Reverse Compatibility Manifesto

[Alan Cox]

> Example: is there anybody out there doing natural science or engineering 
> on Linux machines right now who is NOT using any commercial software 
> whatsoever?

There are yes but that's really irrelevant to the discussion anyway

> And just because a "free" software product hasn't been updated in a 
> while does not mean that the software is useless.

If you want to run prehistoric application software you'll need to
install the right ancient supporting libraries. Just like in the windows
world, except the windows folk generally seem to have bundled ancient
DLLs with the applications while Linux proprietary app providers have
assumed the installing user can go find them.

> Any thoughts?

I can still happily run 1993 applications on my current system with the
right libraries added.

There is very little that doesn't work and that tend to divide into two
categories

1.	System configuration tools for very old interfaces
2.	Programs with fundamental bugs that happen to show up nowdays
due to thinks like faster processor speeds, incorrect assumptions in the
code etc.


Alan