On Jan 5, 2010, at 2:45 PM, Lindsay Morris wrote:

> I could quibble - they have to do all that anyway, right, across the various
> clients?

Speaking as someone who's had to write emulation and other software for foreign 
platforms, there's a lot more to it than may initially be apparent.  For the 
software to basically function properly, it needs to be compiled on the target 
platform along with its code base - where the needed header files defining file 
system elements don't exist, necessitating a lot of intricate porting, conflict 
resolution, and dependency chasing.  Then in emulation you have to supply the 
functionality which the foreign OS supplies - which is typically in its kernel, 
which quickly gets complex, where you're basically reinventing portions of that 
operating system.  If you manage to get through all that, then over time you 
have to keep the whole up to currency with changes made to the real platform by 
its vendor.  And imagine doing a lot of work to conform to a platform which 
then is soon banished to history (e.g., Vista).  Ugh.  I would not wish this on 
anyone.

   Richard Sims