And this is...bad? Or do you mean it's lying?
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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As a programmer, it's pretty wild how much of Windows under the hood has remained completely unchanged. I started writing software synthesizer applications back in the late '90s, using a part of the Win95 API called "winOutX". The functions are kind of clunky to use but they allow you to programmatically create your own audio buffer arrays filled with whatever sounds you're up to creating and dump them into the playback stream for seamless audio. This shit has remained in place, working pretty much perfectly, for the last 30 years. It was even there in WinCE/Windows Mobile, which allowed me to write software synthesis applications for early smartphones circa 2005. And it's still all there today.
I like to rip on MS as much as the next guy (not least for them completely dropping the fucking ball as far as smartphones were concerned), but sometimes their incredibly long-term conservatism can work to your benefit.
It sounds like the app you wrote is doing 99% of the work. And I'm guessing it was written in C, which means it's an x86 binary and could theoretically run on any x86 system.
Modern Windows actually has a lot of problems running older software. In some cases, the only way to get those applications working again is using Wine on Linux.
It was originally written as a C DLL utilized by a Visual Basic front end. The C DLL used the Win95 API, though, so it wouldn't have worked on anything but Windows 95 and onwards. I subsequently ported the entire thing to C# but still using the same API to do the actual playing of the audio (I experimented with using DirectSound instead but that was really not appropriate for an application doing its own audio mixing). Now I'm working on an iOS version and I couldn't give two fucks about Windows at this point.
it wouldn't have worked on anything but Windows 95 and onwards
I know what you mean. All I was saying is that the binary would execute on an x86 processor regardless of the OS. Now the OS knowing what to do with it is another matter.
This is actually what Wine does, it's a translation layer that intercepts the Win APIs and converts it to a Linux API and vice versa. The actual binary runs on the processor just the same.
I wonder if my old app circa 2000 would actually run on Linux/Wine. One of my projects for this winter is to install Linux on one of my Windows laptops. I'll have to give the old app a try.
Windows, can I run this 25 year old software I just installed?
hello windows 8
macOS, can I install this 2 year old program?
No, the architecture is no longer supported in this version of macOS
"no because the dev hasn't paid us to certify it as safe so you'll have to jump through 37 hoops in order to allow you to right click, hold options, and click open. THEN we'll give you an option to install it"
THIS! I can support apple cutting legacy cruft while designing their products. But the gatekeeping of otherwise functional code you can already observe and cockblock at any time remotely is psychotic.
Is this a LibreWolf on Mac reference, because I hate this so much about LibreWolf on Mac lol.
Not so much a librewolf reference as much as a "any app you download from the Internet" reference lol
I'll have to try installing librewolf when I'm feeling frisky though
I mean, macOS has a lot of issues but the one hoop needed to run any unsigned app is "right-click app icon, click open".
Sometimes it won't let you even get to that step without going into the settings and finding a secret security notification that it blocked it from opening
Yeah, and in rare instances, you’ll need to take the app/binary out from the quarantine
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Windows 11 won't install those 25 year old programs anymore. Wine will.
I’m really sorry to do this, but 25 years ago was 2001.
Now that the painful part is out of the way, 32-bit software from 2001 should work in Windows 11.
Oh cool, let me install this software, what, it won't install because it's missing quicktime? Oh it needs directx 8 runtime? That could be a problem. Let's advance the clock, 2004, that should be fine... What do you mean you can't run .NET 1.1 applications and so that won't run?
Ironically, wine is more likely to have a path to easily run those programs under Linux, but if you had a Linux binary from that era you'd likely have a hard time getting that to run, probably harder than the microsoft scenario. So old Windows software is more likely to run under Linux than old Linux software...
I ran into old software (for Windows XP), especially games not working even with compatibility mode used for the install and opening of the app. Now if the publisher or Steam or some party puts a tad bit of effort, then yes, those games can work, although I guess a big part of that is also hardware and driver related if talking about 3D games for instance.
Oh, it should work and it will if you put all the files in the right places yourself by say installing it on wine and copying the changes to the wine system directories over, but starting in Windows 11 running the installer gets a deliberate "this program isn't meant for this version of Windows" error.
Run the installer in compatibility mode, then run the application in compatibility mode?
Didn't work. Application doesn't even need compatibility mode to run. Running the app copied by someone else from their previous Windows 10 computer sorta works but didn't find files installed to system directories. Windows 11 just deliberately refuses to execute the installer probably based on recognizing the old family of installer programs specifically.
The users wanted a new Linux laptop. I installed LMDE, showed them how to run the installer with wine. It made a menu item. Drag and drop from whatever the cinnamon file manager is doesn't work, and there was no file association to open the program's files. I added one that just opens them with wine and lets it figure it out. I also showed them where their wine c drive was.
After a few weeks they wanted to print to pdf as well as their printer from wine and I had them install cups-pdf
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Windows sucks, but I made some tools 20 yrs ago and they still just run in win11. As they did on all other windows before since...I dunno, 95? Or 3.11?
But anyhow: Windows sucks.
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I wanted to do the cool neofetch thing all the femboys in thigh highs are doing. Shits already installed on mint. My boring ass win98 clone is doing the femboy thing no questions asked.
Hey. The cool transfems in thigh highs are doing it too.
Interesting. Neofetch has ceased development but fastfetch is here to take its place though.
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"Old tools" does not mean obsolete or bad. It means tested, hardened, and reliable. And crucially, probably runs in a couple megabytes of memory, which you might need if the cost of RAM suddenly quintuples for no reason.
B-but don't you want AI in vi?
AI in vim is actually often convenient.
:set ai
Cool, now it will keep track of my indentation.
Now sometimes that gets in the way, and while you can:
:set noai
Usually it's best for me to:
:set paste
And that's my take on the utility of AI in vim. (that is what you meant right, there isn't some other AI people are thinking of right?)
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Roller Coaster Tycoon came out in 1999 but I notice it didn't come preinstalled on Mint. Is my install broken? /s
Sorry, only 25 year old software included. You're on your own for 27 year old software.
Nope, can't find this ancient version of libc!
It's funny because that's true that an old Linux binary is likely to have issues under Linux, but an similarly old Windows application might work better under Wine on Linux than modern Windows.
libc is actually relatively less likely, glibc is awfully conservative about changes, but there are a maze of likely service and library dependencies that were abandoned or didn't regard backwards compatibility with the same importance.
You can still compile it against the modern version.
And if it's static linked it will either run or you can ask Linus to murder someone for you.
Hmm I'll email Linus
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