4 ms·

Been experimenting using this to run legacy software and while it seems to work great with command line tools, as soon as you progress onto gui stuff you quickl

by jamesu 7y ago

Been experimenting using this to run legacy software and while it seems to work great with command line tools, as soon as you progress onto gui stuff you quickly run into missing functions and libs. Still insanely cool though.

dehrmann 7y ago
Especially for MacOs, where you can expect apps to stop working after a new new major OS versions, this is really nice. Meanwhile, Microsoft maintains an amazing degree of compatibility. I haven't tried, but I have a feeling Office 97 works in Windows 10.
- earenndil 7y ago
  Traditionally, that was the case, but recently older applications have been breaking in recent versions of windows. And windows and macos both have hacks in place to fix older versions of popular applications (ms office, adobe suite, etc.).
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    While Windows's backwards compatibility is sadly getting worse, it's also still pretty incredible. I can run lots of obscure Windows programs that 2+ decades old! Mac backwards compatibility isn't as bad as some people say—I have a decade-old program that still works in Mojave, for instance—but Windows is a lot better. The platform with awful backwards compatibility is iOS. And there, you don't even have the option to dual boot or downgrade. The fact that no one cares says something about how much we value mobile software...
    - earenndil 7y ago
      Honestly, the only time ios has broken backwards compatibility is with 32->64 bit. And—not to minimize that, that is quite major, but that's pretty much the only time it's happened.
      - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        Have you ever actually tried to run early iOS apps on iOS 10? I have. I had an iPod Touch for a couple of years as a teenager, but then left iOS until I got an iPhone in college. Once I had the iPhone, I decided to go through my purchase history and re-download the apps I'd used on my iPod, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. To my dismay, exceedingly few of the old apps worked, and most of those that did had major graphical glitches. (Not including apps which had been updated by the developer more recently, of course.)
        earenndil 7y ago
        > To my dismay, exceedingly few of the old apps worked, and most of those that did had major graphical glitches Link them to me and I'll try them out. I've never had that experience.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        I took a look, and it seems like a lot of them were removed from the App Store. If you happen to have any of these in your purchase history: * Convertbot * Tap Tap Revenge Classic / 2.5 / Dance * Roland 2 There were definitely way more, but I don't remember which ones, and now that I'm on iOS 12 I can't test any of them (all 32 bit). These are the three I specifically remember not working.
        earenndil 7y ago
        Hmm, those seem to be gone and I never downloaded them before. Hah, guess the reason I've never noticed any compat issues is they removed the apps they broke compat with.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        *Rolando 2, with an "o" at the end. I hate catching typos after the edit window has closed.

by jamesu 7y ago

dehrmann 7y ago

Especially for MacOs, where you can expect apps to stop working after a new new major OS versions, this is really nice. Meanwhile, Microsoft maintains an amazing degree of compatibility. I haven't tried, but I have a feeling Office 97 works in Windows 10.

earenndil 7y ago
Traditionally, that was the case, but recently older applications have been breaking in recent versions of windows. And windows and macos both have hacks in place to fix older versions of popular applications (ms office, adobe suite, etc.).
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  While Windows's backwards compatibility is sadly getting worse, it's also still pretty incredible. I can run lots of obscure Windows programs that 2+ decades old! Mac backwards compatibility isn't as bad as some people say—I have a decade-old program that still works in Mojave, for instance—but Windows is a lot better. The platform with awful backwards compatibility is iOS. And there, you don't even have the option to dual boot or downgrade. The fact that no one cares says something about how much we value mobile software...
  - earenndil 7y ago
    Honestly, the only time ios has broken backwards compatibility is with 32->64 bit. And—not to minimize that, that is quite major, but that's pretty much the only time it's happened.
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      Have you ever actually tried to run early iOS apps on iOS 10? I have. I had an iPod Touch for a couple of years as a teenager, but then left iOS until I got an iPhone in college. Once I had the iPhone, I decided to go through my purchase history and re-download the apps I'd used on my iPod, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. To my dismay, exceedingly few of the old apps worked, and most of those that did had major graphical glitches. (Not including apps which had been updated by the developer more recently, of course.)
      - earenndil 7y ago
        > To my dismay, exceedingly few of the old apps worked, and most of those that did had major graphical glitches Link them to me and I'll try them out. I've never had that experience.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        I took a look, and it seems like a lot of them were removed from the App Store. If you happen to have any of these in your purchase history: * Convertbot * Tap Tap Revenge Classic / 2.5 / Dance * Roland 2 There were definitely way more, but I don't remember which ones, and now that I'm on iOS 12 I can't test any of them (all 32 bit). These are the three I specifically remember not working.
        earenndil 7y ago
        Hmm, those seem to be gone and I never downloaded them before. Hah, guess the reason I've never noticed any compat issues is they removed the apps they broke compat with.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        *Rolando 2, with an "o" at the end. I hate catching typos after the edit window has closed.