Doesn't it cost Nintendo and Sony money to run their online service or do they run on pixie dust?
Yes, which is why I will not be surprised IF Nintendo or Sony change their policy and start charging for their service in the future. I am not saying it will happen, but IF it happen, it is not surprising (to me).
About incompatibilites among modern software, it still happen. Even for HTML format, there is still incompatibilities (sometimes). Even SQL, XML, UML, Java, they all have incompatibilities issues.
UNIX itself, which is the first effort at solving the issue, is failed because of bickering between their proponent (HP with HP UX, IBM with AIX, Sun with Solaris etc). The only attractiveness of LINUX is it is free, while those other UNIX are not free (or only work on certain H/W Platform).
Even on Windows 3.0 (and perhaps 3.1), there are lots of incompatibilities, in the form of UAE (Unrecoverable Application Error, IIRC), which happen whenever there is incompatibilites. And don't forget that NT programs does not run well on 2000 or Windows 98 / ME.
2
Doesn't it cost Nintendo and Sony money to run their online service or do they run on pixie dust?
Yes, which is why I will not be surprised IF Nintendo or Sony change their policy and start charging for their service in the future. I am not saying it will happen, but IF it happen, it is not surprising (to me).
@Laoldar,
About incompatibilites among modern software, it still happen. Even for HTML format, there is still incompatibilities (sometimes). Even SQL, XML, UML, Java, they all have incompatibilities issues.
UNIX itself, which is the first effort at solving the issue, is failed because of bickering between their proponent (HP with HP UX, IBM with AIX, Sun with Solaris etc). The only attractiveness of LINUX is it is free, while those other UNIX are not free (or only work on certain H/W Platform).
Even on Windows 3.0 (and perhaps 3.1), there are lots of incompatibilities, in the form of UAE (Unrecoverable Application Error, IIRC), which happen whenever there is incompatibilites. And don't forget that NT programs does not run well on 2000 or Windows 98 / ME.