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?"

Comments

Debian Packages.

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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.