Windows 7 compatibility excessive restriction

[blorg]

I am confused as to why Calibre makes such a big deal of being only windows 8+ compatible.

If I try to install Calibre 5.0 with the standard installer, it refuses to do so on Windows 7.

Yet if I use Calibre portable 5.0 on the same system, it works fine without any problems.

Perhaps give some credit to your users, and let them install a program they want without babysitting their choices? It's not like you're gonna get sued or something.

My 2 cents.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by blorg

Perhaps give some credit to your users, and let them install a program they want without babysitting their choices? It's not like you're gonna get sued or something.

My 2 cents.

No, I'm not going to get sued, I'm just going to have to waste MY time dealing with issues caused by an unsupported end-of-lifed platform.

And no, it runs fine for YOU, doesnt mine it runs fine in general. Search this forum for all the windows 7 related issues cause by qt webengine in calibre 4 and calibre 5 has an even newer version of Qt WebEngine.

[lemonstar]

Win7 is still used by 100's of millions of users for a multitude of reasons - I have expensive music recording software I don't want to upgrade to Win10. Other have drivers for external hardware, etc.

A disappointing decision - made no doubt through idealism more than pragmatism.

Some warning from you might have been nice.

[DiapDealer]

For heaven's sake, can't people read?! It wasn't an idealistic reason at all. More and more time was being spent trouble-shooting problems with the newer versions of Qt calibre is using and Windows 7 (not to mention that Python3.8 could be the last version that supports Windows 7) At some point, you need to cut your losses and move on. That's what happened here. Otherwise you spend all of your time troubleshooting, patching, and working around issues that affect users of aging OSes instead of spending the time developing new features for your application. The older versions of calibre will still work fine for the millions users who still use Windows 7. They've not been left in the lurch at all. The notion that this decision was anything but pure pragmatism is just not based at all in fact.

[Peter Blaise]

Calibre 5 works just fine in Windows 7 64 Pro for me.

Windows 8 is really just Windows 7 SP2, so it's silly to hard-code a resistance to installing Calibre 5 in Windows 7.

The easiest way for me to install Calibre 5 into Windows 7, by the way, was to borrow a Windows 10 POS Phone Operating System computer ( argh, but people ask me for support, so I see Windows 10 POS Phone Operating System computers occasionally ), and I can then install Calibre 5 into

[ C:\Program Files\Calibre5\ ]

on their Windows 10 POS Phone Operating System, then copy that directory to my Windows 7 machine, and viola, works a charm.

In case I need to revert, Calibre 4 is still there on my Windows 7 machine in

[ C:\Program Files\Calibre4\ ]

I absolutely LOVE Calibre, and I thank Kovid Goyal a million times a day for such a terrific unprecedented program.

But the attitude of "... I will fight for Microsoft's pushing of a POS Phone Operating System ..." is completely and totally averse to great independent ( did I say INDEPENDENT ? ) programming.

So, no, Kovid Goyal, there is absolutely nothing special about Calibre 5 that makes it unsupportable on Windows 7.

I suppose I can install Windows 10 on a thumb drive, install future Calibre updates there, then copy them back to Windows 7, and then toss Windows 10 back into a shoebox where it can do no harm.

Seriously, you believe in Windows POS Phone Operating Systems THAT MUCH to fight your own dedicated users over this?

Love you nonetheless, mon.
.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Peter Blaise

So, no, Kovid Goyal, there is absolutely nothing special about Calibre 5 that makes it unsupportable on Windows 7.

There are semi-frequent posts on this very forum about "why is Calibre not launching/showing a blank screen/malfunctioning in general" specifically from running Calibre 4.xx on Windows 7.

[Peter Blaise]

Qt quotes compatibility with Windows 7 at

[ https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/supported-platforms.html ]:

Windows 7 x86 and x86_64 MSVC 2019, MSVC 2017, MinGW 8.1 MinGW-builds GCC 8.1.0 (x86)

... just sayin'.
.

[Peter Blaise]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There are semi-frequent posts on this very forum about "why is Calibre not launching/showing a blank screen/malfunctioning in general" specifically from running Calibre 4.xx on Windows 7.

Cool, that's what a support forum is for.

We get to share what works for us, and how we make it work, and adopt and adapt each other's implementations.

Why anyone would blame that on Windows 7, or think that equivalent surprises within Windows POS Phone Operating Systems are somehow sacrosanct as acceptable is beyond me.

Why an original programmer would get involved is beyond me.

... other than to watch and learn how we do it.

We got this.
__________

Calibre as OS-agnostic would be a terrific target ... for an independent ( did I say INDEPENDENT ? ) programmer.

Hey, Firefox and Opera work in Windows XP, Google Chrome brickwalling XP is whimsical.

We're just watching, and doing our best to develop workarounds.

We got this.
.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Peter Blaise

<snip>
Calibre as OS-agnostic would be a terrific target ... for an independent ( did I say INDEPENDENT ? ) programmer.

We're just watching, and doing our best to develop workarounds.

Independent of who or what, and who is we?

A programmer worth their salt would download the source and create a bespoke version to suit their purpose rather than waste their time whinging.

BR

[JSWolf]

Windows 10 is still free. Do a search and get it and upgrade.

[ownedbycats]

What is it about using outdated operating systems that make people so fussy? I remember a lot of the same stuff about Windows XP too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

What is it about using outdated operating systems that make people so fussy? I remember a lot of the same stuff about Windows XP too.

It's that some who run these outdated OS (Windows 7) are complaining that they aren't getting supported. Well it's not getting supported and you either move on or don't run the software you want to run. It's that simple. Winging isn't going to help.

I just said tha Windows 10 is still free. What's the problem upgrading?

[ownedbycats]

On my old computer, I wasn't able to use Windows 10 because some of my drivers weren't really compatible and the manufacturer didn't update it anymore. But if I was still using that computer I would've just stuck with Calibre 3.48.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

On my old computer, I wasn't able to use Windows 10 because some of my drivers weren't really compatible and the manufacturer didn't update it anymore. But if I was still using that computer I would've just stuck with Calibre 3.48.

Some drivers for Windows 8 will work with Windows 10. I've updated an old computer running Windows 7 to Windows 10. It works.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Peter Blaise

Qt quotes compatibility with Windows 7 at

[ https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/supported-platforms.html ]:

Windows 7 x86 and x86_64 MSVC 2019, MSVC 2017, MinGW 8.1 MinGW-builds GCC 8.1.0 (x86)

... just sayin'.
.

Throw QtWebEngine in that mix . Just sayin'...

What they say should work and what actually DOES work in practice are two very different things. If you were a Qt application developer, you would know this.

The issues with Windows 7 aren't imaginary. Search the forums and see for yourself. Adding QtWebEngine to the equation (with Qt5.14+) means it's way more likely that Windows 7 video drivers aren't recent enough to render properly. Some get lucky and it works. More get white screens and crashes and seek support.

WebEngine is a game-changer. It is what it is.