Re: [Banshee-List] Banshee for Windows PLEASE!!! :D

[Keith Curtis <keithcu gmail com>]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 1:51 AM, James Lewis <james fsck co uk> wrote:

I have to say, that while I understand the desire... I'd have to be
against this!  I'm not a Banshee dev, so it's not like this affects the
outcome, but in my experience "cross platform" apps tend to be
compromised and not able to use platform specific optimisations, so they
end up being less than they could be on both platforms.

I'd hate more Linux apps to be held back by having to be able to run on
Windows.

One of the benefits of Mono and its libraries is that it hides many of the issues in building cross-platform applications. The problem you describe is often because applications would themselves implement all of this and so would invariably cut corners. For example, some versions of Unix didn't have threads, so apps like Oracle would have to write lots of code for that scenario. And as long as the app is designed for Linux first, and the Windows is merely a port, it is less likely it will make any compromises -- the reverse situation is more likely to be a problem.

Getting free software apps on Windows is a way to eventually convert Windows users to Linux. It isn't just Windows, but the applications, that hold people back.