Hi Alex, Just adding a bit to your comments.
Apple’s aggressive strategy regarding software upgrades tends to keep their platforms more robust and stable, but comes at the cost of some backward compatibility. That said, though, Apple has also made it extremely easy for developers to keep their software current, regardless of platform. Indeed, migrating from PPC to Intel was a painless transition for the vast majority of developers. Far more trivial than trying to upgrade VB6 apps, even under the best of circumstances. Much has been written, in fact, on just how good Apple has gotten at these kinds of technological transitions, and they get smoother and smoother as the years go by. So far, the major transitions have been: • OS Classic to OS X • Carbon to Cocoa • PPC to Intel • 32 bit to 64 bit Intel • 32 to 64 bit mobile I’m hoping that Microsoft will learn from its mistakes and adopt some similar strategies going forward. On Dec 19, 2013, at 12:41 PM, Alex Kenny <alexkenn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dark, > > I'd just like to point out some misinformation in this post, and some > misunderstandings about Mac and iOS. > > First, you said that iOS apps never have compatibility issues with iOS > upgrades. This is definitely not the case. Several apps, including > Solara (to bring this somewhat back to games) had some serious bugs > running on IOS 7, and some apps were completely unusable until the > developers released updates to fix compatibility. > > Second, if you're looking for an OS that places a high priority on > backward compatibility, you're not going to get it from OS X. Apple is > much more aggressive about discontinuing old API's and technologies > and removing them than even Microsoft is. Allow me to illustrate this. > > In 2005, Apple switched from using the Power PC processor architecture > to the Intel X86/X64 architecture used by Windows PC's. In order to > provide backward-compatibility for PowerPC applications, Apple > included a PpC emulator called Rosetta. The last PPC-compatible OS X > version was 10.5, released in 2007. Version 10.6, released in 2009, > was not compatible with PowerPC hardware, but stil supported Rosetta. > However, the next version, released in 2011, removed Rosetta support. > > Let's say that, for example, BSC Games had written their software for > Mac instead of Windows. If I'm not mistaken, Pipe 2 was last updated > in February 2005, a few months before Apple announced the Intel > transition. Within just six years, you would no longer be able to run > the game on newer versions of the OS. You could just refuse to update > to a newer OS, but once your machine broke, you'd have no choice but > to hunt down parts on eBay or be forced to stop using any incompatible > software. > > > On 12/19/13, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: >> Well tom I don't really believe there's much else to say since for me, >> security isn't an issue due to fhtird party software and I'd rather run avg >> >> than have the harrassment of running windows 8 and a virtual xp system. >> maybe that's different for you. >> >> if microsoft of course hadn't mucked up compatiblity with vb6 applications >> >> and dos programs, well I'd be happy to upgrade even with relearning the >> interface, and indeed I imagine everyone else currently running xp would as >> >> well, so it's certain where the blaime for this situation belongs. This is >> actually one prime advantage Ios seems to have over windows since it >> doesn't break existing programs when upgrading, and is another reason I'd >> like to investigate the actual bennifits (if any), of mac as opposed to >> windows 7 since if I've got to run xp in a virtual machine anyway, well it >> doesn't make too much difference whether I use mac or windows. >> >> Beware the Grue! >> >> Dark. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
