[gigel82]

> Microsoft tracked down the bug and added specific code to Windows 95 that looks for SimCity. If it finds SimCity running, it runs the memory allocator in a special mode that doesn’t free memory right away. That’s the kind of obsession with backward compatibility that made people willing to upgrade to Windows 95.

Impressive; now, if only we could trick them into considering "privacy" a core feature and add "backward compatibility" for it in newest Windows releases, we'd be golden.

[scarface74]

Why is this “impressive”. Microsoft made money by selling Windows. If Windows got the reputation for being incompatible with popular software, people wouldn’t have bought Windows

[arthurcolle]

It's cool when people make an effort and help the community of users.

Doesn't matter if they are Microsoft PMs that got this prioritized or nerdy gamers that originally surfaced this issue, or sympathetic programmers that created the "fix" in this form (hey lets just change the default behavior of the memory allocator/de-allocator/whatever)

I'm sure this straight up would not happen at Apple, today, for example. Challenge for the audience to surface counterexamples!

[scarface74]

They aren’t doing it altruistically, they are doing it to help their bottom line.

But Microsoft worshipping at the alter of backwards compatibility has caused them to move at a glacial pace compared to Apple.

Apple not worshipping at the same alter allowed it to remove 32 bit support from the OS and actual processor which meant:

- duplicate versions of shared libraries weren’t taking up RAM or storage which were both at a premium on mobile devices that have operating systems that don’t support swap

- allowed then to have faster, smaller, more energy efficient processors that allowed them to ship phones where their cheapest phones are still two years ahead in terms of performance than competitors most expensive phones

- the same thing above means that MacBooks can have 20 hours of battery life, don’t sound like a 747 when you open 4 Chrome tabs and don’t run hot.

Microsoft completely missed mobile and their ARM laptops are so crappy that it’s faster to run x86 Windows apps running the ARM version of Windows in a VM on a Mac than running on one of the few ARM Windows computers.

All engineering choices have trade offs. Because of backwards compatibility, there are almost a dozen ways to represent a string in C depending on which API you call

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/text/how-to-convert-be...

This by itself has caused security issues over the years.

[hypertele-Xii]

There are different ways to make money, some more impressive than others. Compare e.g. painting a painting and selling it, vs mugging an old lady in the street.

[scarface74]

So you’re comparing Apple being able to ship phones that are three years ahead of the competition in terms of speed and laptops that are quieter, faster, with 3x the battery life, and don’t get hot enough to brew coffee to a mugging?

[hypertele-Xii]

No I'm comparing past Microsoft to present Microsoft. Backwards compatibility was a more impressive way to make money than... whatever it is Microsoft is doing these days.

The only reason I "upgraded" my Windows last time was exactly because Microsoft broke compatibility (some new app required the latest version of whatever library that wasn't backported).