this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Windows compatibility is insane! (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That's because somewhere deep inside every x64/x86 compatible processor is an 8086 from 1980. The architecture has more or less remained the same for 40 years with more and more shit piled on top.

You can literally still natively boot DOS from a floppy on a modern PC if you can get it to recognize and boot from a USB floppy drive and it has legacy boot enabled. You wont get very far without drivers for anything, but you'll get to the command prompt.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

More than that tho, windows aims to preserve library compatibility with older software.

It's common for older games for Mac on the same architecture to break or become uninstallable on newer OS versions.

Edit: Fun rabbit hole time! Windows XP had a specific patch to allow Legoland to play with improper coding that was only removed in Windows 10 https://youtu.be/MToTEqoVv3I