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Edit : interestingly, my post was not sent when it was supposed to be sent... Sorry if it seems out of sync 
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Interesting debate.
If an app depends on that, it is wrong.-MrCrispy
In my non-programmer opinion (IMNPO), only If the OS concoctors "decide" so. Right? It cannot be “wrong” a priori, but only because of some more or less arbitrary decisions. But, anyway, this does
not seem to be the main problem.
The main concern, if I understand mouser's point view well enough, is that Vista is letting the user think that a specific app is "right and compatible" (behaving properly, functionally fitting...), when it (Vista) actually and secretly treats it like an outlaw,— virtualizing it and...
potentially jeopardizing important user data and settings!
Things SHOULD be more transparent. I, the user, want to
always know what’s happening with my data, settings, etc.,
if possible . The registry is already a semi-mess (app. settings are often hard to backup)… it shouldn’t become even more complicated!
Let me use an analogy - say you are an analyst and call a company to talk to their CFO. You always say to the receptionist - 'can I talk to the CFO' and she transfers you to Steve. Well after a few calls, you just get Steve's personal number (instead of his extension) and call him directly. A few years later, Steve is fired (all those millions he embezzled!). So now you can't reach him because you are not going thru the proper API (interface). However, for those people who call his extension, the company puts in place a redirect in the PABX system, so that anyone who calls Steve is actually transferred to Lisa. The same applies to his email. Steve is now virtualized.
The reason this works is that people don't want to talkt o Steve, but the CFO. And apps should also not write to hardwired locations.
I'm not sure if that is a good analogy. Having your data being virtualized (God knows where and... when!) is not the same thing as having a phone call being redirected "to the new CFO".... 1st : what kind of data would you lose in the process? If the company is well organized : none. 2nd : I’d be very stupid if, while talking to Lisa, I’d think I’m talking to Steve… While in fact, Vista’s virtualization would try to fool me by cloning Steve and making me believe that I’m talking to the same… Steve, and even more frightening, would store what I said in a different file than usual, where nobody can find it.
IMHO, what you’re describing seems more like a metaphore of, I don’t know… the WINE implementation for Linux (where data is not virtualized, but where Windows API are implemented on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.)??
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Ok. Enough. Off to bed.[/off-topic]
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God. It feels good to have finally really decided.
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