[Gllug] Linux on Desktop

[John Winters]

> Hi
>
> Christopher Hunter wrote:
>> It breaks compatibility with old programmes
>> (necessitating re-purchase of existing software), it has serious
>
> Good. I keep coming across this argument about backwards compatibility
> and I think Microsoft *should* break it at least semi-regularly.

Microsoft missed a great opportunity to break backwards-compatibility when
they first launched NT.  Lots of things which were broken in MS-DOS (and
thus in earlier versions of Windows) could have been fixed at that point
because all the MS-DOS applications ran by means of a compatibility layer.
 By doing it properly in NT and merely emulating the brokenness in the
compatibility layer they could have cleaned out a whole load of dross.

A classic example is the handling of daylight saving time.  This has never
worked correctly in MS-DOS and Windows and simple analysis shows that, as
long as you store the local date/time in the hardware clock you can never
be sure to get it right.  The correct way of doing it was known long
before NT was launched (or even thought of) but instead of fixing it at
the launch of NT they carried on with the broken MS-DOS method.  When the
clocks go back in the autumn, long-running applications actually see the
clock leap forward by an hour at one point!  Uuugh.

John

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