This article details the story of a KDE-loving software engineer who was forced to use Windows for his job. "His only hope was that he knew Qt was cross compatible with Windows Linux and Mac, and there was talk that someday, KDE was to be ported to Windows. So he waited. Well, KDE4 was announced and there was much joy. Betas were released and there was much bitching. KDE4.0.0 was released and there again was much joy (and still a little bitching). More importantly an actual honest to goodness Windows port is released. Here follows that engineer's report."
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Member since:2005-07-08
Don't mix everything, we're not talking about security fix or whatever, we're talking about binary compability.
And no, the apps you're talking about are not the only one.
How about the version of Allegro Common lisp 6.2 which my Lab bought and can only be run on glibc2.1 (50 000 euros, the site licence), or sictus prolog, or Maya 6 (I don't remember the version) or tons of other apps ?
I know that oss version of similar tools exist but if you want a really good lisp compiler, you've got no choice.
The point is not about security or 4 lines of scripts, the point is about being able to use the software I bought longer than 2 years.
I used to be a strong supporter of OSS, and still I am, but seriously, changing API, ABI or drivers interface is not the way to ease wider adoption on linux, whatever desktop environment you like.
It's directly related to the time you have to devote to maintain the tools you want to use in order to do your job. And being older, having a job, a life, you just have less time for this kind of lame stuff such as
"Oh, sh.t I forgot to install ld compat, libstd++5.co and ld.5 and so I'll have to spend I don't know how many time to fix that.
You do that once, maybe twice, but the third time, you just say no more.
Member since:
2005-07-07
Oh come on, you've cited your own examples there-- The big closed legacy apps are: Netscape Communicator, Wordperfect 8 and 9, the Loki games, and the Transgaming release of the Sims. OK-- That's 2001 (and earlier). Tell you daughter what you like, but odds are she wasn't born or eating solid food when this stuff came out-- and there is a theororetical (and somwhat contrived) probability you might need Netscape, but come on.
Compare that what to how many hours you spend hunting software on a virgin Windows install. Let's see-- first of all you want to keep that virgin Windows box of the net. Then you probably need to find: A decent firewall, virus scanner, spyware remover, Web browser, and your fav plugins and codecs. Then you remove the crap the vendor installed. Then you connect the machine to the web and have to do microsoft and your vendor updates. Then you have to the hardware vendor's sites and and grab the even more recent than your system vendor's drivers. Then you get to use your computer, and still put up with all manner of new bugs in legacy apps. Then, unless your family and friends stay on top of all of this stuff you get to repeat the process in 6 months. (Don't I know it...)
I'll take the pain of google and a 4 line script to run 7 year old software any day... I fix enough Windows boxes for family and friends as it is... (Which is sad because I haven't worked on Windows boxes in years, and it left my desktop in 98 or so.)