this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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Installing old Linux applications IS a problem. They're available only if someone repackaged them for newer distros. If not they can't run anymore because of dependencies mismatch.
This is a good reason for static linking. All the dependencies are built into the binary, meaning it is more portable and future proof.
We don't need flatpak for this!
And harder to fix vulnerabilities in a linked library, and more bloat in both storage space and memory used.
Trade-offs!
I'll take a program that isn't getting updates anymore or simply wasnt working in my modified environment using slightly more ram and storage over it not working at all.
I have firsthand experience with videogames made for one flavor of Linux not working on my machine due to dependency hell.
For occasional programs, or things like games, I'll agree. For most software I use, no thanks.
Flatpak time
NCSA Mosaic flatpak my beloved
nixsolved this by modifying LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the desired dependency and/or modifying the binary itself.Anti Commercial-AI license
Just supply the dependencies with a chroot. That's how we did it before distro maintainers started including the 32bit libraries into the 64bit OS.
I think this meme is referring to when Apple ripped out 32bit support in macOS a few years ago. I couldn't use Wine anymore to play old windows games on my Mac after that update for example.
But... to be fair, are there any versions of Linux that let you do this either? Replacing the OS, especially jumping from 32 to 64-bit, is kinda a HUGE deal!? I've had numerous problems switching Linux distros, and some issues switching Mac software, and they seem more or less the same to me? - if anything, it was easier for me to switch on a Mac?
I don't know about Wine and older games - I would guess that recompilation would be in order. I could see if they jumped the gun specifically for the newer (at the time M1) series, that such tools were not yet ready by third party apps as Wine. Though Mac switches chip architecture so exceedingly rarely that it is barely an issue, long-term, and if anyone using Linux switched architecture it would similarly require recompilation as well?
I feel like I am not expressing myself well here, but I'm out of time to edit and hopefully you see what I mean:-).
When distro maintainers started building and shipping 64bit versions, they didn't include 32bit libraries. You had to make a chroot for a 32bit distro, then symlink those libraries in among your 64bit libraries. Once distro maintainers were confident in the 64bit builds, they added 32bit libraries. In the case of Windows, Microsoft created a translation layer similar to WINE called WoW64 (Windows on Windows64). Apple is the only one who said, fuck you buy new software, to their customers. Rosetta is the first time Apple didn't tell their customers to go pound sand; probably not by choice.
Macs back then made a big deal about being backwards compatible, unlike Windows, at the time. Now the roles have switched, as you say. The transition from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook was rather impactful to the Apple ecosystem.
Still, the situation in the meme describes one event that happened 6 years ago, where Apple moved from x86 architecture to the M-series, all of once in the last 20 some odd years of computing.
But Linux has zero problems? (Again, according to the meme) I feel like I've occasionally had some problems with Linux, just as I've had problems with Mac, and between the two of them I've had far more issues with the former than the latter.
To be fair, emulators such as Parallels and VMWare Fusion are not free, while Linux is open source FOSS. But for perhaps that reason... why has nobody built a version of Wine that works on a 64-bit Mac (they have btw) and includes native support for the older 32-bit architectures? Like, isn't this a failure of the Wine approach (again: FOSS architecture) to keep up with hardware, more than an actual problem with using a Mac? If somebody were to build that, then the problem would be solved? (Which again, it already is, by Parallels and VMWare Fusion, just not FOSS.)
In any case, I just don't see the humor here, when all I see is the tribal "in-group good, but out-group bad" philosophy on display. There are plenty of issues with Macs - but this is hardly one of them, it seems to me. Especially when after digging in sufficiently deeply to understand it, you find that it's actually a deficiency with Wine, not Apple.
Wine can run 32 bit apps on Catalina & newer with WoW64, only native 32 bit prefixes got busted. Ironically I had one such prefix on Mojave, now the Mac has only Linux but the OS + Wine prefix is backed up twice.
I thought wine on Linux pulls in a load of 32-bit libraries so it still works on 64-bit systems.
Yes, but apparently those libraries aren't already present on a computer by default? So the Linux user has to download and install them.
While on a Mac, the user also has to download and install an emulator, such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion (or dual-boot with an older 32-bit OS). So it's downloading and installing something aka extra work either way.
Except that emulators for Mac aren't FOSS. Except Wine that while there is an unofficial 64-bit version that works on Mac, it does not support 32-bit games (on an M-series chip, emulating a x86 one). At a guess, someone did not bother making such bc Steam now exists that works so well?
But this meme suffers from inaccuracies by (1) pretending that nobody has ever had any problems with Linux, ever, and (2) that this singular event once in the past 20 years of computing, and this even 6 years ago already, makes Macs "bad", and (3) somehow blaming Mac for the decision of the Wine developers to not make software that would work across both software (running Windows on a Mac) and chip architectures (running 32-bit programs meant for x86 chips on a 64-bit M-series chip instead). Why is that a problem with a Mac, especially if you don't need or want to run such programs, or if you do, then you are willing to download and install an emulator rather than solely use Wine, which those devs have not made work in this case?
This meme is not very insightful, and instead perpetuates the stereotypical "in-group good, but out-group bad" philosophy, imho.
You got to build them shits from source.
First step install the old ass compiler version this can be built with.
I almost never have that problem! I feel like everything is gcc or cmake or whatever.
But I'm a dabbler, not a pro, so, my old-as-dirt compiling experiences are like, tome2-gcu (a total banger, btw).
Also, The Dabbler would make for a great Batman villain.
Nah, skill issue. Get gud and resolve the dependencies manually. π€
Itβs actually an ongoing problem with closed source Linux games. Devs donβt want to update, and donβt want to open source.
A lot of the time the Windows version will play better through Proton/Wine.
Just use a chroot. That's what SteamRuntime is. That's how we handled 32bit libraries on 64bit Linux distros prior to distros including them for gaming back in the day.
Time for nethack.
Distrobox would like a word, or so I've heard. Haven't had to use it yet, as the AUR has pretty much everything.
It's gotten significantly better with containerization technologies like oci containers and flatpak. Yes it uses more storage, but the drive space pretty cheap