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Given Linux resting on source code, I'm not sure the proper comparison is "running a 20+ year old executable". Can you compile an app from 20+ year old source a

Given Linux resting on source code, I'm not sure the proper comparison is "running a 20+ year old executable". Can you compile an app from 20+ year old source and run it, might be the right choice.

PaulHoule 1y ago
It's a general approach to life. A certain kind of customer wants to be able to run their old binaries, another kind of customer is happy to rebuild their software when they move a new platform. DEC for instance decided to give up on the VAX platform and figure that its customers would rebuild their software for the new chip. Problem is that if they can rebuild their software to run on Alpha/VMS, they also will consider rebuilding it to SPARC/Solaris or something. Apple switched from 68k -> Power PC -> x86 -> ARM and kept one generation of binary compatibility for each time, Microsoft's sorta kinda tried to an x86 -> ARM transition like that and has always failed. The 8086 and the IBM 360 are the only instruction set architectures which have maintained compatibility to before 1980. Part of the Wintel appeal is that stability.