Downloads / extensions for older versions

There might be a good reason for this, but why is there a cut off on the themes/payment providers etc.
For versions older then 2.65?

This version is only a year old and I can imagine that there might be more people not anctious to upgrade their shop with custom templates to a newer version because of the work involved.

Right, one year is quite long time. There could not be more than 1% of people using version below 2.65 and who still not downloaded required plugins (when they were available).

This is kind of unfortunate because I seem to be 1 of the 1%.

So eventhough the demand might be low is there any reason not to make them available for download?

I already wrote about the reason. These versions (<2.65) are very old. No one will download 2.30 when we have 3.00. No one contribute new extensions for these versions. Furthermore, people had months and years before to download these plugins.

The same also was done a couple of years ago for version below 1.90. The same will happen for versions below 3.00 some day

This almost sounds like:
Lets actively block out all Opera browser users, they only make up about 0.5% of the users.
Or lets block all versions of IE below 8, they had time enough to upgrade.

If it doesn't cost anything to support older versions why not keep this possibility included.

The reason this will be a problem for me as I understand it and please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Is the incompatibility with .NET 4.5 for the older versions + hosting multiple Nopcommerce websites on 1 server.
So if I wanted to install Nopcommerce > 2.65 I need .NET 4.5.
If I install .NET 4.5, versions < 2.65 will start producing errors.

Payment providers that I might want to use are available for 2.4 / 2.5 versions of Nopcommerce and 2.7 up.

If my assumptions are correct I either need to upgrade all Nopcommerce installations on this 1 server to 2.7 and up or can't install any newer versions of Nopcommerce > 2.65 which makes it pretty hard because the downloads have been stopped for lower versions.

If it's correct that you can't run .NET 4.5 + older versions of Nopcommerce without errors please support older versions of Nopcommerce for a longer time.

What plugins and for what version are interested in? I'll post links to download them here.

mischa_k wrote:
BTW, thinking about it for the last 6 months - https://www.nopcommerce.com/boards/t/20365/your-thoughts-about-a-new-default-template-for-nopcommerce-270-or-280.aspx?p=5#85127

While IE 6/7 marketshare is still this this high I wouldnt suggest taking thist step.

IE 6 marketshare for destktop browsers: 6.0 %
IE 7: 1.28 %

Together almost 1 in 10 visitors, that you want to turn away.
That is totally unexceptable for an e-commerce platform to start of by turning away 7.28% of all users.

I'm a web dev myself so i know the trouble it causes to support IE6, for me it's ok if there are some artifacts popping up in the website or downgrading the experience but flat out telling people no you can't shop here is suicide for an e-commerce platform.

Source:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0

This is one of the start counters which has IE pegged as one of the most used.
Wikimedia puts IE 6 + IE 7 on +-3%.

Still way too much to just turn away.
For e-commerce i think acceptable would be 1 in 10.000 visitors to turn away based on not being able to view the website.

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I don't really remember what payment providers where out there I think buckaroo, ogone and perhaps mollie.
If I would be able to download these I would be very happy.

mischa_k wrote:
Actually that's not true. StatCounter has much more accurate stats:
IE6: 0.26%
IE7: 0.59%
Total: 0.85%
Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/browser-trends-may-2013/

mischa_k wrote:
What version of nopCommerce are you using?

Also, consider that the developers of those older plugins may stop supporting (recompiling) them.  If they provided source code, then it would no longer be available for others to recompile (or at least not as easily found if hosted somewhere else)

Version of nopcommerce im interested in: 2.5 / 2.6 if any of the mentioned payment providers are available for that version that would be awesome.

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If 0.5% then it's still 1 in 200 way too much people to turn away especially if you include IE7.