Windows layer cake
Really enjoyed this rundown of “old” (vestigial) UI elements hiding in back rooms of Windows 11.
Windows is frequently a deeply irritating system to use, but no one else has ever tried to do what they do—support backwards compatability across a family of operating systems effectively forever.
I’d read 10,000 words easy on all of the UI throwbacks listed in that article; I’d love to know how much “old code” is still running in Windows 11 under the covers. Sometimes backwards-compatable “just” means not taking the old stuff out!
I suspect that a lot of “other operating systems” ability to move forward and cut backwards compatibility comes from know that Microsoft is providing air cover for long term support. When you stop to think about it, it’s pretty incredible that software written in the mid 80s for DOS can run basically fine on the new PC I bought in 2019. Unlike, say, the museum of older macs and iPhones keep around.
Mostly, though, i’m just deeply, deeply charmed that moreicons.dll is still shipping on new computers 30 years later.