Microsoft Taking Apple's Walled Garden Approach For Metro Apps 389
New submitter gauauu writes "Microsoft will be taking a walled-garden approach to Metro apps, only allowing enterprises and developers to side-load Metro apps in Windows 8, while everyone else will have to go through the Windows Store. Note that this only applies to Metro apps; the model for traditional desktop apps won't change."
And it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just the start (Score:5, Insightful)
The Metro interface (as well as the WinRT APIs) are covered by this policy going forward. So this means that ARM devices from MS will be locked down, as well as the Metro half of any desktop/x86 platform. Eventually they will deprecate the older APIs and you will only have the WinRT/Metro APIs.
Microsoft is very much gunning to enforce a Walled Garden across all products that run their OS. I half expect them to make a hardwired TPM key a requirement for a Windows 8 (possibly later) logo, which they'll use against the user to keep them trapped in the Walled Garden. After that, it's just a matter of making it impossible to install other OSes (Motorola style) and they'll have the market domination and exclusion of FOSS they've always wanted.
Wait (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And it begins... (Score:4, Insightful)
Stallman was right (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, how crazy does he seem? He experienced the lock down that mainframes had and now we're experiencing the same things with smaller computers. Back then IBM (among others) also tracked your software and made sure things just ran.
It'll be interesting to see how Windows Power Users deal with this. They'll have to look to IT to be set up as a user who can "side-load" an application. Like that will happen.
Re:Stallman was right (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows Power User = knows how to change the default wallpaper, but can't code.
Re:Just the start (Score:3, Insightful)
Eventually they will deprecate he older APIs
Bullshit. They aren't going to deprecate the apis that form the backbone of the millions of applications that keep people on windows. There is no way it'll happen.
Experiments (Score:4, Insightful)
To all who said "but the iPhone is not a computer" (Score:5, Insightful)
To all who said about Apple's lock-down "but the iPhone is not a computer", this was always the end game. The argument was that the iPhone is not a computer (a general-purpose platform), therefore it's OK to restrict what users can do with it. (And besides, they said, we'll still have our PCs.) They confused cause and effect. The iPhone is not a computer because it is locked-down.
With Apple making money hand over fist, it should be no surprise that Microsoft wants in. Will they succeed in their attempt at control? I don't know. But I'm certainly not going to make excuses for them.
Don't give me the any flak about hating Apple. My desktop is a Mac. But my new laptop runs Linux.
Re:And it begins... (Score:1, Insightful)
Great but how many.pieces of hardware actually have that or even have it enabled? Seriously fud over tpm is getting old.
Re:Just another monopoly (Score:5, Insightful)
One day you will learn what a monopoly is in the eyes of the Law, and your poor little mind will simply melt.
Hint: Apple is not a monopoly, in precisely the same way Ford isn't a monopoly for being the only manufacturer of Ford vehicles.
Boycott (Score:5, Insightful)
So don't buy Windows 8. Stick with 7 or switch to Linux.
Re:Just another monopoly (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is planning to have a monopoly on sales of Metro apps, but there's nothing to say that they'll do the same for Windows8 desktop apps. Very likely, they'll continue as they have since the dawn of time, possibly imitating Apple's App Store in the Windows context as well in order to compete.
But neither Microsoft nor Apple have a monopoly on the mobile market. Even combined, their numbers are dwarfed by Android phones + tablets. There's plenty of choice out there. If you don't like it, vote with your dollars. Not that Android is a panacea; there are issues on that side. But to claim that these are illegal monopolies that need to be broken up is just silly.
life outside the walled garden (Score:4, Insightful)
I got my first android phone a couple months ago. For my daughter. I wanted an app that automatically turns the ringer off during class, then back on afterwards. All automagic so she couldn't forget. I found at least 5-10 apps in the android marketplace that do this.
App #1 installed with complaints. The first time the phone rang, the app crashed.
App #2 installed okay, but wouldn't start automatically.
App #3 acted like it worked. But you could still hear the phone ring even though the app claimed that it was silenced.
App #4 almost works as advertised. It's supposed to "mute w/vibrate" but doesn't vibrate. Just mute. Good enough!
It was a shitty, frustrating experience that made me appreciate what a "curated" app store offers. On the flipside, There's no app like this at all for iPhone or WP7. So maybe android's motto should be "we let you do more...badly" ;)
Re:Great (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows 8 is being released because Microsoft wants and needs a response to the iPad. That is all.
No, Windows 8 is being released because it is the scheduled time to release a new version of Windows. Microsoft's tablet computing dates back to 1991, but the current push started in with a special version of XP which was later incorporated into the main version of Vista.
This work with Metro is just an evolution of their Tablet PC idea rather than a recent knee jerk reaction to iOS. Some of the user interface ideas hark back to Windows Media Center. The idea of using HTML for metro apps was done with Active Desktop and Windows Sidebar. The walled garden approach is the same as what they do for the Xbox Live (and probably would have already had if the original Windows Marketplace had been a success).
Sure, Microsoft will be keeping an eye on what the competition is doing, but Windows 8 is merely another step in the direction that the OS has been heading for quite some time.