4 ms·
Windows applications usually ship their own copy of all the libraries they use, instead of relying on the system copy of those libraries; and Microsoft is bette
by Denvercoder9 4y ago
Windows applications usually ship their own copy of all the libraries they use, instead of relying on the system copy of those libraries; and Microsoft is better at keeping system APIs backward-compatible (for some definition of system). Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.
- okanat 4y agoMS is almost perfect in this matter. You can still run Win 2k binaries. Most proper Windows applications do ship many libraries but they are often really special purpose or actually part of the application via plugin interfaces. On Windows you don't ship the equivalent of libc, libcurl, libssl, libX.. or SDL. You don't have to deal with any of the pains in the article. Those are all in the OS and they have a stable ABI. Moreover this approach makes your binaries more secure by updating more critical points of failure (i.e. web interfaces, crypto) with the OS rather than you as the developer being forced to do so.