Re: Epic is dropping Win7/8 support

On Sat, 23 Mar 2024 20:50:15 -0000 (UTC), rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
(Ross Ridge) wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson  <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

This is how it should be. It's very different from Valve, which
actively disables Steam from running on older operating systems, and
even if you do get the client running, its unlikely you'll be able to
use it actually launch games.

>
Just checked and Steam still works on Windows 7.  I was able to update
and launch a couple of games without issue.  So while I'm guessing some
day in the future it'll stop working when Steam makes some incompatible
protocol or API change, for now you can still play Steam games on
Windows 7.

It'll probably be when they update Steam's internal HTML renderer,
which uses Chrome to a later version. Modern Chrome is Win10 and later

Then you'll get stuck in the 'Steam must update to run' and 'This
update doesn't support your OS' loop.

Fortunately, the Win7>Win10 transition was a lot less rocky than the
previous WinXP->Win7 change-over, so you'll likely have a lot fewer
games that will only run on the older OS. And Linux/Wine/Proton is
increasingly a viable alternative.

Still, it would have been nice if Valve had provided a
not-officially-supported alternative for older PCs/operating systems
to install and run games released before the cut-off date.

(I mean, I get why they don't, but a lot of older PCs are more than
capable of running these older games just fine, and it seems like a
lot of hardware is going to just get wastefully junked because of
business - and not technical - reasons)