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Freeware for Windows -- Where Did It Go?
Talahamut asks: "The other day, I was planning on recording a radio show by running my stereo's output into my PC. Oooh, that sucks - WinXP's Sound Recorder limits you to 60 sec. recordings. Oh well, I'll just go online and grab a little WAV recorder. 30 minutes later, I'm frustrated because all I find is crippleware (time-limited, of course...) that records every format under the sun from any sound stream imaginable. What happened to the small home-brewed Windows utilities that used to be so easy to find online years ago? All the freeware sites I checked had nothing but commercial crippleware. Is there no place to find simple programs like that anymore?"
Anyone who thinks MS doesn't deliberately make their products incompatible with others needs a serious reality check. For example, every major OS vendor has had their own version of threads for a long time. Every one of them save one have added pthreads wrappers in addition. Guess which one?
As for graphics: If compatibility would mean supporting X windows, breaking compatibility is a Good Thing.
I've never heard of this "X windows" thing you talk about, so I'm going to assume you mean X Window. So yeah breaking compatibility is a good thing! How else would they be able to rehash what X has been able to do since the early 1980s like... gasp... the ability to run GUI programs remotely? Hell yeah! That's worth paying for a terminal license for! The ability to login multiple users simultaneously? I'm all choked up with BillG's generosity seeing that he added that major innovation to Windows XP without even requiring multiple licenses to have multiple logins!!!!