[radicalbyte]

Under Windows it's very rare to have trouble to running software. When you have trouble it's usually due to some security considerations or because you're using something which has roots in other operating systems.

MacOS & Linux are nothing like this. You can run most software, as most of the basis for modern software on those stacks is available in source form and can be maintained. Software which isn't breaks.

Apple/Google with their mobile OSes take that a step further, most older software is broken on those platforms.

The way they've kept compatibility within Windows is something I really love about the platform.. but it I keep wondering if there's a way to get the best of both worlds. Can you keep the compatibility layer as an adhoc thing, running under emulation, so that the core OS can be rationalised?

[gunapologist99]

In fairness, closed source software is a very very tiny minority of the software available on Linux, which is why ABI backwards-compatibility hasn't been much of a concern. In that respect, it's essentially the polar opposite of Windows and even MacOS.

However, it'd be very nice if it did become more of a focus (especially in the glibc/audio/glx areas), especially now that gaming has become very popular on Linux.

Trying to get old, closed-source games like Unreal Tournament to work on Linux can be a real chore.

[radicalbyte]

I'm not so sure, I like the Linux model of 99.999% of the code you'll run being available in source form. The result is that we have that code running everywhere.

I strongly dislike the Apple model.