if that's the case why do I still have to support XP as some shop floor measurement device still uses software from that, and window 7 for the database of greases then the likilhood is the windows 10 to windows 11 project is taking 6months planning of impact assessments. (pretty sure if we had let them the tool planning dept would still be running their windows 3.1 lotus suite
I've seen a few maintenance contracts which not only require maintenance for the OS, but also for a very specific build of the OS too. Are you, by any chance, bound by any such contract?
I have to send files from my Mac to my PC in order to get them printed cause my old printer's driver won't work with the newer MacOS but they work fine on windows 11.
Printer support is hard mode for the IT support crew. An old printer is a minor miracle if you have working drivers.
This has been a great boon to me. Whenever Apple upgrades Mac OS, I check my regional equivalent to craigslist for cheap music gear that stops working. Has worked twice for me. I got a really nice 24 channel audio interface for 20 bucks.
Yes, install your 25-year-old software on your 30-year-old NTFS filesystem (it's that old).
EDIT: I just looked it up and NTFS turns 30 on July 27th, 2023 LOL
Weren't they working on some database-like replacement for it a while ago?
Maybe so, but all that spaghetti code to ensure the backwards compatibility comes at a cost of endless Windows jank.
I use both Windows and Mac machines for my audio work and while everything is consistently just 'plug and play' on my Mac, on the PC side I'm constantly fighting a losing battle with Windows ASIO audio driver issues, multi-monitor issues, Microsoft constantly asking me to make an account every 3 days...
For gaming, I love Windows. Still yet to find anything it does better and with less fuss than MacOS in a work environment though.
also the reason you can still find a dialogue window from like Win95 lol, people often whine how Windows doesn't look as pretty as MacOS, but I think that's just the price for crazy backwards compatibility.
if they remove those old elements, I'd bet people are gonna rage about how their old games or software no longer work.
Actually, a lot of games arent really working that great on Windows either, Windows 7 games tend to not work at all sometimes.
A lot of companies still use Windows XP and 7 for their programs. Seems like Windows is really backward compatible (it isn't)
That's because somewhere deep inside every x64/x86 compatible processor is an 8086 from 1980. The architecture has more or less remained the same for 40 years with more and more shit piled on top.
You can literally still natively boot DOS from a floppy on a modern PC if you can get it to recognize and boot from a USB floppy drive and it has legacy boot enabled. You wont get very far without drivers for anything, but you'll get to the command prompt.
Ideas for a new platform are still out there: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/envisioning-future-simplified-architecture.html
More than that tho, windows aims to preserve library compatibility with older software.
It's common for older games for Mac on the same architecture to break or become uninstallable on newer OS versions.
Edit: Fun rabbit hole time! Windows XP had a specific patch to allow Legoland to play with improper coding that was only removed in Windows 10 https://youtu.be/MToTEqoVv3I
I'm playing first Doom (yeah that Doom from 1993) on my laptop with Win 10
To be fair a pc playing doom isn't that impressive. That game runs on litterally everything
Thinking like that is how I bricked my blender.
Windows after launching the exe: Monitor flickers, mouse freezes and here is free blue screen!
free blue screen
i assume the non free blue screen displays ads before the system crashes
Are you sure you don't work for the Microsoft marketing and sales departments somewhere? This sounds like something they'd try.
I tried to install Civilization 2 from a CD on Windows 10. It didn't work.
there's workaround but it's a pain in the ass... https://www.myabandonware.com/game/sid-meier-s-civilization-ii-453
basically
.bin disk file, you must convert it to .iso.isosetup.exe to install Civilization III'm unsure if this is doable with Windows, but when using wine there's a simple workaround for this:
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=4849
Mostly it boils down to copy the whole civ2 directory as-is.
My dosbox and multiple attempts to build VMs of windows 3.1 say this isn't completely true
For real. We run windows server R 2008 or something at work, never update it. Works like a dream with our other less ancient servers
Oh look, OP never used a Mac but he’s hating on it.