# 64 Bit Operating Systems and 32 Bit Applications **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2021, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908 "2021-01-31T07:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/21 "2021-02-01T14:41:26Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > As an example, the once ubiquitous VGA connector for computer monitors has virtually disappeared, and even the full-sized DVI is becoming more difficult to find as producers of both computers and peripherals have moved toward Mini- and Micro-DVI, or have dispensed with any analog input interface with DisplayPort or HDMI standards and connectors. While I am sure this was a source of frustration and complaint for people who wanted to keep using their Sony Trinitron CPD-E400 monitor they bought back in 1996 and that still “works fine and doesn’t have all of the distortion and dead pixels of those new fangled LED monitors”, the vast majority of users are happy to have a monitor that doesn’t occasionally buzz, build up static charge, and for which they have to worry about setting the compatible refresh rate or screen resolution, not to mention enjoying the vast improvements in image quality and stability. Not a particularly good example, since with the purchase of a cheap little adapter you can hook your old VGA Sony Trinitron to your DisplayPort-equipped modern computer. I’m satisfied with the answers that I’m hearing, though — that, yes, ceasing to provide 32-bit support _does_ mean not having to keep maintaining a batch of routines in code that don’t just sit there but have to be babysat and tweaked by paid staff in the development department, and that Apple doesn’t want to do that. I had been thinking of it as a batch of static code that, like Microsoft Word 2011, merely has to sit there and take up some nominal and trivial bit of room within the System folder. _amanset_ explains very clearly how this is simply not true. OK, I’ll buy into that explanation. As I said, I’ve got virtual machines and it’s (mostly) trivially easy to do what I need to do within their confines. It’s a bit less true for Timbuktu though. I can run Big Sur on a VM on my own box just fine but I can’t remote into a piece of hardware that has Big Sur on it as the native OS nor can I remote into (let’s say) Mojave or HIgh Sierra running in a VM _on_ the Big Sur box, which would only give me a tiny subset of the functionality I would need. So I will have to implement some other remote access technology and also set up a file transfer or file sharing solution, and most likely not in ways accessible from all the other environments. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/22 "2021-02-01T15:14:33Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > To the question raised in the OP, Microsoft puts considerable effort into backwards compatibility. They’ve set that expectation with their customers and they have the development teams to do it. OSX is a different beast in terms of customer expectations and importance to the bottom line. I think it’s a little bigger than that; Apple seems to like to essentially tell their users what they want to do and how to do it, via the way they manage the app store and their OSes. This is mostly in the name of security and driving hardware sales through planned obsolescence. Microsoft takes the opposite tack and chooses to try their best to enable their users to do what they want to do. I think a large part of this is because Microsoft doesn’t have the hardware sales driving the changes to their OSes, and having wide backward compatibility is likely considered a competitive advantage. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/23 "2021-02-01T15:35:47Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Not a particularly good example, since with the purchase of a cheap little adapter you can hook your old VGA Sony Trinitron to your DisplayPort-equipped modern computer. Our first flatscreen TV, a 40-incher bought in 2008 had two HDMI ports that worked a total of three months since we bought it. We ran component video instead and lived with the lesser resolution. When we replaced it with a smart TV in 2016 I was wondering what to do with it, considering giving it to Goodwill with a note that HDMI was a no-go. Then I discovered it had a VGA port so it was repurposed as a really big computer monitor. Fast forward to last year when the computer was replaced and the new one had a fancy video card in it, with only HDMI ports on it. Perusing Amazon got me an HDMI to VGA adapter and now everything’s fine, except NVIDIA nagging me once a week about “improving” the resolution. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/24 "2021-02-01T17:07:02Z")
Something to keep in mind about Rosetta is that it was not Apple technology. The underlying code was developed by Transitive who then licensed it to Apple. So licensing fees may have been involved, which gave Apple an incentive to stop offering it. IBM bought out and dissolved Transitive in November 2008, and the last version of Mac OS that supported Rosetta (10.6 Snow Leopard) was unveiled in June 2009 with release in August. It’s speculated that IBM was no longer interested in licensing the technology after they acquired it from Transitive, but contracts were likely already in place for Snow Leopard prior to the acquisition. Whatever the disposition of the original Rosetta, it appears that Rosetta 2 was developed in-house, since many of the former Transitive employees were hired by Apple. If any of the technology is still under license or patent encumbrances is unknown, but the Apple of today likely wouldn’t allow that, perhaps only licensing the name. So hopefully that gives them the flexibility to keep it around. Assuming they don’t declare a hard-stop on it at some point in the future, they’d likely just let it wither on the vine until eventually it just stops working and they can remove it when it no longer functions at all. That’s basically what they did to Aperture, QuickTime Pro, and Dashboard. On the other hand, AppleScript is still alive, as are some other old-as-dirt technologies like ColorSync and PostScript, so maybe there’s hope yet. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/25 "2021-02-01T18:07:55Z")
People give Microsoft a hard time but the WOW64 engine (Windows on Windows 64) included in Windows Vista and later was a masterpiece of engineering. Before the WOW64 engine 32bit applications didn’t work at all on Windows 64bit systems. WOW64 was able to run 32bit applications at full speed on 64bit hardware while remaining completely transparent to the user. It made 32bit emulation look so easy people now forget it was ever a problem in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/26 "2021-02-02T04:22:25Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > Before the WOW64 engine 32bit applications didn’t work at all on Windows 64bit systems Windows XP64 had a different 32bit system. Although it fundamentally worked the same way, WOW64 was more than just a new name. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908/27 "2021-02-02T22:56:18Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > Yes. And that’s not very long when Windows can still run most stuff from Windows 95–25 years ago. The idea of not having access to software I own that is more than five years old seems awful to me. > > Not so. Win 7 and beyond will not run any 16 bit software and a couple of my favorite programs disappeared. I still haven’t forgiven MS for that. That’s why I said Windows 95, which was a 32-bit system, and software created for it was 32-bit. Sure, it could also run old 16-bit stuff, but that was backwards compatibility. And I can still get a 32-bit version of Windows 10 if I wish, and it will run 16-bit stuff. And that’s officially supported. (Installing the NTVDM or a replacement is not.) Granted, Microsoft is finally fading that support out, but that just started last year and will be a while. And it still doesn’t change that software actually made for Windows 95 (which will be 32-bit) will most likely still run on Windows 10 64-bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/64-bit-operating-systems-and-32-bit-applications/931908.md?page=1)