> I can write software today that will work without modification even on versions of windows from 15 years ago without recompilation. I had a Windows user loud

> I can write software today that will work without modification even on versions of windows from 15 years ago without recompilation. I had a Windows user loudly say this in a room while I was in it. It's true Microsoft does a reasonable job of keeping one programs working. Not perfect, I've had many stand alone programs fail to run in "compatibility mode". It's a commendable effort nonetheless. But in contrast, Linus has kept his "don't break userspace" promise damned near perfectly. So upon hearing someone claim yet again how much better Windows does this than Linux, laptop running some 2020 debian stable and a 64 bit Linux kernel, download Debian potato (circa 2000) and expand to a directory on machine running the latest Linux 64 (potato is 32 bit only), chrooted into it, apt install whatever, and showed him it all just works. I could do that with any distribution on my modern Debian laptop.