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If Microsoft did this with the Windows API ten years ago people would be going absolutely batshit crazy in here and the government probably would have intervene

by nikcub 15y ago

If Microsoft did this with the Windows API ten years ago people would be going absolutely batshit crazy in here and the government probably would have intervened

digitallogic 15y ago
They did a little shy of ten years ago with VB6. People did indeed go batshit, but the government did not get involved.
- nikcub 15y ago
  you are right, I should have rephrased when Microsoft did this. I remember those Slashdot threads well.
- kprobst 15y ago
  Except that they provided a replacement and a migration path.
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    And you could keep on using VB6. I wouldn't be surprised if there still aren't thousands of business critical apps that still aren't using it. Web Services are different in that when they're no longer supported, you can't use them.
    - GFischer 15y ago
      Don't be surprised. I have seen a billion-dollar Brazilian megacorp using it for its core software, and several smaller (but still multimillion-dollar sized) companies relying on it as well (we have hundreds of VB6 apps at the insurance company I work for).
  - holri 15y ago
    That was not a replacement but a completely different product with superficial simalarities and the same name. The path was not a migration path but a runaway path.
eli 15y ago
Not sure I follow. Microsoft discontinues products too. I would imagine that anyone who based a company off supporting and integrating with Frontpage got screwed.
- nikcub 15y ago
  yes but you can take an app from the 80s and still run it on Windows 7 today
  - naa42 15y ago
    With DOS emulator. There is no problem to run DOS app from 80s on Linux/MacOS/whatever with dosbox. By the way, dosbox is far better for some apps than DOS emulator from Windows XP/Vista/7.
    - nikcub 15y ago
      you are not understanding the issue here. we are talking about the windows API - they have supported every aspect of it in a backwards compatible way since its inception. read the Raymond Chen blog about how they used SimCity as a benchmark to test if their backwards compat was working. Marc Andreessen is even on the record as being an admirer of the Windows backwards compat work. they put a lot of work into it and placed a high value on it because they did not want to break developer trust.

by nikcub 15y ago

If Microsoft did this with the Windows API ten years ago people would be going absolutely batshit crazy in here and the government probably would have intervened

digitallogic 15y ago

They did a little shy of ten years ago with VB6. People did indeed go batshit, but the government did not get involved.

nikcub 15y ago
you are right, I should have rephrased when Microsoft did this. I remember those Slashdot threads well.
kprobst 15y ago
Except that they provided a replacement and a migration path.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  And you could keep on using VB6. I wouldn't be surprised if there still aren't thousands of business critical apps that still aren't using it. Web Services are different in that when they're no longer supported, you can't use them.
  - GFischer 15y ago
    Don't be surprised. I have seen a billion-dollar Brazilian megacorp using it for its core software, and several smaller (but still multimillion-dollar sized) companies relying on it as well (we have hundreds of VB6 apps at the insurance company I work for).
- holri 15y ago
  That was not a replacement but a completely different product with superficial simalarities and the same name. The path was not a migration path but a runaway path.

eli 15y ago

Not sure I follow. Microsoft discontinues products too. I would imagine that anyone who based a company off supporting and integrating with Frontpage got screwed.

nikcub 15y ago
yes but you can take an app from the 80s and still run it on Windows 7 today
- naa42 15y ago
  With DOS emulator. There is no problem to run DOS app from 80s on Linux/MacOS/whatever with dosbox. By the way, dosbox is far better for some apps than DOS emulator from Windows XP/Vista/7.
  - nikcub 15y ago
    you are not understanding the issue here. we are talking about the windows API - they have supported every aspect of it in a backwards compatible way since its inception. read the Raymond Chen blog about how they used SimCity as a benchmark to test if their backwards compat was working. Marc Andreessen is even on the record as being an admirer of the Windows backwards compat work. they put a lot of work into it and placed a high value on it because they did not want to break developer trust.