[citation][nom]Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer[/nom]Okay, it's posts like these that have me convinced that Microsoft shills are paid to trawl forums across the Internet for opportunities to try to define the conversation about Windows 8.As is so often found in what passes for political debate in the world we live in today, an attempt is being made to couch the subject in terms of a simple dichotomy. Either you think that Windows 8 is awesome and you should totally want to upgrade, or you are stuck in the past and hopelessly anachronistic. What's delightful about this framing of the issue is that it completely ignores the real controversy over Windows 8 and the design philosophy that it stands for.Before Windows 8, Microsoft didn't tell you what you could and couldn't do with your computer. Sure, they made a desultory attempt to keep you from pirating other Microsoft products, but as anyone who has tried to use Office 2007 without paying for it knows, these efforts amounted to little more than minor inconvenience to anyone who knew what they were doing. Other software manufacturers were left to their own devices. And anyone running Windows was free to install whatever free or paid software they wanted without Microsoft having the slightest bit of say in the matter.That's because, up until Windows 8, Microsoft understood that their customer was the end user. And other software manufacturers had to deal with it, because of their overwhelming market share. And all this is great for end users. We were free to use our computers however we liked, exactly as it should be.With Windows 8, though, Microsoft is taking an entirely different tact. All rhetoric about "Windows 8 runs anything Windows 7 can" aside, The User Interface Formerly Known As Metro has one overarching goal in mind: within the confines of the Windows-8-style-interface, end users (Microsoft's former customers) no longer have the last word in what they can run on their machine. Microsoft has complete veto power over the "Metro" interface. The "Desktop App" is included in an attempt to placate "Old Fogies" like me, and the argument is always, "Don't worry, you can still do everything you could do before."But make no mistake about it. Microsoft has only one endgame in mind: the ultimate eradication of "legacy apps" and the obsolescing of any software that doesn't run under Metro. Maybe it'll come in Windows 9. Maybe it'll come in Windows 10. But there will come a day when the only software you can run in Windows will be software you buy directly through Microsoft. And honestly, most people won't even care. They won't care that they have surrendered all of their freedom. They probably won't even care that Microsoft has veto power over what kinds of programs can run on their machine.People won't understand (most people today already don't understand) that the great gift of modern computing is (or was) the ability to try anything, to solve any problem, to accomplish anything that their hardware tools are capable of. Well, nobody but a few angry, bitter Linux-using holdouts, if Microsoft and Apple don't come up with a way to leverage their patent portfolios to squash Linux development.So don't tell me this is a simple choice between an old-fashioned interface and the new hotness, or that people who don't want Windows 8 are automatically disqualified by their opinion to have a opinion on the matter. This is about the future of computing, this is about freedom, this is about power and control. And the people who don't understand that are the ones who need to stop and think about what they think they know about computers, about information, about technology, and about freedom. They need to take a long hard look at where information technology came from, where it is now, and where it will go in the future.Because Windows 8 makes it clear that Microsoft sees the future of computing as one in which they get to tell you what you get to do with your computer. And if that's something you're okay with, then I doubt that anything I say can change your mind about it. But the promise of technology, like the promise of personal liberty, is that you get to decide for yourself what you can do.[/citation]
For starters. I don't work for Microsoft. Never have and never will. I work with their products every day though, and have been for over 10 years. I don't defend them here because I'm getting paid to do it or because I have any special love for Windows 8, I do it because there are a TON of ignorant and/or misinformed people here and I want to set the record straight. I've done the same where I work. Tons of IT people I work closely had the same ginormous hate boner for W8 that most people here do, but after showing them where and why they were misinformed, I've turned a number of people around. I've been using W8 on all of my PCs since the consumer preview and I find it difficult to go back to my W7 laptop at work now.... So yeah, I'm about as much of a Microsoft shill and you are a Linux shill (Let's face it, you have quite the agenda poking out under your alien abduction sized tin foil hat).
Microsoft is NOT Apple. Apple hates developers. They hate that people might come in and show people how to do things better or differently. Microsoft has ALWAYS been on the side of the developer and there is no way in any of the seven hells that they're going to close Windows as a development platform. It just wouldn't make sense. Windows 8 RT is going to be closed because of it's innate hardware limitations. You can't upgrade a tablet, so you have to make sure there are software standards in place that make it so system requirements don't fly out of control and make the device useless. It's the same reason why XBOX and Playstation games have such an insane approval process. Console game development has been a devastatingly closed development and distribution system for YEARS and yet PC gaming and indie gaming flourishes like never before.
Metro exists for one purpose. To unify the Windows design language on every single platform. Desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet are all going to look the same and have similar features (Obviously Windows Phone and Windows RT are going to be more closed off for the reasons I mentioned above). The Windows Store exists to supply the Phone and RT devices with a place to get apps from. Just like Google Play, Blackberry marketplace, XBOX live, etc, etc, etc. Why is the Windows Store on Desktop/Laptop? Because why shouldn't you have the option to have the same apps on your PC as you do your tablet? Can you use your android apps on your PC? Can you use your XBOX apps on your PC? Wouldn't you like to? I know I would.
Microsoft has never once hinted that they intend to end Windows as an open and free development platform and Windows 8 is most definitely -NOT- an indication that they intend to do so. It's always been an open source wet dream for Microsoft to shun their vast developer network in such a way, so I can see why this is the automatic view you've taken, but it's wrong. Very wrong. The Enterprise market would leave Microsoft in about 5 seconds if they even dabbled with such idiocy and I can bet you that Microsoft makes far more money from the Enterprise market then they ever would from some idiotic mobile app store.
I will say this, though. If you're right? I agree with you. I would jump ship to Linux in about five seconds if Microsoft turned Windows into iOS mk2. It's never. Never. NEVER going to happen though, so there is no point getting all conspiracy theory about it. If it's still not your cup of tea, that's awesome, but don't go around saying the sky is falling unless you're trapped under a fallen cloud, yeah?
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