# About Julia's development policy regarding Windows

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/about-julias-development-policy-regarding-windows/128011
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** windows
**Created:** [April 12, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/about-julias-development-policy-regarding-windows/128011 "2025-04-12T19:29:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 79

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### Author: ![uwestoehr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/uwestoehr/32/216201_2.png) [@uwestoehr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/uwestoehr)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/about-julias-development-policy-regarding-windows/128011/79 "2025-04-23T21:29:24Z")

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> [@StefanKarpinski](#):
>
> If we held up Julia releases for every package that someone somewhere thinks is important,

Again, it is not me but the community that should decide what is part of the core functionality. I don’t understand why the community should not do this, I think Julia is a community project. There is an annual conference, you can held even elections there, form a governing body for the Julia project or whatever. Many projects have such a structure, I like for example how KDE and the Wikipedia are governed.

> [@StefanKarpinski](#):
>
> The `--trim` feature is explicitly experimental. It even requires the `--experimental` flag to enable it.

I read [the announcement](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/v1.12.0-beta1/NEWS.md):

> New option --trim creates smaller binaries by removing code that was not proven to be reachable from entry points. Entry points can be marked using Base.Experimental.entrypoint (#55047).

This thread is about the development policy. And my opinion is that the development should have all the time all 3 major OSes in mind. A feature that is announced as new should have been tested under all OSes - directly when the PRs are reviewed and merged. So after a merge the new feature should work under all OSes. Sure, it might have bugs, but it should work somehow, or call it “basically”. `--trim` is an example that does not work at all under Windows in the beta1.  
And when it is known that a new feature does not work under all 3 OSes, then there should be a note/warning in the release notes about this.  
One should also consider features that are experimental not to announce as if they will become stable features with the final release. And I got the impression that `--trim` will not be stable when 1.12 final will be released.

I also stated that my intention is not to blame anybody, but to give an impulse that the development policy is changed/improved to have all the time different OSes in mind.

> [@StefanKarpinski](#):
>
> that very aggressively recommends using `juliaup` to install and manage Julia versions

Yes and when I started to give Julia a try, I tried Juliaup. That time the Download page gave me the impression that I have to use the Microsoft store, which is not possible (many companies have disabled the store for legal reasons).

So I directly downloaded Juliaup, but on executing the Juliaup.exe nothing happened.  
And this is another example on how a changed policy would help. I simply did not undestand that I have to execute juliaup from a console.

Most Windows users like me don’t know a console. Also my clever colleagues holding a PhD in biology don’t know about a console. And why should they? But they are the target audience of Julia.  
Personally, I developed a lot in my life and cannot use a console because whenever I had to I just copy/pasted something I found in docs or a forum and that occurred few times a year. I cannot memorize commands and i am a chamption in making typos. 😄

This thread is also about Windows and Windows users have other needs.

> **Portion manually split into A graphical Julia installer for Windows**
>
> As Windows user I need a graphical installer where I can select at least:
> 
> - the Julia version I want to install
> - the install location
> 
> All larger projects I know provide a graphical installer for Windows and a way to use it without the Microsoft store. And that’s why I chose the graphical installer for Julia.
> 
> I cannot understand to hear in this thread that just because I need a graphical installer I made a mistake.
> 
> As I wrote installers for 2 lager projects ([lyx.org](http://lyx.org) and [freecad.org](http://freecad.org)) with over the time surely a million of installations, I could also write one for Julia but I have the feeling that there is not much interest.

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