Windows can still run software from the 80's, backwards compatibility has always been a selling point for Windows, so I'd call that a win.

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anonymous_sorry 22 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It's very impressive indeed.

Linux goal is only for code compatibility - which makes complete sense given the libre/open source origins. If the culture is one where you expect to have access to the source code for the software you depend on, why should the OS developers make the compromises needed to ensure you can still run a binary compiled decades ago?

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chasing0entropy 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My original VB6 apps (mostly) still run on win11

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mananaysiempre 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Hmm. IME VB6 is actually a particular pain point, because MDAC (a hodgepodge of Microsoft database-access thingies) does not install even on Windows 10, and a line-of-business VB6 app is very likely to need that. And of course you can’t run apps from the 1980s on Windows 11 natively, because it can no longer run 16-bit apps, whether DOS or Windows ones. (All 32-bit Windows apps are definitionally not from the 1980s, seeing as the Tom Miller’s sailboat trip that gave us Win32 only happened in 1990. And it’s not the absence of V86 mode that’s the problem—Windows NT for Alpha could run DOS apps, using a fatter NTVDM with an included emulator. It’s purely Microsoft’s lack of desire to continue supporting that use case.)

	▲	drxzcl 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Wait, what's the story of the sailboat trip? My searches are coming up empty, but it sounds like a great story.

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AndrewDavis 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Didn't Microsoft drop 16 bit application support in Windows 10? I remember being saddened by my exe of Jezzball I've carried from machine to machine no longer working.

	▲	mkup an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Microsoft has dropped 16-bit application support via builtin emulator (NTVDM) from 64-bit builds of Windows, whether it happens to be Windows 10 or earlier version of Windows, depends on user (in my case, it was Windows Vista). However, you can still run 16-bit apps on 64-bit builds of Windows via third party emulators, such as DOSBox and NTVDMx64.
	▲	notepad0x90 28 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		and Linux stopped supporting 32bit x86 I think around the same time? (just i386?)