PDF (portable document format) is a highly successful cross-platform file format for documents that was developed by Adobe. For example, AbiWord, a free word processing program roughly comparable to Microsoft Word, is currently available for several operating systems (including BeOS, FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OSX, the Microsoft Windows systems, NetBSD and QNX) moreover, the Linux versions are available both for Linux distributions that run on x86-compatible processors and for those that run on PPC processors. This is particularly true for free software, whereas applications developed by Microsoft generally operate only on that company's operating systems (and also therefore only on one processor type). Numerous application programs are cross-platform to some extent. Versions of Linux are available for a smaller number of processor types, while some other Unix-like operating systems can run on only a single processor type. In sharp contrast, NetBSD, a Unix-like operating system, is highly cross-platform, as it features the ability to operate on more than 55 types of processor and emulators (ranging from acorn26 to xen) at present (and more are planned for the future). The Microsoft Windows operating systems are not cross-platform, because they can generally run on only the x86 compatible processors. In contrast, Visual Basic is not cross-platform, as it can only be used to write applications for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. For example, the C programming language is highly cross-platform because it can be used to write software for use on virtually any operating system (as well as for writing operating systems themselves), for any processor type and for any system type. The term cross-platform can be used with regard to all types of software, including programming languages, operating systems, application programs and file types. However, it implies that software will operate on any platform, whereas the implication of cross-platform is that software will operate on at least two platforms. The term platform independence has a somewhat similar meaning. The term platform can refer to any of several things, or to a combination thereof, depending on the situation: (1) the type of operating system (e.g., FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and the various Microsoft Windows systems), (2) the type of processor (e.g., x86, PowerPC, SPARC or Alpha) and (3) the type of hardware system (e.g., mainframe, workstation, desktop, handheld or embedded). Cross-platform definition by The Linux Information Project LINFOĬross-platform refers to the ability of software to operate on more than one platform with identical (or nearly identical) functionality.
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