• tetris11@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    Desktop - Linux - Yes, likely. If not, here’s a flatpak
    Desktop - Windows - Maybe it still runs in a compatibility mode?
    Desktop - iMac - Here’s an emulator, good luck.

    Mobile - PostMarketOS - Yes, likely. If not, here’s a flatpak
    Mobile - Android - Maybe? Try it and see if you get permission denial
    Mobile - iPhone - Fuck you, no.

    • dan@upvote.au
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Windows is pretty good with backwards compatibility, probably the best out of anything. I can run Visual Basic apps I wrote in the early 2000s on Windows 11 and they still run fine. Some old 32-bit games work fine too. You can even run some 16-bit Windows 3.0 apps on 32-bit Windows 10 if you manually install NTVDM through the Windows features (it was never ported to 64-bit though)

      Linux is okay for backcompat but I’m not sure an app I compiled 20 years ago would still run today.

      • tetris11@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        Tell that to video games, which constantly need a compat mode enabled

        • dan@upvote.au
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          The fact that a compat mode exists means that Microsoft put effort into backwards compatibility. Windows even emulates some old bugs for old popular apps that depended on them. I don’t think any other OS does that.

          • toastal@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            9 months ago

            I don’t like Microsoft Windows at all, but you are absolutely right about doing a good job with backwards compatibility.

            Linux isn’t so backwards compatible, but with much of it having open source code, you can often compile it again yourself—tho having been written in a language that offers good backwards compatibility also helps.