I am not as convinced about windows binary compatibility as David. You... try getting old Linux binaries to work in a current Linux. It's
actually harder.
http://secretlondon.livejournal.com/447659.html
(Windows is all about binary compatibility, but Linux is expressly not
- it's all about *source* compatibility. So old programs are more
likely to work by running the Windows version in Wine.)
- d.
can't run 16 bit binaries on any of the 64 bit versions of Windows. This
can be a curse for installers. It also broke when windows 3 was
introduced because windows wouldn't run the old PharLap extended DOS
programs. Or any DOS program that needed ring 0.
For true binary compatibility I have to hand it to Tru64 unix on
DEC/Digital/Compaq/HP Alpha machines. We still have users running a 1994
binary on the latest version of the op sys. Although, Solaris (SPARC)
binaries have been pretty good as well. AIX broke when a CPU change
introduced some new exception bits in the FPU status register which
caused the accrued exception bit to stay set because I only cleared the
ones I knew about. Otherwise AIX has been pretty good as well. So I
think proprietary UNIX wins the binary compatibility stakes.
Geoff
