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Working Around Vista Apps' Incompatibilities
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft says there are over 1,000 applications you can run on Windows Vista with few, if any, issues. However, Windows apps number in the tens of thousands. Add to that the facts that x64 Vista versions don't support legacy 16-bit code, and that the Windows Resource Protection in Vista breaks some apps, and you've got a big issue. InformationWeek lists a host of workarounds in How To Manage Windows Vista Application Compatibility. Among the tips discussed are Vista's compatibility mode, its Program Compatibility Assistant wizard, and a little-known form of file and registry virtualization that's built into the OS. What problems have you encountered with incompatible apps, and are any issues you've encountered deal-breakers that could further roil the already muddied adoption picture for Vista?"
That's great! Now Debian has a order of magnitude more applications than Windows?
Rethinking email
No, id say they wont 'downgrade' to vista unless they *know* their critical apps work.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
one big fat Microsoft Fanboy/Salesman argument isn't true for Vista: "Windows has more applications..."
That lie has been dead for a long time. Debian has 18,733 packages now. I doubt they will ever be obsoleted the way non free software is and Debian, while huge, is only a part of the free software world. You have to go back 20 year to be in a world where non free software outnumbers free. Today, you can easily run systems that are completely free.
The M$ fanboys will say silly things now about how those 1,000 Vista ready applications you don't have to fiddle with too much are the ones that matter and are better in some way than others. That too is a lie and the difference is only going to become more obvious.
Developers left the non free world long ago when it was clear that only M$ and friends got anything out of it. The non free software world collapsed more than ten years ago as M$ crushed rivals like Netscape, OS/2, Word Perfect and others. Everything since then has been a desperate struggle by M$ to stop or steal free software.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Funny how they never even address issues of copyright violation when they mention rewriting code, or using 3rd party tools to crack applications. I doubt that Microsoft would take kindly to me rewriting portions of Visio to run on Linux.
The authors of the fine article should start looking for good attorneys, because they've just greenlighted rewriting proprietary code for better compatability.
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
An AC, who should remain anonymous, asks:
And how many of those are real apps you could use on the desktop of a large enterprise organisation and how many of them are competeing implementations of libdosomethingmundanetheuserneversees and its separate -devel packages?
Library reuse is the reason a GNU/Linux desktop takes less than 2GB while others ask for 10 before you start adding applications. Each package, however, requires a lot of effort so there's really not that much duplication.
Not that I'm knocking Linux, I'm just saying comparing 'applications' to 'packages' is bogus.
No, what you are knocking it the quality of Debian packages. That's only something that can be done in ignorance or malice.
The numbers might be fuzzy, but they are firmly in favor of Debian and GNU/Linux. Every one of the Debian packages does something that someone was interested enough in to write a program for and every one of them works. As is obvious, not every "application" ever written survives the M$ upgrade cycle. Like I said, the fanboys would come out and say silly things like, "the Windoze packages are the ones that matter."
I've been Microsoft application free since 2001 because everything I've ever needed was in Debian.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.