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Snetry | 2 years ago

> I don't think that is correct. Do you have an example? Linus is adament that "[they] do not break userspace".

I think you interpreted Linus wrong. When he says "we do not break userspace" he is talking about the Kernel APIs that are exposed to the Userland.

Userland APIs would be stuff like glibc, which has a terrible track record in regards to API breakage.

discuss

skywal_l|2 years ago

The statement "Linux does not have a stable userland ABI/API" is about the kernel. If you are talking about glibc you are already in the Linux OS/GNU Linux (whatever it is called) domain.

I think I correctly interpreted Linus when he talked about the kernel API/ABI facing the user (developer of application).

A lot of trouble you are going to get maintaining builds are due to poor tooling, not linux.

But we are getting into semantics here. At the end of the day, I think that if you are careful with what you are doing and think a little before choosing your tools and writing code, you should get very good mileage out of your linux binaries.

I don't know enough about windows to comment on its stability but I very much doubt I could just slide my original Quake CD or 3DS max 4 install into Windows 10. But I might be wrong!