Wednesday, June 16, 2004

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Windows API, Rich Client vs Thin Long, fascinating Joel article "How Microsoft Lost the API War". A few miscellaneous observations: I always assumed Microsoft must go to enormous lengths (brute-force) to achieve backward compatibility (and probably other difficult feats). I am with Joel on the rich GUI vs web GUI: 1) I love rich; 2) I am astounded that people are so willing to tolerate thin GUI. It seems to me that a good work-around strategy, for Microsoft to preserve some backward compatibility, would be to encourage/facilitate dual-boot options. Imagine if a brand-new Avalon/Longhorn machine included a separate Windows XP legacy environment, and an easy dual-boot ability. I know it is a work-around, but seems like it might have some legs...they would have to make it really smooth, because there is end-user complexity to deal with... 12:56:50 PM    comment []