Re: Green Hills CEO: Linux threat to free world!

From: CodeSprite (pmaloy_at_codesprite.com)
Date: 04/10/04 

Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 14:01:29 -0400

"Guy Macon" <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote in message
news:E7udnYJxQq9avOXd4p2dnA@speakeasy.net...
> Lewin A.R.W. Edwards <larwe@larwe.com> says...
> >
> >
> >> Well, I don't recall ever installing an application onto Windows,
finding it
> >> required an updated DLL, and when that DLL is installed finding that
other
> >> applications installed earlier in the day mysteriously stop working,
which
> >
> >ROFL! But Windows is _legendary_ for this kind of behavior!
>
> Here is what Steven Pratschner of Microsoft Corporation says
> about this issue:
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/dplywithnet.asp?#dplywithnet_problem
> (He correctly describes the problem but offers another Microsoft
> proprietary monopolistic solution).
>
> Given the well know nature of this problem, Microsoft admitting
> that it is a problem, and his claim to be a long-time windows
> user, I am at a loss as to how Lewin Edwards came to the conclusion
> that he posted above.

Lewin said it WAS a problem, it was I who said I hadn't encountered it...

I'm racking my brains but I honestly can't recall having had this problem in
the last ten years at least - but then I NEVER install games (in my opinion
the single biggest culprits when it comes to inexplicable errors), and I
avoid Microsoft applications where possible - my copy of Microsoft Office is
about four years old and you'd have to beat me with a big stick to make me
upgrade.

I can't see that pointing a finger at Windows and saying "There! Microsoft
has the same problem!" makes Linux' version problems acceptable. Make no
mistake however - I LIKE Linux and when I believe it isn't a maintenance
nightmare, I WILL make the effort to convert over to it. In the meantime,
I've seen applications which require libraries which require libraries
require libraries etc... all of which have to be found and installed in the
correct order, and too many libraries that fail to keep backwards
compatibility.

There seems to be a real "Emporer's New Clothes" syndrome which makes it
impossible for anyone to say that Linux is less than perfect in any way. Or
perhaps its a form of behaviour reminiscent of the predicament of a faith
healer who finds himself with acute appendicitis.

> "One reason why it's hard to build an isolated application is that the
> current run-time environment typically allows the installation of only
> a single version of a component or an application. This restriction
> means that component authors must write their code in a way that
> remains backward compatible, otherwise they risk breaking existing
> applications when they install a new component. In practice, writing
> code that is forever backward compatible is extremely difficult, if
> not impossible."

To counter the final Microsoft statement on the impossibility of maintaining
backwards compatibility - at some point you have to draw a new line in the
sand, and create a new library with a new name, rather than carrying
redundant baggage around forever. Does that really seem too difficult?

> Here is a quote from the Microsoft article. As you read it, think
> about high-reliability embedded systems and whether you want to
> use an OS with these sort of problems in such systems.

This is ridiculous - I never once suggested using Windows in an embedded
system. Who in their right mind would? Even if you thought it had the
performance and reliability you needed (hollow laugh), you waste too much
time working round the fact that really low-level code that you NEED to have
access to is hidden from you, such that (for example, and this may have
changed in the few years since I had to deal with it) you have to fake IRQs
in an ARM system to get communications from an FIQ process into the main
system code.

Peter.

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