Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

A bad habit of the Open Source culture

Author:Robert Krajewski
Posted:8/3/1999; 6:43:52 AM
Topic:Microsoft response to Instant Messaging
Msg #:9049 (In response to 9037)
Prev/Next:9048 / 9050

...is to assume that everybody will rebuild the newest version the moment it comes out, so that source-level, binary-level, and protocol-level compatibility with older or alternate implementations is not needed.

Say what you want about Microsoft, but I think they done a very good job, if not a perfect one, of maintaining Win32 API binary and behavioral compatibility over three major releases. And the Win32 API is massive, with much more functionality than, say, the Linux kernel and the various X Windows-based toolkits put together. And Apple has pulled off something comparable with MacOS -- I've got ten-year old share applications that work just fine under MacOS 8.6.

It will be interesting to see how Linux evolves once there is a significant non-geek/server installed base.

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