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> It sounds like you think you've somehow caught Apple out by showing that other systems can 32 bit somehow. No. I have no interest in having "caught Apple out

> It sounds like you think you've somehow caught Apple out by showing that other systems can 32 bit somehow. No. I have no interest in having "caught Apple out". I'm not attacking Apple and am not trying to start a computer tribal blood bath. Instead of a tribal blood bath, my interest is just the issue of continued compatibility with old applications software. Easily, being able to run old software has long been just super important in computing. IMHO that goal has been one of the most important reasons for the success of Microsoft and even more important for IBM's mainframe business, virtual machine, etc. E.g., long there have been really serious IBM mainframe shops that were betting big bucks and much of a big business on old software and looked at new software, including from IBM, as about as welcome as a sick cow in a flock of 200 prime milk cows. So, for any new release, they ran it on a virtual machine or on the "bare metal" on the side, far from production, for months, constantly testing, before their carefully planned switch over to the new code. Point: Some serious people put a lot of emphasis on old software that has been working very well and are darned reluctant to change over. So, not knowing about Apple, naturally I wondered about their dropping 32 bit support. For contrast, I mentioned some facts I've observed for the computer I'm building now: The processor has 8 cores and 64 bit addressing, and the main memory size is 16 GB. Then Windows XP SP2 32 bit Professional sees all 16 GB of main memory and sees and is willing to use all 8 cores. And the thing, right away, booted and ran the old DOS program Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools -- I'm really happy about that since it promises to mean that finally, finally, after months of time wasted with NTBACKUP and years suffering at risk of losing an operating system installed instance, which has happened several times, finally, finally, at last, I may be able to have a good means of operating system installed instance backup and recovery. It's big stuff for me, and that the Tools are just a DOS program looks terrific to me. I'm not looking for a computer tribal blood bath. "I have no tribe, and no one [should be] offended".

nextos 9y ago
I agree Microsoft excels at backwards compatibility, sometimes at a great cost. This often prevents them from performing aggressive innovations. But it's the right compromise for a company whose business clients represent a significant portion of their overall revenues. Apple is mostly a consumer-focused company. Thus, backwards compatibility is sometimes a liability. If you are forced to keep old code working, e.g. you can't optimize for new instructions that may reduce energy usage. Apple has historically done smooth transitions from one architecture to another, offering plenty of time for consumers to migrate, and providing emulation of older architectures in several forms. If you like sane backwards compatibility, things like Nix and Docker are likely to provide great stuff in the future. Not applicable to Windows, though.

nextos 9y ago

I agree Microsoft excels at backwards compatibility, sometimes at a great cost. This often prevents them from performing aggressive innovations. But it's the right compromise for a company whose business clients represent a significant portion of their overall revenues. Apple is mostly a consumer-focused company. Thus, backwards compatibility is sometimes a liability. If you are forced to keep old code working, e.g. you can't optimize for new instructions that may reduce energy usage. Apple has historically done smooth transitions from one architecture to another, offering plenty of time for consumers to migrate, and providing emulation of older architectures in several forms. If you like sane backwards compatibility, things like Nix and Docker are likely to provide great stuff in the future. Not applicable to Windows, though.