On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 18:31:25 -0400, Toshio <toshio(a)tiki-lounge.com> wrote:
Mike, I definitely can agree with the portion of your argument shown
here:: One of Window's selling points is its compatibility to old
versions. It is, in fact, the center of the Microsoft business model.
If Longhorn were to totally break compatibility with previous versions
of Windows, how many shops do you think would decide it made just as
much sense to break compatibility and move to a better OS than to stay
with an incompatible "Windows"?
Microsoft has another motivation for keeping binary compatibility.
If a new version of Windows breaks a major application that competes with
a Microsoft app, they'll have the DOJ on their case.
Someone pointed out that many of the Loki Games no longer run on Fedora
because of kernel changes. No amount of keeping old libraries is going
to overcome that. If someone wants to fork a version of Fedora that
gets updated applications but keeps a stable base down to the kernel
layer and vet all potential changes there for things that will break
user apps they might be able to garner market share from people wanting
to run third party binary apps forever. OTOH, they may find that corner
of the market (game and app-rich, API/ABI stable, binary and
proprietary-license friendly OSs) is already filled with more mature
competitors.
The guy who lives in our other house is mad because an upgrade to Win2K
broke his favorite games that ran just fine on Win98. I dread installing
a DirectX game on any of the Windows machine I use because the odds of it
working aren't that good. A lot of times it's a problem with the video
card, drivers, and all that, but these problems aren't easy to fix.
Back in 2000, I caught the USB bug and started getting USB peripherals
of all types. I had much better luck plugging USB devices into Linux than
I had plugging them into Win98. With mplayer, I can play just about any
video file I get off the net. I've installed all sorts of libraries on my
Windows and MacOS X systems and neither of them reliably and correctly
plays XViD files.
Windows and MacOS X have a lot to teach Linux about having a better
desktop experience, but don't kid yourself into thinking they're perfect.