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Whats fantastic about this is how much Microsoft backwards compatibility extends. Fax is not a common use case in 2020 it could have been a separate application
by kyriakos 6y ago
Whats fantastic about this is how much Microsoft backwards compatibility extends. Fax is not a common use case in 2020 it could have been a separate application (even for an extra charge) but in order not to break the workflow of people upgrading its kept alive and bundled.
- neilalexander 6y agoOn the one hand, the extreme level of backward compatibility is pretty great - it’s very rare that software stops working just because you upgrade Windows. In a business setting that is absolutely crucial, particularly given that there are so many companies in the world using software and databases that were written 15-20 years ago. On the other hand, all of this weight has to go somewhere and that’s a pretty large part of why even fresh Windows installs have such a significant footprint. It might not be obvious on a typical desktop PC, but on many low-end tablets and laptops, it can eat a large amount of the already-restrictive storage space. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this is a part of why Windows struggles to maintain popularity in the tablet space outside of the Surface line, and the Surfaces aren’t exactly entry-level. I think it’s fine for things like this to be optional - given that fax isn’t widely used in a lot of the world, it seems like a strange thing to install by default.
- pjmlp 6y agoYou would be surprised, in some jurisdictions apparently sending a Fax is more legal binding than an email with the same scanned data, so...
- grvdrm 6y agoAgree completely. Faxing is alive and well in 2020.
- kyriakos 6y agoso why am I getting down-voted for this?