how windows operate on all platforms?

Question

how windows operate and run on all pc i mean mostly pc? windows is on my pc may be on you . i know software is just mapping or sequence of pulses of a device hardware-so how they make a operating system which run on almost all hardware of pc hardware?
2

does you need to change almost every thing in a software if you decide to make a program run on another platform than window eg linux?

Answer 1

I'm going to answer this as a Linux Fanboi/Micros$oft Hater, BUT I do acknowledge that the best OS is the OS which best meets YOUR needs so I'm not telling you to jump:



Still. First, Wincows runs on Intel and Intel-compatible platforms. Period. PowerPC chips like Older Macs and its descendents the Cell chip are REALLY AWESOME but you can't get Windows running on it. Microsoft and Intel have used rheir monopoly power and political influence to discourage the adoption of other platforms, and in addition businesses likek to have standardized desktops. The extent to which that is pure idiocy can be shown by the Stuxnet worm. Windows's whole model of security is based on trusted sources. No you cannot prevent people from pretending to be trusted sources so the *nix (Unix and Linux world) bases its security on trusted actions. But really it is as much the uniform adaptation of this one security model which has allowed our malware industry to bootstrap itself into the leviathan it is today.



Now, it really depends on the package whether or not you have to change things. Microsoft is not interested in interoperability. There was a report in Groklaw among other places that they tried to get the Blender Foundation to switch to DiVX libraries rather than OpenGL and the OOXML file format which absolutely does not have any relevance to Blender files. A very silly email was published. Linux is actually the KERNEL of an operating system and it was written to run UNIX programs. In essence if it runs on UNIX -- you can usually get the source code and it will compile and run on Linux. Usually vice versa as well. sudo which Ubuntu users know well is actually a BSD program. The programs have been out there for a long time, and the whole point of the *nix world is they need scalable programs -- including OSes -- which run on more platforms than Wintel (Intel and its clones). So you have libraries like OpenGL or QT or GTK+ which will run on anything. And they have been ported over to Windows. Using QT you can write and compile an app which will run on Windows Linux and Mac OS X without change. As an example there is the freeware Pencil Animation program:



http://www.pencil-animation.org



Download and look at the source code. There isn't a lot of it. Some of the Windows exclusivity comes from using libraries like DiVX some of it comes from anti-piracy measures which are stupid (like photoshop writing things on your Master Boot Record which it should really have no access to). Some companies choose to do things in a Windows-exclusive way. Others don't. Look up SPSS. It's an old company still out there and still doing well. It's always been a UNIX company and still sells linux versions of its products -- and does very nicely thank you very much. But you have to be a statistician to use them. Does it run on Windows? Yes. Do they have to change a lot? Very little. If you can do it on Unix you can do it on anything. Firefox and mozilla are another Unix-based app.

Answer 2

The answer to the first part is that all PC have some common hardware. Memory and the CPU for example. All PC CPU's support a specific set of machine code instructions. Assuming you can get as far as loading something of disk, you get the choice of loading a specific program for whatever hardware is in the PC. The wide variety of hardware is supported by drivers, the driver talks to the OS in way that the OS understands and deals with the specifics of controlling the hardware.



Though in fact, not all hardware is supported, and not all of it is supported fully. Windows XP won't run on a 386, many pieces of hardware are supported through multi-purpose drivers and their particular features are not usable. There are pieces of hardware that you can plug in and Windows won't know what to do with them. You can put a Sony EyeToy into the USB of a PC and Windows will notice you've plugged it in, but not know how to use it.



Yes, you have to change lots of things for a program to run on a different platform. There are programs which are written to be portable, that can be built on different platforms. The actual program is different but the code used to make it is the same. The problem is that they can't use specific features of the OS. Programs such as browser games and Java programs work on all platforms. However they are slower than native programs and have limited capabilities.

Answer 3

Ans 1: Understand the word "Specification".



Ans 2: You can never change anything in a Software to make it work in another operating system. If you have Winamp for Windows in your Home, There is no way you can change it and make it work in Linux. You have to BUY/DOWNLOAD Winamp for LINUX !

Answer 4

Lug, that's puzzling- I propose, its like how can domicile windows no longer exist? this could finally end up being a debate approximately evolution. I propose, if domicile windows crashes in the woodland, will Macs pay attention it in the coffee keep? Dunno.... JP had an intersting concept in this. ( hee hee hee...) the place could Unix/Linux be? with a bit of luck on my laptop.