3 ms·

> because MS can't let anything go. To be clear, this isn't really up to them. It's what market forces have dictated. Tons of old corp apps exist all over the

> because MS can't let anything go. To be clear, this isn't really up to them. It's what market forces have dictated. Tons of old corp apps exist all over the place that necessitate this level of backwards compatibility.

blackrock 6y ago
One crazy thing I read about, was of a bug from some 3rd party company’s application. On some Windows update, the application no longer worked. But since Microsoft wanted to ensure a seamless transition during upgrades, they changed their OS code to perpetuate the bug from that application, to allow it to continue working. Kudos to them for doing so.
- watermelon0 6y ago
  That's nice of them, but it does needlessly bloat OS code, specification, and tests. In the long run, clear specification and implementation is a lot more desirable, than needing to support various hacks and workarounds for 3rd party software.
danaris 6y ago
It's totally up to them. If Microsoft wanted to, they could say tomorrow that Windows 11 will no longer maintain backwards compatibility with X, Y, and Z ancient technologies. This would anger some of their corporate customers. Possibly even enough that they could get together and fund some kind of Windows Legacy effort. But realistically, if Microsoft decided to stop being backwards-compatible, where are their customers who are stuck with ancient Windows software going to go? Macs? Linux? Neither of those will have the kind of guarantees their purchasing departments require for compatibility. Maybe, just maybe, if Microsoft stopped supporting everything ever written for one of their OSes, some of the godawful legacy cruft would actually have to be replaced by new software, and some poor corporate IT people's lives would improve immensely...
- pjmlp 6y ago
  They tried that with WinRT, and despite many of us actually liking those efforts, it failed as those customers did not accepted it, now there is Project Reunion to unroll the path taken since Windows 8 introduction.
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> this isn't really up to them. It's what market forces have dictated. This is a symmetric process. Microsoft chose its marker and set its customers’ expectations. That influences both who buys its products and how they structure their own dependencies.

blackrock 6y ago

One crazy thing I read about, was of a bug from some 3rd party company’s application. On some Windows update, the application no longer worked. But since Microsoft wanted to ensure a seamless transition during upgrades, they changed their OS code to perpetuate the bug from that application, to allow it to continue working. Kudos to them for doing so.

watermelon0 6y ago
That's nice of them, but it does needlessly bloat OS code, specification, and tests. In the long run, clear specification and implementation is a lot more desirable, than needing to support various hacks and workarounds for 3rd party software.

danaris 6y ago

It's totally up to them. If Microsoft wanted to, they could say tomorrow that Windows 11 will no longer maintain backwards compatibility with X, Y, and Z ancient technologies. This would anger some of their corporate customers. Possibly even enough that they could get together and fund some kind of Windows Legacy effort. But realistically, if Microsoft decided to stop being backwards-compatible, where are their customers who are stuck with ancient Windows software going to go? Macs? Linux? Neither of those will have the kind of guarantees their purchasing departments require for compatibility. Maybe, just maybe, if Microsoft stopped supporting everything ever written for one of their OSes, some of the godawful legacy cruft would actually have to be replaced by new software, and some poor corporate IT people's lives would improve immensely...

pjmlp 6y ago
They tried that with WinRT, and despite many of us actually liking those efforts, it failed as those customers did not accepted it, now there is Project Reunion to unroll the path taken since Windows 8 introduction.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> this isn't really up to them. It's what market forces have dictated. This is a symmetric process. Microsoft chose its marker and set its customers’ expectations. That influences both who buys its products and how they structure their own dependencies.