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Posted by pbohun 3/29/2025

Convert Linux to Windows(philipbohun.com)
371 points | 452 commentspage 8
zoezoezoezoe 4/1/2025|
> Try doing the same with a Linux binary that's just a year old. There's no guarantee that it will be able to run based off some update that has happened.

What?? I've used Linux for quite a while, and I've had a very good experience with software. I struggle to follow what they're talking about, Linux works just fine. Using Windows software is also pretty easy and like many people have already mentioned wine-binfmt is basically what this article is describing.

gmuslera 3/30/2025||
He is missing the point. Flatpak/Snap are not just an alternative way to ship binaries. They are way to isolate applications and what they can do. Landscape has moved from protecting the system or an user from another to protect the same user applications and their data from each other, specially for desktop environments. That is not even in the map for Windows, its security model and its applications. It is a big jump backwards.
aaomidi 3/30/2025||
Windows does a lot of sandboxing in this space though what do you mean?
mjevans 3/30/2025|||
Every Application should be it's own 'user' (sub user) while the login-user / manager should be the group leader of all those 'sub users' / 'agents'.

A change in security model from the 1970s/1980s might help with security and isolation. However that same security would also generally be a pain without really smooth management in the desktop environment / shell.

JanisErdmanis 3/30/2025||
The Windows MSIX also does sandboxing.
adamtaylor_13 3/30/2025||
People always talk about this “I can run a 20 year .exe file” situation but when I tell you that I have never, in 30+ years, EVER had a need to run a 20+ year executable, it just makes me go… yeah, and?

Sure I believe backwards compatibility is a nice to have feature, but I have never, nor do I think I will ever, have a need to run 20-year-old software.

sevensor 3/30/2025||
My experience is that a 20 year old exe file has a greater chance of running in wine than it would in windows, and a 20 year old Linux executable is going to fail because the shared libraries it depends on are unobtainable
o11c 3/30/2025||
In my experience:

20-year-old exe files can fail on both Windows and WINE if they touch something relatively obscure. It's easier to throw files at the problem under WINE though (you can just throw away the prefix if you break something). The single biggest mistake WINE makes is defaulting to a single shared prefix (and the second sin is similar - trying to integrate folders and menus naively).

20-year-old dynamic binaries on Linux can almost always work today; snapshot.debian.org has all the old libraries you'll ever need. The potential exception is if they touch something hardware-ish or that needs exclusive access, but this is still better than the situation on Windows.

20-year-old static binaries on Linux will fail surprisingly often, since there have been changes in filesystem and file layout.

stevekemp 3/30/2025|||
I've got a terminal open on my desktop, running a copy of ZORK from 1983, which is 42 years old.

Yes there are modern ports, and newer versions, but these kind of retro games, and utilities, are used by many.

cratermoon 3/30/2025|||
I use Nikon Scan 4.0.0. It was released in either 2008 or 2004.
GoblinSlayer 3/30/2025|||
You can have an Electron app with the same features, but an older program likely can do it without being Electron or webapp.
DrFalkyn 3/30/2025||
Games
worthless-trash 3/30/2025||
The shitty thing is, this just encourages closed source software on the open platform, giving vendors another reason not to port natively.

Good luck with the hellscape you're building.

DeathArrow 3/30/2025|
I do not care about access to source code or not. I use apps, I do not want to look at their source code or compile them.

So open/close, I do not care as long as it does what I need, how I need.

And I feel I am not the only one thinking like this.

worthless-trash 3/30/2025||
You sure are not alone, your mindset is that of a user, not a developer.

Its like expecting people who only eat food to understand how its made.. You're just not the target.

DeathArrow 3/30/2025||
I am both. But I do not feel the need to look at the source code of all software I use or tinker with it.
worthless-trash 3/31/2025||
I didnt see all in your original post.
frackintoaster 3/30/2025||
https://xkcd.com/927/
TacticalCoder 3/29/2025||
[dead]
titaphraz 3/30/2025||
[flagged]
timeon 3/30/2025||
Three days early?
mrbluecoat 3/30/2025||
> The Linux Environment is Unstable

How many missiles do you know that run Windows?

okanat 3/30/2025|
How many do you know running Linux? Most of them are either specialized bare-metal OS and the rest is VxWorks.
mrbluecoat 3/30/2025||
https://search.brave.com/search?q=missiles+running+Linux
okanat 4/1/2025||
There are actually no direct results that prove an actual missile running Linux. Simulations yes. Linux running a missile itself no.
timewizard 3/30/2025|
> Try doing the same with a Linux binary that's just a year old.

I do it all the time. Works fine. Do you have a specific example or is this just a hastily constructed strawman?

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