Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/09/13/11:29:49
Adam W Lee wrote:
> Screw backwards compatibility... If we're going to take a
> step ahead we can't be looking back...
In which case you lose the market before you start. If you
write a completely new O/S which can't run the old applications,
no-one except hackers will bother with it. That's the problem
with Linux, people need to use the computer with applications
which provide the facilities they need, and the applications
just aren't there. There's nothing to touch Word7 for WP, or
CakeWalk and Noteworthy for music, and the few applications
which are attempting to get there aren't compatible. So if
I'm sent a Word document, or a Noteworthy music file, am I
going to just say "I can't use this" or am I going to use
Windows and a commercial product? Or am I going to take half
a century rewriting the application?
Windows is successful because of its applications. The PC was
successful because of the applications for it (and because it
was an order of magnitude cheaper than the minicomputers
which were the only alternative).
> We could have such better processors (Alphas) by now if we
> weren't so damned worried about still being able to run QEdit
> and Space Invaders.
We've got Alphas. And they cost far more than PCs for no
noticable gain (at least no gain at all with DEC UNIX on them).
We've got Sparcstations at a lower price, comparable to Macs.
And the ordinary people don't buy them because they won't run
the software which is needed. Sure, a Sparcstation will run
wonderful CAD/CAM programs. That doesn't help a busnessman
who needs to run an accounting system. Sure, there are
AlphaStations which will run TeX. That doesn't help a
secretary who needs to prepare stuff in Word and integrate
with charts prepared by Excel from a database and make
transparencies of the result.
If you don't have compatibility you fail. That's what IBM
found with the PS/2 range - superior hardware, a potentially
much better peripheral bus - and people said "why should I
throw away everything I've got and pay again for replacements?"
and went out and bought clones of the original PC.
We've had 'better' processors than the x86 series for well over
a decade. The Amiga used the 68000 series, and look where that
got - a games machine with very few applications. SparcStations
have been around for several years, and are still only seen as
options in companies and universities, not as home machines.
When you have your OS and all the applications, with backward
compatibility (or an offer to pay to type in everyone's data
into the new formats), you might get some buyers. But
compatibility, in the real world, is essential. I have friends
who bought Amstrad PCW machines (basically CP/M based word
processor machines, with their own disk format etc.). Most of
them are still using them, because they have too much tied up
in the old system to go to something 'better'. They have
megabytes of data on the old disks and in the old format, and
they can't afford either to lose that or to pay to have it
converted. I have friends in business who are using PICK, and
can't afford to change to a new system because all their stock
is in the old system, and they can't close down for a month or
two to convert (and to retrain the staff).
Chris C
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