Microsoft wants to lock everyone into its store via universal Windows apps, says game kingpin

Do bears shit in the woods?

Of course Microsoft are trying to exploit the monopolies they have and to create new ones. Why the hell do you think they have been trying to ram Win 10 down everyone's throat?

Stating the obvious

Someone has taken my role.

Even the man with the white stick saw this one coming.

Deja Vu

Didn't Gabe Newell come out with the same doom laden prediction when Windows 8 came out? How did that prediction go then? Did steam, Origin and Gog die under the relentless onslaught of the Windows 8 and Windows 10 App Stores?

All about margin

Losing 30% of profit margin will be his gripe.

It's an absolutely horrific thought, that may well be the death of PC gaming if it comes to pass. Either developers will be making games for UWP, or they won't be selling enough copies to justify the development of the top rated titles.

We can only hope that this gets crushed in it's infancy, either by an anti-trust lawsuit for an abuse of monopoly, or by the game studios themselves chosing to support the PS4 and normal PC instead.

Can you see what it is yet?

Microsoft has been very careful to bring in the changes in a way that doesn't frighten the sheep unduly. It is hard at times to see where they're going and that's, no doubt, according to plan.

This article, from someone who is in a good position to assess the consequences of what is going on, pretty much brings it all together.

Have we yet reached the point where apologists are prepared to concede that Microsoft fully intend Windows 10 to be the end of generalised personal computing for the masses?

actually ...

... there is one way I would support (as in : happy to use) Windows Universal apps. That would be:

1) app store independent of Microsoft

2) easy to switch to and from for Windows users (no need to look for side-loading switch)

3) source code available for all distributed applications (does not have to be GPL - MIT BSD Apache etc. are just fine)

4) no dependencies on closed source libraries/plugins

5) all applications can be easily rebuilt by the user, with free Visual Studio community edition

In other words, make it similar to repository of your average Linux distribution.

Short on details..

I haven't been readily following the OS-that-should-be-called-windows-9 (other than how to stop it's invasion) so I'll admit to not knowing all the details (though it sounds as though MS is being evasive on some). Side-loading is the only option for non-appstore UWA for now and thus Epic's complaint. Meanwhile MS claims there will be more revealed later. Yet they keep claiming the UWA development platform is "completely open". They did open source some of their stack recently did they not? I wonder if the their response will be something along the lines of - "You're welcome to build your own Appstore target!!!.." and in very small print, "as long as you get certified by us and give us a negotiable 5-10%". I just don't see MS giving up completely on this business model. The plan B has got to include some sort of revenue stream or the free Win10 upgrades will have to be entirely subsidized by ads/dataslurp.

Whats the issue ? MS just trying to catch up with iOS and Android

I am NO fan of windows 10 I only have it on an isolated test machine only. and wont let it near production while it has the spyware component.

I have no problem with a Microsoft store and UWA.

AS long as in windows there is the ability without rooting (or some magic enchantment) to load Apps from other sources apart from the Microsoft store. i would prefer a system where you could add a list of stores like a list of repositories in Linux rather than having to side load individual Apps.

Android has multiple stores you can add if you want and know where to look or you can side load - I don't see people complaining about Google having the dominant store as devices usually only coming with that store installed.

iOS - has the Apple store and unless you root your phone you have no choice you HAVE to purchase your apps from Apple - Cydia is an alternative BUT needs Root. I know people don't like this but the majority of Sheeple (Fanboys) are happy or don't realise there is an alternative and I have not seen any action from competition authorities.

I want Windows 7 with an app store - OK windows 10 with NO spyware or telemetry would be acceptable but guess I'm pissing in a Hurricane for that.

Wake up folks...

Welcome to the UCCA [United Corporations and Churches of America]

Where the true customer is the Stock Holder and the real product is the Stock.

In god we trust, all others will submit to Pay Day Loan Interest and Tracker247.

And if you think the government is going to do, or be able to, do anything,

then look no further than the new leader.....Lord Yellow Hair of All Ism's [white, race, corporate, potty mouth,etc]. Making the 1984 and Idiocracy reality.

My fantasy..

Game devs develop using the Vulcan API. They release Win32/64 and Linux versions. And they ignore UWA.

Actually...

The wrapper that the game is in doesn't matter much... 95% of the development cost is graphics and levels, maybe 4% coding. That leaves 1% recompiling, porting and debugging for different platforms.

You'd have a hard time arguing that Win32 to UWA was a complex port compared to Win32 to PS4 or Mac/Linux.

The benefits of using proper Software Repositories, rather than random buggy installers shouldn't be underestimated.

The real problem is IMO the effect on society and culture of getting rid of every paying job possible, and making only a tiny number of super rich companies successful. Hey - I'm getting old and nostalgic!

Retarded

UWP does not support multiple GPU's, games don't run full screen and your new 100hz monitor? Forget it, your limited to 60hz.

UWP is only for the lowest common denominator.

No baby and no bathwater

Windows 7 going EOL will be the year of Linux on the desktop, at least for me.

Microsoft screwed up backwards compatibility for developers. I pity the place I interviewed at last time I was job hunting who picked Silverlight on WinCE for their embedded industrial application.

Maybe Linux will have a stable enough ABI and mindshare to get commercial applications by then, but MS making old apps stop working and giving up on good APIs at the drop of a hat means that doen't matter either.

MS had a huge beginers advantage on mobiles with WinCE, then threw it away just as it started getting useful, it was a pain in the arse, but they just beaten the 32Mb memory barrier, got better debugging tools and could have enforced protected memory only for them to give the game to Android while they ditched platform after platform.

MS is a degenerative disease nowadays.

Year of the Linux Desktop?

Oh what irony!

The biggest (some might even say only, but tastes differ) advantage Windows on the Desktop has over Linux/BSD/YouNameIt and to a lesser extent OSX is the availability of Applications. And by Applications I do explicitly NOT mean "Universal Apps".

If Microsoft were to give up this advantage, they might provide the critical mass for a migration.

Screwers screwed?

Oculos

Unfortunately I would like to do some work with Oculos - and only Windows has the necessary graphics capability and ability to use high enough performance graphics cards. I'm not able to afford Apple prices (when something suitable comes out) and Linux doesn't do it.

If VR becomes mainstream it looks like Microsoft has another nice little monopoly sewn up.

win10 - DirectX12-Misstep

Like all over VP'd megacorp, the VPs for Win10 won out over the VPs for DirectX12 and jumped the gun with Win10 without including the yet to be done DirectX12.

Microsoft has become IBM.

When my current Win7 lappy bites the dust, we are going Linux for the duration.

This 'unified Windows run anywhere' schtick is getting old.

People only care about Windows because of legacy win32 stuff. Backward compatibility.

For the mobile stuff, people have already moved on to Apple and Android.

For a 'walled garden for games', you already have Steam. And that is platform agnostic, no such thing as 'Windows-exclusive'.

People like Apple, EA, Google, Microsoft, Valve and others want to set themselves up as gatekeepers through which all content flows.

In all instances, the claims are around integration and simplicity and so forth but the goal is always the same: control and market share. MS in this instance are doing exactly what I and so many others have long said they would - change their business model to more closely match Apple and their App Store/iTunes ecosystem.

The year of the Linux desktop - courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft proves again that they are the biggest pushing force behind the year of the Linux desktop.

Without the incessant blundering around their attempts for even more control, people would not realise that there are now viable, fully open alternatives to Windows (Linux being the most prominent).

They forced Valve to create SteamOS and I am sure that other ISVs are listening to the racket and considering a multi-platform strategy.

No WIN32 no Windows

If MS do depreciate WIN32 and X64, there will be no reason to use Windows over any other OS.

This would be THE nightmare scenario for many smaller software houses.

I've said it before, until such time that: a) Linux becomes as easy to use for the average PC user as Windows, and b) DirectX is 100% available within a Linux environment, the vast majority of Windows users will remain so.

The new API's are as much use as frozen cheese without a steady supply of top games publishers using them on a daily basis. Steam is the best hope for this change over, but only if they make it worthwhile to the developers and publishers.

I hate what Windows has turned into as much as most, but being an avid gamer who refuses to buy a console due to the depreciation of technology before every release, I will have to remain on it.

WINE is useful, but it takes far too much work for the average person to get something running, that it is only of use for the curious.

How much is Microsoft costing YOU!

Do any of you American Microsoft fans actually know how much money M$ is costing you annually that you don't know about. Lets start with education 70% of property taxation goes to education 1% of sales taxation goes to education. 70% of all education taxation goes to Microsoft. That amounts to Billions of dollars annually. If you don't believe what I'm saying then go into your State/local education departments and ask them to show you their EULA (End Users License Agreement) with Microsoft. They can't show it to you, Because they have signed a DND (Do Not Disclose) agreement behind closed doors with Microsoft. to keep the public from knowing what it's costing the tax payers annually.

If you demand to see the agreement then you be told you have to pay to see it, and you will have to sign a DND (Do Not Disclose) agreement yourself.

To prove what I'm saying is right then watch this Youtube video that proves the fact on how Penn Manor High School in Pennsylvania saved their schools budget $360.000 Annually, by moving from Windows to Free Open Source Linux operating system and Free Open Source education Software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Co37GO2Fc

Now if one school alone can save their schools budget $360.000 Dollars annually then STOP & THINK how much money every school in America would save the education tax payers annually if they used Free Open Source Operating System and Free Open Source Education Software, When it comes to higher education and students have to take out thousands of dollars in education loans, you can put that down to you know who too.

Here is what you need to do, Educate yourselves with the knowledge of the word FREE that’s no longer in the American vocabulary, but it's still in every other countries vocabulary, Do you know that every American student can have a Free online university education. so why pay through the nose and get in debt for thousand of dollars to go to local collages, when you've no need to get out of bed to do your studies, Check out the web Links below and learn what what the rest of the world have known for decades.

For the Latest February 2016 Free Open Source operating system

http://disrowatch.com

For Free Online University studies and courses here

http://edx.org.

Like they say "You can lead a horse to water" "You can't make it drink it" that's it's choice

Now you know the rest is up to you!

Win10 - Turn off tracking...

I have been using Windows 10 for some time and I think it is a great OS. What you need to do is to stop all tracking, disable OneDrive, Store, remove apps etc. It is a lot of work and there aren't always GUI for this. You have to run powershell commands or change values in the registry yourself, or add entries in the hosts file to cut-off external communication for some of the stuff.

There is a lot of very smart developers out there, why cannot some of these people come together and establish a project to take back control over the OS. The aim of the project could be to make a tool that will stop the tracking and remove all apps. With such a tool even the average man in the street would be enabled to re-claim control over his/hers machine and OS.

Some people have tried already and this tool do remove a lot:

https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking/releases

Reading this thread I hear a lot of bashing about MS, but Google is far worse. I hope you have stopped using Chrome and Avast on your Win7 machines, they are the big trackers MS is trying so hard to copy in the Desktop segment. I have told people about these things, but normal people neither have the skills nor the time to do anything about the situation, they give up and seemingly just don't care. At least they could have uninstalled Avast and Chrome and stopped using google for every web search...