Vista compatibility page

[Mike Hearn]

Potentially this is old news, but via Raymond Chen we learn of this page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html...

Which talks about Vistas application compatibility. Interesting points
that stand out:

* They are dropping WinHelp and CHM support. You'll have to install it
  from their website for it to work   (my first thought: wtf?)

* IsBadReadPtr/IsBadWritePtr are now "banned". I wonder what that means.
  Presumably it just means they don't use them internally for the APIs
  anymore.

* Windows will now silently fail to modify certain protected system files
  even if you're the administrator (basically the STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
  error is suppressed to stop installers tripping up).

* They dropped D3D RM. Not many apps use this but I think at least my 
  fathers sailing game does.

So there we have it - this appears to be the first release in which they
simply started dropping APIs.

[Scott Ritchie]

On Tue, 2006-03-14 at 21:56 +0000, Mike Hearn wrote:
> Potentially this is old news, but via Raymond Chen we learn of this page:
>
> So there we have it - this appears to be the first release in which they
> simply started dropping APIs.

And, therefore, the first time for which we can categorically state that
Wine will be more compatible with Windows applications than Windows
itself.

Cheers,
Scott Ritchie

[Andreas Mohr]

Hi,

On Tue, Mar 14, 2006 at 05:51:37PM -0800, Scott Ritchie wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-03-14 at 21:56 +0000, Mike Hearn wrote:
> > Potentially this is old news, but via Raymond Chen we learn of this page:
> >
> > So there we have it - this appears to be the first release in which they
> > simply started dropping APIs.
>
> And, therefore, the first time for which we can categorically state that
> Wine will be more compatible with Windows applications than Windows
> itself.

Not to mention that they're handing a near-fatal blow to OpenGL support, too.

Andreas

[Mike Hearn]

On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 09:24 +0100, Andreas Mohr wrote:
> Not to mention that they're handing a near-fatal blow to OpenGL support, too.

Maybe ... last I heard, word on the street was that vendors had found a
way to write an Aero compatible ICD, so potentially nothing will change.

If nothing else, it's not like video makers will just delete all their
GL code the day Vista is released (whenever that is). They still have to
support XP, and anyway Vista has been looking like a dead duck for a
long time now.

I mean .... 5 years! FIVE YEARS! And this is what they have to show for
it? A bunch of .NET APIs that they intend to backport to XP, and which
require a runtime nobody seems to be using for desktop apps anyway. An
improved file protection hack. Some improved security, and a display
rewrite equivalent to what David Reveman was able to produce on his own
in only 2 years?

I don't think Vista is going to be dealing near-fatal blows to anything
anytime soon ...

[Stefan Dösinger]

> I mean .... 5 years! FIVE YEARS! And this is what they have to show for
> it? A bunch of .NET APIs that they intend to backport to XP, and which
> require a runtime nobody seems to be using for desktop apps anyway. An
> improved file protection hack. Some improved security, and a display
> rewrite equivalent to what David Reveman was able to produce on his own
> in only 2 years?

Not to forget the Digital Rights Management stuff. But thats definitly 
something I don't want. Improved security with a lot of "backdoors" for 
Windows Installer to stay user-friedly.

It doesn't look like Vista will enlarge Wines ToDo list noticeable ;)