> Why would anyone want Windows-specific code in a Linux build? It's dead code...
You might want to ask the thousands of Electron App users how much they care about dead code ;-)
I mean, you are right. But if you offer your users no alternative they might not care enough to choose another product. In addition, some might even value it not having to choose the right binary for their system.
> In addition, some might even value it not having to choose the right binary for their system.
Yes. The true innovation that made all this possible is the novel Actually Portable Executable (APE) format. This means there's no need to choose: Windows will read it as a valid PE file while Linux, the BSDs and Mac will read it as a valid ELF program.
Having code for all operating systems in the executable has always been possible. It's just that before APE there used to be no point. Windows simply isn't able to load and execute an ELF program even if there is Windows code in it.
ELFs would be incompatible even between Linux, Mac and the BSDs since they would almost always depend on very different dynamic libraries. Cosmopolitan fixes this by providing a standard C library with support for everything. I assume incompatibilities can still be introduced by linking against other libraries.
You might want to ask the thousands of Electron App users how much they care about dead code ;-)
I mean, you are right. But if you offer your users no alternative they might not care enough to choose another product. In addition, some might even value it not having to choose the right binary for their system.