logoalt Hacker News

jll29last Wednesday at 1:14 AM2 repliesview on HN

  > More importantly, separating the dynamic linker from the C library itself would allow multiple versions of libc to coexist, eliminating a major source of compatibility issues. This is exactly how Windows handles it, which is one of the reasons Windows maintains such strong binary compatibility. You can still run decades-old Windows software today because Microsoft doesn’t force everything to be tied to a single, ever-changing libc.
One of the questions of multiple versions on the same box is what about security issues of those older versions...

Replies

m463last Wednesday at 2:28 AM

> Windows maintains such strong binary compatibility

The REAL reason windows maintains binary compatibility is because it is commercial and nobody ships source code.

In fact, many applications ship a whole boatload of DLLs, which I think is the commercial equivalent of static linking.

show 1 reply
moron4hirelast Wednesday at 1:16 AM

What about the security issues of the old operating systems people keep around for their mission critical software that has no upgrade path?

show 1 reply