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No Backwards Compatibility in the Future: Difference between revisions
No Backwards Compatibility in the Future (view source)
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* Betamax. AppleTalk. NetBIOS. SNA. DECNET. Good luck to you trying to maintain a system or workflow based on any one of those technologies; no matter how similar they may be to more successful tech, almost no one cares about backwards compatibility.
** Not to mention [[LaserDisc]], rapidly reaching that state for cassette tapes, and if it weren't for audiophiles, the vinyl record would have surely gone that route already.
** Vinyl records
* The engineering schematics for the space vehicles used in the Apollo project were written in an early CAD/CAM application that ran on computers that no longer function. The US National Archive has all the data preserved, but have no way to read it as modern computers are incompatible with the format they are stored in & the archivists have not been able to get funding to have a conversion program written.
** This ''may'' apply for the 1980s diagrams of British traffic signs, as commercial CAD software ([[Key SIGN]], formerly [[Auto SIGN]]) for this wasn't launched until the early 1980s by Pete Harman and Geoff Walker working for Humberside County Council. Prior to then, it's not known what software was used for these. Older [[Key SIGN/Auto SIGN|Auto SIGN]] diagrams ''may'' be compatible with the newer 2011 versions, but [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on this.
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* 3 1/2 inch floppy disks are getting to this state, and 5 1/4 are pretty much already there unless you're an enthusiast.
** And just forget about 8-inch disks!
** As well as cassette tape drives, zip drives, Jaz and pretty much any other "floppy" magnetic storage medium
** Even standard serial ports are becoming phased out in favor of USB.
*** USARTs (what serial ports are based off of, basically) are widely used in embedded devices because they're simple and most embedded devices don't need that much bandwidth. It's not uncommon to find an OMAP processor (
▲** And what about Jaz and Zip Disks? (Okay, so Jaz never caught on in the first place.)
** Any storage systems that use SCSI (anything pre-SAS, but mostly SCSI II) are interesting for one kind of people anymore, and that's the electronic musician who prefers old-fashioned hardware samplers to running a software sample player on a computer. The same goes for just about all removable storage media that came out between the 3½" floppy and the CD-RW (ZIP, various MO drives, etc.). It helps a lot that musical instrument manufacturers like Akai or Kurzweil didn't change to USB and Flash memory cards as quickly as computer manufacturers.
** Flash memory cards. SecureDigital is pretty much the sole remaining popular standard as of 2024, and outside of prosumer devices only support MicroSD. CompactFlash
* [[Microsoft Windows|Windows
** This mainly applies to DOS games - some of them simply dislike running in Windows' protected memory spaces, while others require DOS components not found in versions of Windows released after ME. Most of this was caused by Microsoft leaving MS-DOS behind when they made the jump to Windows 2000 by using the Windows NT system structure, as all previous versions of windows have had some reliance on DOS components.
*** Considering that backwards compatibility is one of Microsoft's highest priorities, this just goes to show how difficult it is.
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** To be fair, [[DOSBox]] is extremely good for emulating DOS Games… if you can find a floppy drive, of course. It's really the games that worked with Windows 2000 that are the problems.
** Windows 7 Pro's XP Mode can work with games that don't do heavy 3D rendering. It was more or less intended for companies to use their office applications.
** Also, 16-bit applications do not work in 64-bit operating systems (which are
** Of course, this whole issue is also gradually erasing itself as the increasing power of newer computers makes emulation and/or Virtual Machines trivial.
** If a pre-Win2000 (especially DOS-based) game had Redbook audio, such as ''[[Descent]] II'', it often required an analog audio cable directly connected to the soundcard from the disc drive, as opposed to the digital playback of later Windows versions. Fortunately, the ''D2X Rebirth'' sourceport/frontend for ''Descent II'' allows the CD music to be played digitally.
* Mocked (sort of) in [http://www.qwantz.com/fanart/dino-untitled.png this] piece of [[Dinosaur Comics]] Reader Art.
* Macs since 2005 are no longer compatible with pre-OSX software; it's also now getting to the point where a lot of software is ''only'' compatible with these Macs, leaving older ones out of the loop. Damn you, Apple!
** To make matters worse,
** History repeats with the transition to ARM Mac in the 2020s. Rosetta 2 does a good job most of the time, though some specialty software can have issues.
* [[Linux]] is said to offer great support for older hardware. But beware if you want to compile an old program which requires a version of a library or the kernel itself which is not available anymore.
** Running old audio software, for example, has grown complicated since OSS was displaced by ALSA, and it seems to be a matter of only a few years until ALSA-based software will be unusable because PulseAudio has become the new standard. And even old hardware support will hit an obstacle when the drivers, hardly or not at all maintained anymore due to their age, become incompatible with newer versions of the kernel or certain libraries.
** The same goes for graphics libraries. Since the launch of KDE 4, Qt3 has mostly been phased out and is only kept in repositories for a few older applications.
* In addition to all analog air signals being phased out, many cable stations are no longer watchable on analog TVs either (unless you have a box). Go buy that DTV.
* Some older engines (a few cars, but mainly outboard motors for boats, lawnmower and other small engines) cannot run on gasoline containing ethanol without replacing all non-metal parts in the fuel system.
* Buy a new computer? Make sure all of your peripherals have drivers that are compatible with the computer's OS, or be willing to upgrade them as well. Some printers, scanners, etc. from as recently as two years ago do not have drivers that are usable by 64-bit processors (which eliminates the 64-bit versions of Windows Vista,
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