Windows 8 To Natively Support ISO and VHD Mounting 656
MrSeb writes "With a masterful nail in the optical disc coffin, Microsoft has announced that its new operating system will natively mount ISO disc images. On the slightly more enterprisesque side of the equation, VHD files will also be supported by Windows 8. Both new features will be smoothly integrated into Windows 8 Explorer's ribbon menu, and mounting an ISO or VHD is as simple as double clicking the file. This is obviously an important addition with Windows 8 being available on tablets — and in a year or two, it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike."
Re:Once again, following Apple's footsteps (Score:4, Informative)
it's been more convenient for years now to ship image files than .EXE installers or zip files in most cases.
How exactly is an ISO 9660 file system image (.iso) more convenient than a Microsoft Installer package (.msi)?
Retail software distribution is going down the toilet.
Not entirely yet, but it will once wired broadband reaches more rural areas or once wireless broadband providers drop their single digit GB/mo caps. Until then, it'll take upwards of five months to download a full-size BD movie or PLAYSTATION 3 game over satellite or cellular Internet.
Re:Old news for the rest of us (Score:5, Informative)
Heck, OSX has been able to Create ISOs from Disks, and mount them natively for at least the last 6-7 years (not sure if this feature was included in 10.0).
Its an incredibly useful feature in troubleshooting, in a Remote VM environment, or for bringing along a DVD full of (legal) 'old school' games to play (on a convenient USB drive instead of as lots of disks).
Its nice to see Windows catching up with the rest of the world.
Re:CS101: Programming on paper (Score:4, Informative)
"First of all even Apple doesn't prevent you from writing code. XCode is free, and can compile native OSX code, and can run iOS code in an emulator."
so where do I download a Linux or Windows version of this XCode?
Oh wait, you have to buy OSX and a Apple device (MacMini) in order to do this. That is hardly free.
and yes, I CAN write windows software under Linux or BSD. IT is a fair point.
Re:Explain "Strong and Abusive DRM" (Score:3, Informative)
Apple was offering DRM-free stuff before with iTunes Plus, which had (initially) all EMI tracks available for 30 more, DRM-free, and at double the quality (256Kbps). That was in May of 2007, several months before Amazon's store. In October, possibly in response or tied with Amazon's launch, they dropped the price of iTunes Plus content to the usual 99. By the time Amazon launched its store in France and Germany, all but the Japanese iTunes store had DRM-free music.
Which isn't to say that it was all Apple that dragged DRM off of music. The point is that Apple publicly complained about it at length, and all indications point to the industry moving towards DRM-free at about the same time. The problem is it's impossible to tell what exactly was going on behind the scenes, because each one of these companies (Apple, Amazon, etc) had to negotiate separately with every record label. Was Apple trying to get licensing for every country that already had a store before DRM-freeing everything? Amazon didn't have this problem, as they launched with DRM-free and then expanded to other countries. Steve Jobs came out and wrote his Thoughts on Music (http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/108499-thoughts-music-steve-jobs.html) calling for the end of DRM four months before iTunes Plus happened. But then, that was probably a strategic move in the middle of negotiations to make DRM-free happen anyway.
In short, neither extreme is true.
Re:Once again, following Linux's footsteps (Score:2, Informative)
Just for the record, Apple has has support for this since 10.1 was released September 25, 2001.
As far as I can remember, linux distros at that time were hit and miss, and those that could mount isos, as far as I can recall, all required dropping to CLI to do so. None of them mounted ISO via a double click.
Re:This is new.. really? (Score:2, Informative)
Actually mounting an iso image in linux is basically mounting the image like a drive with the loopback device as placeholder for ioctls.
Mounting something is in the end a system call and by my definition part of the kernel and the core of the core of utilities.
(mount command comes in a util package from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/ [kernel.org])
That means, that mounting an image is totally independent from any linux distribution and couldn't be less third party than io.sys from dos and its modern counterpart from windows.
However clicking on a file in an ui can be considered third party/part of distribution ^^
Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one (Score:5, Informative)
IOS piracy is there, but it's not prevalent.
I didn't say it was prevalent or not. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Do you have statistics? The person I responded to said that iOS is piracy free which judging from the links I gave is an uninformed joke.
First, it requires you to jailbreak
There are millions of jailbroken iOS devices. Cydia's business model is based on that fact and they rake in millions yearly. Jailbreaking is such a reality today that there is a specific exemption from the DMCA specifically for it.
Then you have to patch the installer application to not verify IPA file signatures, this enables pirated IPAs to run.
You make it sound like people have to break out a hex editor. Don't make me laugh. It's a one-click affair.
Even then, it's obvious you're running a pirated binary - the OS requires a special set of keys to be present in the info.plist file so that it can run a decrypted binary (this same key is also present inside beta-test apps). Oh yeah, info.plist is in the same directory as the app itself, so it exists inside the sandbox and the app is perfectly free to access it at will. So it already knows it's pirated. (Many apps use this as it's basically foolproof - there's no way to avoid it).
Matters none as the ipa's themselves are patched. And Installous makes it easier to download and install programs than the app store does. I have never seen a platform that the user has an easier time finding and downloading apps than iOS and installous.
Contrast this with Android, where it seems piracy is basically prevalent
Contrast what? That it is trivial to pirate on both platforms and any developer who thinks his precious is safe from Teh Piratez just because of the platform he writes it for is sadly deluded. As are you.
Unlike iOS, Android has Unknown sources (Score:5, Informative)
Just look at how quickly Apple's iPhone took off, with its walled-garden app store. And then Android came along, with the exact same concept, and it's been doing great too.
Unlike iPhone, Android phones don't lock out applications obtained outside the Market. AT&T used to hide the "Unknown sources" checkbox until earlier this year [tgdaily.com] when popular demand for Amazon Appstore forced AT&T to either reconsider or lose customers at contract renewal. But even AT&T phones still supported and continue to support adb install.