VanLUG Email Archive
> Kaz Kylheku <
> wrote:
>
>
> > Now we can argue whether it would have been more appropriate to revamp the
> > existing library to produce a new version that is backward compatible
> > with existing applications. Maybe that it was not possible says something
> > about the quality of Linux software development, maybe it does not.
>
> Backward compability is not always a good thing... As NT show.. The 'old'
> NT (v3.51) was acctually a pretty good system (and I hate MS like nothing
> else :), but the backward compability with win3.x was very low... NT 3.51 was
> one of the most stable OS'es I've even tried, much more stable than the version
> of Linux at that time..
>
> Then MS took over, and guest what? NT is the crappiest system that exists,
> it's so unstable, have so lousy memory management etc, etc...
On that note, I have a comment which ties in to the IP datagram fragmentation.
I have a very reliable and knowledgeble friend who has apparently determined
that NT (now I don't know what version!) sets the ``do not fragment'' bit on
outgoing datagrams. He wasn't able to get an NT-based web server to
communicate over a PPP link with a 576 MTU, but it worked when he raised it to
1500. Using tcpdump he could see that the don't fragment bit was set on
all packets coming from the Windows box, which explained why they could
not get through the PPP link. Presumably, NT can't deal with incoming
fragmented packets either; I will do some tests at work to confirm this one.
Can anyone verify?
> And why? Backward compability (atleast it seems that way to me, it can also
> be because the MS coders are crap... :)
>
> Time moves on, so should any OS... If it's to anquard to maintain backward
> compability, don't... Progress...
>
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