16&linkCode=as2&tag=laoli-20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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