Microsoft Propaganda against 64-Bit Software

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, May 06, 2004, Tim Wunder wrote:
>On 5/6/2004 1:20 PM, I believe that Andrew L. Gould wrote:
...
>>Yep.  NetBSD, FreeBSD and OpenBSD all support AMD64.  NetBSD has 
>>supported it since 2001.  Mac OSX has its G5.  Yellowdog Linux has 
>>"preliminary" support for the G5.
>>
>
>The article does mention that Apple has support for 64-bit:
>
><quote>
>>Apple also has 64-bit chips in its PowerMac G5. It uses the OS X
>>Panther operating system, which Apple has tweaked for the 64-bit
>>chip. I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that. Operating systems need
>>to be completely rewritten for 64 bits. Apple's chips can also run
>>32-bit software handily.
></quote>
>
>So, was linux' 64-bit support a "tweak", or was it "completely rewritten 
>for 64-bits"?

Perhaps what pass for ``Operating Systems'' from Microsoft require complete
rewrites, but they haven't shown me they're expert in this field.  I would
assume that embedding all the graphics crap in the kernel will cause M$
problems.

Naturally there are binary and other compatibility issues (e.g.  the length
of time_t, size_t, etc.) that must be addressed when working in a mixed
environment.

Bill
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