kaled - 5:23 pm on Oct 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

The Wine project has no relation with backward compatibility - its an emulation project. And, I imagine, the two biggest problems are lack of access to source code and a lack of access to full documentation with respect to the API (and then there is the fact that it's largely a waste of time).

Given that Windows was built from an extended DOS, running DOS programs does not count as innovation. And consider this (excluding Windows NT) it took Microsoft ten years to make full use of the 386 architecture (with Windows 95) by which time the 486 had come (and nearly gone) and the Pentium had arrived.

It's hardly accurate to claim that DOS and Windows memory management are totally different - in practical terms, DOS didn't really have any memory management unless you count all those silly bodges to access memory beyond 1MB - bodges that were only required because Microsoft were too useless to create an extended DOS themselves (something other software companies managed with little difficulty).

Kaled.