In his latest column,, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols argues that Microsoft Vista is going to be so expensive that it's going to make users think hard about switching to Linux instead. "Desktop Linux is never going to have a better chance than it will in the next eighteen months," he says. My take: He forgets two important factors: Vista can run with all the flashy graphics turned off, and seven editions of Vista? How many Linux distributions are there to choose from?
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Member since:Heck I can still get a few Win95 apps working on XP...can't say that for my loki games that worked on Redhat 7 that now fail to load on FC4.
I am in disbelief. You said:
Microsoft takes great pains for backward compatibility
BACKWARD compatibility. Running software from Win 95 on Win XP is FORWARD!
But here is another nice example of Microsoft's backward compatibility. Try opening a project from Visual Basic 6 in Visual Basic 7 (.Net). Then tell me about Microsofts great pains for BACKWARD compatibility.
Member since:2005-07-06
No, actually is is backward compatibility.
The VB6 -> VB7 isn't as a big of a deal as some people think. You can convert projects with a tool and a little rewriting, but you can also still continue to use VB6 if you wish. Win32 will still be supported for a while.
Face it, Microsoft has offered the best backward compatibility in it's operating systems for a while now. That's one thing you simply have to give them credit for.
Member since:Heck I can still get a few Win95 apps working on XP...
Can you get all win95 apps to work? No, you can't. So compability is broken. Can you get all XP apps to work on Win2K3? Nope. So compability is broken. However, this is mostly in regard to some minor system utilities, and they can easily be replaced.
can't say that for my loki games that worked on Redhat 7 that now fail to load on FC4.
Well, in that case you've done something wrong. The loki games come with static compiled binaries, so they work perfectly if the system is configured properly.
Haven't heard about anybody else having such problems 
dylansmrjones
kristian AT herkild DOT dk
Member since:Binary compatibility in Windows is everthing, on Linux rarely do we use or need old binaries.
You forget that in Windows if you run a old game it's not so much the binary compatibility, but that directx don't know your new graphics card. Games devs have to re-market the game with XP compatibility and then you have to pay again.
Member since:> then you have to pay again.
What's the difference to me?. I pay for Redhat 7.3 and then I paid for Redhat 9 and then I paid for SuSE 9.0 and then paid for SuSE 9.3 - unlike you free-beer leechers, I pay for my software but when I pay I expect that the developer pays attention to compatibility.
Member since:
> Microsoft takes great pains for backward compatibility
Yes, XP Media Center came after XP Pro / XP Home and they did take care of backwards compatibility.
Heck I can still get a few Win95 apps working on XP...can't say that for my loki games that worked on Redhat 7 that now fail to load on FC4.