@Laoldar, "(ie, programs can't work on different operating systems that are too different from eachother). "
Not if they're open source. OS doesn't attempt to construct or maintain monopolies through platform biasing. As such, you can run most OS programs on multiple operating systems. Take GIMP for example. This is a list of packages for different systems.
* GNU/Linux: Debian (deb) Fedora Core 3 (RPM) Gentoo Portage Slackware SuSE 9.2 (RPM) Ubuntu (deb) * BSD: FreeBSD * Sun Solaris: Blastwave Software Distribution * Mac OS X * Windows: GIMP should run on any NT-based version of Windows (NT4, 2000, XP or Vista). Older GIMP versions (2.0.x) could also work with older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 but they are not supported anymore
The incompatibilities you speak of arise from closed development and more importantly closed standards. Compare GIMP to Photoshop which doesn't support Linux and will not allow people to do the porting for them. Good job those nice people at Google are putting a lot of money into Wine based Photoshop support ey? ;)
RE XB-Live: I don't mind paying for a service but if I want to play an exclusive game like Halo 3 I have to pay for Live. I'm not free to chose from a range of Live service providers, It's MS or no-one. PC gamers are just too used to free gaming I guess...
Doesn't it cost Nintendo and Sony money to run their online service or do they run on pixie dust?
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"(ie, programs can't work on different operating systems that are too different from eachother). "
Not if they're open source. OS doesn't attempt to construct or maintain monopolies through platform biasing. As such, you can run most OS programs on multiple operating systems. Take GIMP for example. This is a list of packages for different systems.
* GNU/Linux: Debian (deb) Fedora Core 3 (RPM) Gentoo Portage Slackware SuSE 9.2 (RPM) Ubuntu (deb)
* BSD: FreeBSD
* Sun Solaris: Blastwave Software Distribution
* Mac OS X
* Windows: GIMP should run on any NT-based version of Windows (NT4, 2000, XP or Vista). Older GIMP versions (2.0.x) could also work with older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 but they are not supported anymore
The incompatibilities you speak of arise from closed development and more importantly closed standards. Compare GIMP to Photoshop which doesn't support Linux and will not allow people to do the porting for them. Good job those nice people at Google are putting a lot of money into Wine based Photoshop support ey? ;)
RE XB-Live:
I don't mind paying for a service but if I want to play an exclusive game like Halo 3 I have to pay for Live. I'm not free to chose from a range of Live service providers, It's MS or no-one. PC gamers are just too used to free gaming I guess...
Doesn't it cost Nintendo and Sony money to run their online service or do they run on pixie dust?