Stories about: Compatible Systems

It's time for yet another standards rant. This time, I have in my sights a far more subtle villain than programs that refuse to run properly if you're not running the right version of Windows. It's more subtle than the nightmare of reaching yet another Web site that refuses to work unless you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer. I'm talking about the CPU in your computer, where all the real computing action takes place.

I discovered a third kind of free software recently. We've all heard of "free as in beer" software. It doesn't cost any money, and it may or may not be free according to the Free Software Foundation's definition. The FSF definition is for the "free as in speech" variety, which may or may not cost you money. The new kind of free software is "free as in crack." It doesn't cost any money, but it's deadly addicting. The first example of this new kind of free software that I've found in the wild is Enemy Territory (ET), developed by Splash Damage, published by Activision Inc., and produced by Id Software Inc.