Why is it that some applications don't run on certain OS's?

Question

This is a programming school assignment query, and purely hypothetical. For example why won't something like Modern Warfare 2 run straight out of the box on Ubuntu? What is preventing it from running?
Once again this is hypothetical. (I don't actually want to run MW2 on Ubuntu)

Answer 1

Hello,



Somethings can be run on non-Microsoft operating systems by using wine.



Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.





You can read more on wine @ http://www.winehq.org/

Answer 2

32 bit purposes that are basically application would desire to easily deploy with out hassle. any app that demands drivers (like the antivirus and computer suite you point out) won't be able to be used on sixty 4 bit except it comes with sixty 4 bit specific drivers sorry. reckoning on the app variety there is often overall performance income in case you utilize a sixty 4 bit OS and a sixty 4 bit app. 32 bit apps will income little to no longer something from being run on a sixty 4 bit OS. IMO the only income it particularly is nicely worth getting into the process the soreness of working sixty 4 bit abode windows is the help for greater memory.

Answer 3

Its a classic example between XP and Vista/7. Windows XP has some .dll files that are used to run older applications that vista and 7 dont have. This is because Vista/7 are built on a new foundation. However some applications if your lucky, do however run on all OS's.

Answer 4

Not hypothetical, it all deals with the coding of the operating systems, the coding of the software and, the format file structures of the hard drives.

Answer 5

It depends if you have Mac, microsoft or linux.



-It all involves the file extension:



MAC: Most of the time the application has to be a 'dmg' file. If it is 'exe' file it means it is configured for microsoft only. I have had the same issues. 'rar' files may work in some cases. hope this helps :)



MICROSOFT: 'exe' files, 'rar' file will most likely work on this operating system but 'dmg' will not work.

Answer 6

Various libraries that are part of the OS are used. For instance, MW2 uses DirectX, which is only available on Windows.

Answer 7

Different Operating Systems are coded differently.

Say, if you downloaded an installation file for a windows computer onto a Mac, it wont work, because Mac doesnt to .exe it does .pkg and .dmg



Its all about the coding.