[Gllug] Linux on Desktop

[Chris Jones]

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.

At least part of the reason why the Windows APIs are such an insane
tangle of different APIs to do the same thing is that throughout
Windows' lifetime, stupid third party developers have done stupid things
and MS has to keep adding workaround after workaround to keep their
stupid apps running.

I read an MSDN blog post recently about a piece of software that was
inserting Explorer context menu entries by offsetting them from the
bottom of the menu rather than using a more correct approach, so XP or
Vista or whatever have to have an explicit hack that means programs
doing that will still look right to the user even after the context menu
structure has changed in Windows.

People will moan that MS are forcing them to buy software again, I'd be
thanking MS for showing me instantly which software of mine is written
by idiots (since I wouldn't be able to just look at the code myself).

Compare the situation to FOSS - we break ABIs and APIs *all* the time
and it doesn't really stop software from working. The only downside is
that it scares off ISVs, presumably because they are more interested in
writing something as quickly as possible, compiling it once and never
having to care about it again other than making money from it. Frankly,
they can get bent :)

Cheers,
-- 
Chris Jones
  cmsj at tenshu.net
   www.tenshu.net
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