Comment by rock_artist

Microsoft approach is similar to the C++ approach where new way or feature won’t cut the older feature/way of doing things. I’ve heard Bjarne Stroustrup once in a lecture explaining the value of this approach as the language is used in so many fields and that it’s important for all code to compile allowing gradual migration.

In some ways, Microsoft is similar to that.

Apple on the other hand is fast paced so API can suddenly be deprecated and slashed and with Swift they’ve also made a language that is being changed from time to time in a breaking way.

While Microsoft’s approach similar to C++ it is a private company with no committee. This allows fast pace for ideas needed by a company in a competitive market. But, with ensuring backward compatibility, it makes each not throughly thought design -stick.

I guess Win32 is an exception since the first GUI concepts, our desktop designs hasn't changed that much. Window, Menu, Toolbar. Back then, The competition and pace was less intense allowing more time to think. There were other constraints of course being applied by the hardware and stack available back then requiring more abstract designs.

In that sense, it’s quite interesting to see Win32 is kept while Apple’s switch to NS/OSX made everyone eventually transition into Cocoa.