compatibility

Ralph wants to know if the new MacPro M1 laptops will still run GNU utilities and have command-line access. Leo says a lot of them won't work. Some can run under Rosetta, but others don't. So it depends on what you want to do. But Leo also says that those incompatibilities will be fewer and farther between as developers put out new versions in time. Many will also go to native apps.

Jeffrey got a mesh router and he's having issues with his Sonos home theater system. Leo says that it's always a challenge to use Sonos with mesh, but he can get it done. Keeping the Sonos in Boost mode and updating his firmware will help. Leo has a few links to read up on:

Michael is getting a message from Yahoo that he will lose access to his account if he continues to use Internet Explorer 11. Leo says that's the most recent version so that doesn't make any sense. But if Yahoo is not going to support Internet explorer anymore, then what may be happening is that Robert has compatibility view on. Michael should go into IE Tools and uncheck "use Microsoft compatibility lists." That will send a mixed message to Yahoo that he's using the wrong version.

Richard got a Vizio 4K TV and suddenly it says his TV isn't capable of receiving 4K, when it has been for the last two years. Leo suspects there's a "handshake" problem between the DirecTV box and the TV itself, and it's usually the culprit of HDMI cables. He should try replacing the cable first. But he'll have to be sure to have a cable that is certified for high speeds of 18GB per second. Amazon sells them for about $10. He could also try another HDMI input to see if that fixes it.

Tom uses Ubuntu, and lately, he's ran into issues updating his HP computer. Leo says that Linux only works on a computer that has drivers that are written for it. When people update, they may run into issues where their drivers have been "broken." It's often a video driver issue. Starting over and trying again will cause Linux to choose the right driver and continue. But if not, then it's a driver or hardware compatibility issue.

Dave had a problem with a Windows update and he realized that if he deleted another program that Roxio installed, then it worked just fine. But now several programs he relies upon don't work. Leo says that it could be a problem with apps that are 32-bit, though Windows 10 still supports them. Microsoft may have killed off third-party 32-bit support. There is a program compatibility troubleshooter in Windows 10 Control Panel. It could walk him through how to run his app in compatibility mode.

John got a laptop with WIndows 8 Pro that he got for free through college. He wants to upgrade to Windows 10, but he hasn't gotten the invite. Leo says this is because he has a version that can't be upgraded to Windows 8.1. Leo recommends running the compatibility checker. If he passes that, then he can download the Windows 10 ISO and install it directly without an invitation. But he should make sure that he's compatible first. John should also run the updates until he's completely up to date.

Ronald is having problems migrating his photos from Picasa to Google Photos. Leo says that PicasaWeb will eventually become Google Photos. The chatroom suggests going back to Picasa version 3.8, and then let Picasa update itself. But Leo says that getting software from a third party is a dicey affair. So if Ronald can get it directly from Google, then he's in good shape. Google doesn't say that Picasa is compatible with Windows 10, and it may not be. Leo suspects that the compatibility issue could be with Windows Edge, their new browser.

Paul wants to know if DVDs are going to be obsolete. Leo says not really. As long as his DVD player works, it will play. Eventually, when the technology changes, DVD players won't be available. But Blu-ray players can also play DVDs, and Leo has a hunch that backwards compatibility will continue.