I’ve often heard that the reason Windows has suffered from bloat and so much has been built on top of ancient underlying technologies, partially to ensure compatibility with old software.
If something like Windows 11 requires specific hardware in order to install it, why does it need to accommodate compatibility for archaic devices/software?
Would it not be preferable for Microsoft to start from scratch with an OS that is considerably more efficient and cut-down for newer devices, similar to something like Apple’s MacOS transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, and just provide security updates for the legacy operating systems that would be in use on un-upgradable hardware?
The idea of a rewrite is a newbie mistake. It is almost always wrong. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/
MacOS wasn’t rewritten, it was ported. It’s now bigger than before.
Linux has grown from 170k lines of code back when I used it to handle dns for 10k customers to 40 million lines today. It has never been “completely rewritten” . Is Linux a failure?
Imo MS has a need to keep Windows convoluted so as to stay one step ahead of cloners like Wine.
Whoah there! Mac OS was entirely rewritten from scratch (based upon some combination of FreeBSD and NextSTEP) when Steve Jobs rejoined Apple. Or are we pretending the eternal shame of Mac OS 7 never happened?
The OP said the Intel to Apple Silicon transition. That was after OS X. Nor was the earlier Mac OS a rewrite but adding a different GUI to Next step and calling it Mac OS X.