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blog.hiler.eu
Personal blog · blog.hiler.eusystemsprogramming
blog.hiler.eu is a personal blog at blog.hiler.eu about systems and programming. Since 2022, 26 different Hacker News readers have linked it 35 times, most often “Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux?”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 5 of 31 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for the essay "Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux", cited in threads on Wine, Proton, Linux binary compatibility and software rot. Most comments just link it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 31 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux?25 people · 34 mentions · first linked 2022-08-15
What Hacker News says?
https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust”Submitted Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux? as a story · 456 points
HN discussionWhat do you foresee not working in the future? If future versions of Proton break compatibility with older Windows apps, you can use different old versions of Proton for individual games. Steam makes this very easy on Linux, but rarely is it necessary. I don't foresee many Linux distros breaking compatibility with Wine, which is good, as some devs argue Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux. [1] I don't foresee lega…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “AAA Gaming on Asahi Linux”Submitted Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux as a story · 39 points
HN discussionTime to link the famous “Win32 Is The Only Stable ABI on Linux” https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ 500 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32471624
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Baldur's Gate 3 Steam Deck – Native Version”Submitted Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux (2022) as a story · 26 points
HN discussionhttps://xkcd.com/1909/ It is amazing, though. Wintel is basically a Matryoshka doll (Russian nesting dolls), where each version contains all the previous versions. (Just look at how a PC boots up!) The dedication to compatibility is commendable, and you don't really see it on the other OS's. On that note, this is one of my favorite articles: Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11”Submitted Wine's PE –> Unix Interface as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI'm reminded of this amusing and brilliant post: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11”Funny. This is the opposite of what https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ states :D And there's a lot going on with Proton and the Steam Deck, so I don't think this is a valid argument.
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes”See the famous "Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux" article https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32471624
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Celebrating 6 years since Valve announced Steam Play Proton for Linux”> My recommendation for happiness with Linux is: Always use native apps. Don’t use WINE. Don’t try to be compatible to inherent hostile things. Rather: don't try to be compatible with inherently unstable APIs: https://sporks.space/2022/02/27/win32-is-the-stable-linux-us... https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ Just to be clear: I consider it to be a good idea to write native apps for GNU/Linux, but first…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “WinBoat: Windows apps on Linux with seamless integration”"Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux" - https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “WinBoat: Windows apps on Linux with seamless integration”> Wine is linux only stable abi https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “The state of binary compatibility on Linux and how to address it”Now someone port it Wine, combine it with the fact that Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux [0] and we're all set! 0: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Cairo: Alternative Windows Desktop”https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ makes a good point that the really only stable ABI on Linux is WIN32, especially if you step an inch off the "we have the source and build from it every time" train. Linus keeps the kernel ABI as stable as he can, but that's only a small part of Linux.
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “I'm Done with Ubuntu”Nice. Cool that it supports graphics too! I'm a bit of an outsider here (I don't understand computer) but a few weeks ago I was wrestling with the question of deploying an application on many boxen. After looking into Docker (and unikernels, lol) I arrived at the conclusion that "the operating system is part of my application." A very bloated "part", which I did not write, don't understand very well, and which spont…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux”Relevant article from a few years ago: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Microsoft Is Dead (2007)”> it would allow huge communities to emerge keeping very old software/games working indefinitely. That's a completely backwards take though. Windows is practically the only platform in the world that cares about backwards compatibility. On Windows you can run a 20 year old executable and you've got pretty good chance it runs. With Linux operating systems you have no idea if something compiled on the last LTS release…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Why is Windows still tinkering with critical sections? – The Old New Thing”For those who don't know the reference: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Ubuntu Hoping to Remove Qt 5 Before Ubuntu 26.04 LTS”> and allow for overall modernisation / forking / maintenance that is needed. Or, it allows for pointless churn, extra work, and breakage of apps that were still functional until someone yanked their dependencies. This kind of thing is why software rot is even a thing and people remarking that Win32 Is The Only Stable ABI on Linux ( https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ ).
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Ubuntu Hoping to Remove Qt 5 Before Ubuntu 26.04 LTS”https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Winlator is an Android application that lets you to run Windows (x86_64) apps”Actually this is the reason why Win32 is the stable ABI for Linux. https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Deprecate like you mean it”Reference to the famous “Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux" post https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32471624
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI”Win32 Is The Only Stable ABI on Linux: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?”As someone once said it best, Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux: https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Wine 11 rewrites how Linux runs Windows games at kernel with massive speed gains”>for a seemingly ever-decreasing need I recommend you to read the "Win32 Is the Only Stable ABI on Linux" post. Sums up perfectly why Wine is needed and doing perfectly https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ The TLDR is that easier to make games for Windows (single OS and API) and just maintaining Wine/Proton (works across all distros) than actually making a Linux build too of the game. Huge thread when it…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Wine 8.1”> Proton has got so good that the best way of making games work on Linux is to target Proton and all your cross platform challenges are taken care of There was the famous "Win32 Is The Only Stable ABI on Linux" article last year which pretty much about this https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32471624 As you said, easier/better to target Win32 and just use Proton. It…
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Linux overtakes Mac as Steam's second-most used OS, thanks to the Steam Deck”> WIN32 is Linux's most stable API. Joking aside If we talk ABI's not API's, it's not a joke https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Linux surpasses the Mac among Steam gamers”For some reason I associate this with this article https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/
Comment linking /win32-the-only-stable-abi/
on “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold”
