win: block running nodejs on Windows 8.1 and before?

[vtjnash]

Per #31954, the current nodejs policy appears to be do block running on EOL systems. Windows 8.1 extended security update support ended more than a week ago now (on January 10, 2023)¹. I am proposing therefore that libuv drop support entirely as well², so I wanted to raise awareness here as well, to give opportunity for anyone to voice objects to this timeline, before making changes there.

Footnotes

1. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-8-1-support-ended-on-january-10-2023-3cfd4cde-f611-496a-8057-923fba401e93 ↩

2. https://github.com/libuv/libuv/issues/3889 ↩

[bnoordhuis]

@nodejs/build @nodejs/platform-windows this calls for your input.

[StefanStojanovic]

Windows 8.1 is EOL, and that makes it not supported. But please note that Windows Server 2012 R2 is the same version (6.3), it's still supported until October, and it's still used heavily here in CI.

I'm planning to update the CI machines before EOL, but for now, we still need support for 6.3.

[vtjnash]

Sounds like we should revisit in 1 year then. Sounds good to me.