Official forums for BZFlag.org

This just a heads up that I am planning to drop support for all remaining Windows XP users as well as older clients on all platforms.

Windows XP clients

Support for Windows XP was already removed from the game in our 2.4.10 release, but older clients would still run on XP. However, I am planning to make changes to our central services that will no longer be compatible with Windows XP. (Specifically, I currently have to run an older version of Debian in order to provide central services for XP, and I would rather upgrade before security support runs out in May.) Players still running a client on XP will no longer be able to obtain a server list or authenticate to game servers. The plan is to make this change by the end of March, 2018 or some time in April, 2018.

Clients older than 2.4.4

As for older client releases on all platforms, I plan to make a change to force secure communications with our central services. This will mean that clients older than 2.4.4 will be unable to obtain a server list or authenticate to game servers. Versions older than 2.4.4 insecurely sent login information (your username and password) in plain text across the Internet. The plan is to make the change by the end of July, 2018.

Question. My family has a few Windows XP laptops back at home, but will their BZFlag programs still be able to run properly on private servers? Please let me know.

Thanks,
- Buzzy_Beetle

That will probably still work, but I can't guarantee that XP clients won't do something silly like crash out when they try to load the MOTD or the server list. (Worst case, you can pass the -nomotd -nolist arguments to disable them both.)

Just a reminder that we're approaching the end of March. I will begin the first phase of the plan, dropping support for XP clients, within the next week or two.

The first phase is partially completed. I have a new server spun up and configured and am pointing all traffic to that host (other than the main www.bzflag.org site). I'm now working on upgrading a second host that will be put back in rotation afterwards.

EDIT: Second host is upgraded now. Just waiting on a DNS change for the main site.

EDIT 2: First phase is complete now.

Important Question: If a Windows XP machine has a BZFlag download file on it from when this game still supported Windows XP, can the file still be copied and installed on another Windows XP machine?

Thanks, Buzzy.

The old installers are still available. The change I made affects XP's ability to connect to central services. Read the first post again.