Eero Ahonen <aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> wrote:
> To exactly how many pieces of hardware have you lost the support on
> Linux while upgrading to a newer version of Linux? The difference
> between Linux and Vista here is that if your device worked with Zoot
> (RedHat 6.2) and 2.2 -series kernel, it most probably still works with
> newest SuSE and 2.6 -series kernel - at least if you're still able to
> physically plug the device in.

  I think one advantage of Linux over Windows is that Linux has absolutely
no need to try to "sell" new versions of itself. This allows for a much
more gradual development of the entire system, and there's no need to
artificially make a "new version of linux" (if we even can rationally talk
about one) look&feel different from earlier versions. On the contrary, one
of the strengths of Linux is precisely that it doesn't need to try to be
different with each new version, so it can not only keep backwards
compatibility at software level, but also at the user interface level.
Any changes in usage are caused by necessity, not by an attempt to be
different for the sake of being different.

  Not so with Windows. Microsoft *must* sell a completely brand new version
of Windows each n years. Of course people wouldn't buy the new version if
it was basically identical to the old version, with just internal invisible
improvements, and perhaps a few new programs (which would work in the old
version anyways). Thus MS has to make new versions of Windows look&feel
different from earlier versions. MS has to create the illusion that the
new version is much better than the old version, and that people should
definitely upgrade. That sells.
  The sad thing that changing the look&feel often means artificial changes
which are not for the better. It also sometimes means breaking backwards
compatibility with older software and even hardware.
  Another way of selling the new version is to include something which
does not work in the older version (DirectX10 anyone?)

  The sad thing is that people are ready to conform.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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