Quote:
Originally Posted by Perry Reed
1. Get rid of backwards compatibility completely! Start with a small, fast, secure, OS that supports applications written as small, fast, and secure. For those needing backwards compatibility, have a virtual mode, similar to the virtual XP in Windows 7. The advantage is, if you don't run the old apps, you don't need the old bloated code running that supports them.
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Already exists. It's called Linux.
No, Windows biggest advantage is its install base, and if they lost seamless, native backwards compatibility witn 95%+ of the real world apps, then they lose much of what keeps them irreplaceable.
I think people WAY overstate the current issues with shared DLL's. I've been a windows developer since the early 90's. Back then, DLL hell was truly was HELL. You installed almost any DLL (not just VBRUN300 or MSVCRT10, but MYSTUPID.DLL as well) in the Windows\System directory under the assumption that others would find it somehow useful. That problem stuck around for a long while, but really is not much of an issue anymore with XP+ (and especially with .Net) unless you have a REALLY brain dead developer/installer that bypasses every single system installation tool made available to them. Yes, there are issues with dependencies and versions, but those are unavoidable when those dependencies are other applications or OS/Vendor services. Actually no more or less of an issue than you have with Linux or OSX.
For 3rd party developers, the registry is almost always a big, flaming, stinking pile of suck and its use should be deprecated wherever possible. However, I'm not sure there's a 100% better solution for configuring most system level things. Quite frankly, I like the ability to go to one place instead of having to dig through 10,000 usr, var, etc, and sys directories to find non-standardized configuration files (or worse databases) to configure my subsystems. That said, there HAS to be a better way to register DLL's (i.e., classes) than having 10 billion doubly cross-referenced GUID's (backed up 3 times). Also, why is it so slow to search? Come on! Give us SOME progress here. Full text indexes have been around since well before Google...