Friday 14 March 2008

Open source and backwards compatibility

Windows, being closed source and running closed source programs, had a large amount of compatibility code included (until Vista, that is). We relied on Microsoft to keep our old programs running. Linux, being open source and running open source programs, can offload the burden of correctly running old applications into the applications themselves. And if you're a programmer, you can make sure your favourite open-source programs keep running regardless of changes to the Linux system.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Actually this is more a benefit of open source in general, whether on Windows or Linux.
PPS - But it's easier to work around quirks in a system you can examine thoroughly.

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