Microsoft had broken 16bit code earlier with their 64bit implementations of Windows XP, even though the effects were not wide spread and were unfelt at the consumer level. For the consumer, the biggest effect of breaking 16bit code was with hardware drivers. The long cycle was largely due to the development of NT for commercial use with the intent of long support.
Allowing virtualization is very much a customer focused strategy, but one which Apple deliberately avoids at the consumer level with OSX. It doesn't help them in their core business of selling branded hardware with a three year support lifecycle.
What hasn't been explored is virtualization as a high level organizational feature of a desktop operating system. I currently reference a legacy application which relies on 16bit code. Running it in a virtual machine is fabulous because I can save the state and come back to the exactly the same point two months later.
I have another VM which runs Ubuntu. I used it to sign up for Facebook and that's all I use it for. It appears to sidestep the commercial byproducts of Facebook use.
> Microsoft had broken 16bit code earlier with their 64bit implementations of Windows XP
It's AMD/Intel that has broken 16bit compatibility with 64bit, not Microsoft. If you put your CPU in 64bit mode, it will no longer be able to run 16bit code.
Allowing virtualization is very much a customer focused strategy, but one which Apple deliberately avoids at the consumer level with OSX. It doesn't help them in their core business of selling branded hardware with a three year support lifecycle.
What hasn't been explored is virtualization as a high level organizational feature of a desktop operating system. I currently reference a legacy application which relies on 16bit code. Running it in a virtual machine is fabulous because I can save the state and come back to the exactly the same point two months later.
I have another VM which runs Ubuntu. I used it to sign up for Facebook and that's all I use it for. It appears to sidestep the commercial byproducts of Facebook use.