Google published a "Chrome browser" app in the Windows Store on Tuesday, but it simply opened up a Google Chrome download page in the default Windows browser. Most users would then have been able to download and install the Chrome browser, except for the minority of Windows 10 S users who are restricted to downloading Windows Store apps which must use the EdgeHTML rendering engine rather than Blink. Microsoft was not amused at the stunt and removed the "app" from its Store later that day:
Google published a Chrome app in the Windows Store earlier today, which just directed users to a download link to install the browser. Microsoft isn't impressed with Google's obvious snub of the Windows Store, and it's taking action. "We have removed the Google Chrome Installer App from Microsoft Store, as it violates our Microsoft Store policies," says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge.
Citing the need to ensure apps "provide unique and distinct value," Microsoft says "we welcome Google to build a Microsoft Store browser app compliant with our Microsoft Store policies." That's an invitation that Google is unlikely to accept. There are many reasons Google won't likely bring Chrome to the Windows Store, but the primary reason is probably related to Microsoft's Windows 10 S restrictions. Windows Store apps that browse the web must use HTML and JavaScript engines provided by Windows 10, and Google's Chrome browser uses its own Blink rendering engine. Google would have to create a special Chrome app that would adhere to Microsoft's Store policies.
Most Windows 10 machines don't run Windows 10 S, so Google probably won't create a special version just to get its browser listed in the Windows Store. Google can't just package its existing desktop app into a Centennial Windows Store app, either. Microsoft is explicit about any store apps having to use the Edge rendering engine.
Related: Microsoft Adds Store App-Only Restriction as Option in Windows 10
New Windows 10 S Only Runs Software From Windows Store
Microsoft Knows Windows is Obsolete. Here's a Sneak Peek at Its Replacement.
First ARM Snapdragon-Based Windows 10 S Systems Announced
Related Stories
Microsoft has added a setting to Windows 10 that will let users restrict new software installation to only those apps hosted in the Windows Store. The option debuted in the latest version of Windows 10 Insider, the preview program which gives participants an early peek at the next feature upgrade as Microsoft builds it. That version, labeled 15042, was released Friday.
With the setting at its most stringent, Windows 10 will block the installation of Win32 software -- the traditional legacy applications that continue to make up the vast bulk of the Windows ecosystem -- and allow users to install only apps from the Windows Store, Microsoft's marketplace. Other settings allow software installation from any source, or, while allowing that, put a preference on those from the Windows Store.
Unless Microsoft removes them, the options will appear in the next Windows 10 feature upgrade, dubbed "Creators Update," which is to launch in March or April.
-- submitted from IRC
Microsoft has announced a new version of Windows called Windows 10 S. It only runs apps from the Windows Store, and is positioned between Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, both of which can run third party applications. Microsoft also announced a new line of Surface laptops running the OS. The laptops have been described as competing with either Google's Chromebooks or Apple's MacBook Air, and aimed at students:
Windows 10 S is Windows 10 with its wings slightly clipped: it can only run apps from the Windows Store, disabling compatibility with the enormous breadth of Windows programs out there, which in the educational context translates to better security, consistent performance, focus for students, and improved battery life. It's cheaper and less versatile than Windows 10 Pro, which is exactly what schools are looking for (and the thing that's had them gravitating toward Google's Chrome OS in recent times).
[...] Immediately upon its introduction, Windows 10 S spans a price range from $189 to $2,199 (for the top Surface Laptop spec). So is this a straightforward and affordable solution for mass educational deployment? Or is it a super streamlined operating system for powering extremely desirable and long-lasting laptops? Yes. Microsoft's answer to both of those things is yes. It's not impossible to achieve both goals with the same software, of course, but it is difficult to position the OS in people's minds.
[...] The Windows on ARM effort is going to be rekindled by the end of this year, and Windows 10 S is the likeliest candidate to be the OS of choice for those new computers, in which case the significance of the S label will once again be complicated. Come the holidays, buying a Windows 10 S PC could mean getting either an Intel or an ARM machine, it could mean cheap and cheerful or it could be a premium portable.
Also at the Washington Post, Engadget, Laptop Mag, and Business Insider.
As well as BGR, Mashable, The Independent, PC World, Tech Radar, ZDNet, Ars Technica, Fossbytes, TechCrunch #1, TechCrunch #2, Venture Beat, and The Street.
What do you think the 'S' stands for?
Previously: Ask Soylent: Ramifications of Removing Windows Store from Enterprise Installs?
Microsoft Adds Store App-Only Restriction as Option in Windows 10
Microsoft's only choice to move forward is to throw the Win32 baby out with the bathwater. And that brings us to the introduction of Windows 10 S.
Windows 10 S is just like the Windows 10 you use now, but the main difference is it can only run apps that have been whitelisted to run in the Windows Store. That means, by and large, existing Win32-based stuff cannot run in Windows 10 S for security reasons.
To bridge the app gap, Microsoft is allowing certain kinds of desktop apps to be "packaged" for use in the Windows Store through a tooling process known as Desktop Bridge or Project Centennial.
The good news is that with Project Centennial, many Desktop Win32 apps can be re-purposed and packaged to take advantage of Windows 10's improved security. However, there are apps that will inevitably be left behind because they violate the sandboxing rules that are needed to make the technology work in a secure fashion.
"A casualty of those sandboxing rules is Google's Chrome browser. For security reasons, Microsoft is not permitting desktop browsers to be ported to the Store."
Microsoft Windows is back on ARM:
Just shy of a year after announcing that Windows was once again going to be available on ARM systems, the first two systems were announced today: the Asus NovaGo 2-in-1 laptop, and the HP Envy x2 tablet.
[...] The Asus laptop boasts 22 hours of battery life or 30 days of standby, along with LTE that can run at gigabit speeds. HP's tablet offers a 12.3 inch, 1920×1280 screen, 20 hours battery life or 29 days of standby, and a removable keyboard-cover and stylus. Both systems use the Snapdragon 835 processor and X16 LTE modem, with HP offering up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage to go with it.
Lenovo is expected to announce a similar system in the coming weeks.
Also at The Verge, Engadget, and TechCrunch.
Previously: Big Changes Planned by Microsoft - Windows 10 on ARM, Laptops to Behave More Like Phones
Windows 10 PCs Running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 to Arrive this Year
New Windows 10 S Only Runs Software From Windows Store
Microsoft Knows Windows is Obsolete. Here's a Sneak Peek at Its Replacement.
New App Allows Win32 Software to Run on Windows 10 S
Intel Hints at Patent Fight With Microsoft and Qualcomm Over x86 Emulation
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:59PM (9 children)
I would have thought that it would be permissible for Google to publish its wares on the Microsoft Store.
It's not like Microsoft bothered with an internet explorer for android. and if they did then fine advertise it on the play station network or whatever its called for free installation like any other program.
I guess if the restrictions are technological in order to create a lock-in, then they are both guilty.
and really I dont like how so many things require a seperate validated login with real name info and all of that to just download a free application. it used to be ftp sites and then http sites that just let you download stuff was a thing.
maybe the lack of net neutrality will usher in an age of not even being able to leave the AOL network and there will be no internet? count my blessings i guess.
i cant even use dialup anymore because of AT&Ts changes to fiber. there were BGP issues a few weeks ago that affected local calling and I dont even have voip on my mainline. there will be no way to escape the personalized cloud due to the fencing put up, so enjoy the humor while you can.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:22PM (5 children)
It may take more time than you have patience for, but things will change.
Once upon a time, PCs could add great value to people's lives. Simplify things like General Journal / Ledger and Accounts Receivable / Payable. And automate tedious repetitive Payrolls. Even VisiCalc spreadsheets caused Apple IIs to appear on corporate desktops because the total system cost was within many mangler's purchasing authority -- without having to even go through the mainframe "computer center" guys (before God invented words like IT).
Next, dialup came along. No, I don't mean PPP or SLIP. I don't even mean AOL. I mean CompuServe.
Then AOL. Then Internet.
The value was there, and so people adapted to it. They had to learn crazy weird computer things. Terms like CONFIG.SYS. (Or how to watch a Mac happy face and the icon parade at the bottom of the screen until a desktop appeared.)
The same could happen again.
Geeks will devise more and better ways of disguising all traffic. If you have any kind of connectivity at all, it will be enough. All traffic will be encrypted. What ports you connect to simply won't matter. Or alternately, everything will be HTTPS or SSH. (And it is possible to accept both HTTPS and SSH on the same port! [ostechnix.com]) In short ISPs will know less and less about what you are connecting to. Extremely widespread use of TOR might become a thing. Major tech companies might start offering free TOR nodes as part of a way to be protected. At first FTP sites, and Web sites were operated to provide a service at the cost of the owner. Anonymity might also be offered this way, at first, if circumstances warrant. Just like the PC, the dialup and the internet and even open source were long under the radar of most people, services providing freedom might start out this way too until they are just too big to stop. This may or may not prove true of digital currencies as well.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:25PM (4 children)
Or conversely, ISPs may effectively ban encrypted traffic by not zero rating it and setting low caps with expensive overage.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:04PM (3 children)
yeah
i've already been told by AT&T uverse support people that 'only pirates use vpns'
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:18PM (1 child)
Yep, only pirates. Pirates and small businesses. But you didn't get the $500/month small business connection, did you, you pirate?
</sarcasm>
Well, I'm not being sarcastic about the part where VPNs will be completely banned unless you have the small business package, which will be prohibitively expensive.
The part that's really going to blow my mind, though, will be when all of this reaches its absurd conclusion, we wind up back at AOL keywords (except they end in .com), and the only way you'll be able to access the web is by connecting to a proxy run by your ISP, which will only connect you to the websites on the internet package you've purchased. All other traffic is dropped.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:26PM
That would be an interesting battle...a lot of large corporations use VPNs for employees working from home or on call. The ISPs will have to have some way to handle that at least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:43AM
Thus we can conclude that AT&T are be one of those companies that don't allow their employees to work from home, and in addition they don't consider the employees of other companies that do allow working from home to be viable customers.
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:56PM (1 child)
>> I would have thought that it would be permissible for Google to publish its wares on the Microsoft Store.
It is. Microsoft, Apple, and Google all publish apps in each other's stores. The problem in this case is that Google broke one of the rules.
For Browsers, Apple's rules say that you have to use the Safari components WebKit and JavaScript Core. Microsoft's say you have to use the Edge components. Not Edge itself, but the underlying rendering engine. Anyone can make a browser on either platform within the boundaries of those restrictions, and Google publishes Chrome for Safari on the iStore.
... but that's not what Google did for the Windows store. Instead of building a Metro version of Chrome that is distributed that way they made an app for downloading the full non-store version. That breaks a rule. I genuinely don't know why; they aren't usually a company that half-asses this sort of thing. I wish they published a real app version of Chrome, because I have customers that would like to have it available as a .appx in their Windows Store for Business to work PCs.
(Full Disclosure: I work for Microsoft as a PFE supporting Enterprise customers. I'm not involved with marketing or the Windows Store and this isn't paid shilling. I 3 Google and use a bunch of their kit including Blogger, YouTube, Gmail, Groups, and occasionally search because I haven't memorized the bing equivalent of inurl: )
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:27PM
And that right there is sufficient cause to avoid both platforms like the plague. Spending money to be treated like this? Please see a psychologist, you have severe self-esteem issues if you can accept being treated like this.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by radu on Friday December 22 2017, @09:37AM
everything related to windows 10, including windows 10 itself, is funny
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:59PM (36 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:44PM (35 children)
This. Fuck the Windows Store. Fuck it with a big, fat splintery wooden dick.
The Windows store is for idiots who don't know how to download directly from a web site or install from physical media because they were raised by iPhones.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:58PM (31 children)
If a school issues a Windows 10 S computer to each student, is each student an idiot? If a company issues a Windows 10 S computer to each employee, is each employee an idiot? If a relative buys a Windows 10 S computer as a gift for someone, is the recipient an idiot? Is every owner of an Xbox One console an idiot?
A desktop application downloaded from some website can see, disclose, and modify everything in the user's profile.* By contrast, a UWP application is sandboxed to see only those documents that the user chooses to make available to it, making it more difficult for the application to abuse the user's trust.
For desktop applications from a well-known publisher, such as Google Chrome, a knowledgeable user will know from which site to obtain a clean copy and will be inclined to trust the publisher because it has a lot to lose. This isn't quite so true of applications from a smaller publisher, such as a hobbyist or startup. What should the operator of a lesser-known website from which desktop applications can be downloaded do to make the website and applications appear trustworthy?
Since when do most new desktop and laptop PCs still come with an optical drive? I thought those started to be left out a decade ago.
* "Profile" is the name in Windows for a home directory.
(Score: 5, Touché) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:53PM (13 children)
Why, yes! Why do you ask?
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:04PM
He is in the possession of multiple Windows 10 S computers, obtained by different means... and he panicked.
(grin)
(just kidding, no actual, intended or implied malice)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:51PM (11 children)
Because I anticipated that you would follow "yes" with a list of practical measures that you expect people in each situation to take in order to demonstrate that they don't have "idiocy", or severe to profound intellectual disability relative to others of the same age.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:08PM (10 children)
Short list:
1. Don't run Windows.
2. Run Linux.
Done.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:42PM (9 children)
For this purpose, does Android/Linux count as Linux? Does Chrome OS/Linux? Or do you refer specifically to GNU/Linux? Because I haven't seen GNU/Linux laptops in showrooms for a long time.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:34PM (8 children)
When did you ever? Silly Windows user! You think there is some necessary connection between the OS and the hardware? Other than an illegal monopoly or obfuscation by a corporation with pretty shells? Free software. You don't have to buy it. In fact, some corporations have done their damnedest to make it nearly impossible to see a GNU/Linux laptop in a showroom, or even to be able to buy a laptop without a pre-installed computer virus and surveillance system.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:50PM (7 children)
Several years ago, I purchased an Eee PC 900 with GNU/Linux at Target.
Of course there is. It's called drivers. Otherwise you get things like the ASUS Transformer Book T100TA [debian.org] where half the stuff is broken after GNU/Linux is installed.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:01PM (6 children)
Rather like Win8, then? Why is it that drivers are not available, or even that the APIs are not freely available? Could it be licensing threats by monopolistic software companies? My solution: do not buy hardware that is broken. Proprietary drivers means the hardware is broken. Only an idiot would buy something like this, and anyone accepting such a thing as a "gift" is equally an idiot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:39PM (5 children)
A preinstalled operating system on a device will at least include drivers for the components of that device. Thus a Windows 7 PC included Windows 7 drivers, a Windows 8 PC included Windows 8 drivers, and a Windows 10 PC includes Windows 10 drivers.
Assuming your definition of "broken" as "incompatible with free drivers": In principle, I agree. But in practice, from the inside of a showroom, how can I tell whether a particular laptop is broken? Product displays in major electronics showroom chains such as Best Buy don't have any clear indication of whether or not a particular laptop is broken, nor is it printed on the packaging.
What new, non-broken 10.1" or 11.6" laptop is good for running GNU/Linux and the applications I use regularly (some of which are free applications for Windows that run correctly in Wine)?
(Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:47PM (4 children)
You want me to do your research for you? Google is your friend. One example:
https://laptop.ninja/finding-the-best-linux-laptops/ [laptop.ninja]
Not nearly the issue it was before the Microsoft Monopoly cracked.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:53AM (3 children)
Why the FUCK is there a .ninja TLD?
(Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:07AM
I would think it is rather obvious: they defeated the pirates. Probably hired by the MPAA, or the RIAA, or the Tokugawa Shogunate. Ninjas! Forking mercenaries!
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:28AM (1 child)
It's dark web, duh. You can't see it unless you know it's there :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @06:30PM
Just because I know there's a monster under my bed doesn't mean I can see it. That's what the flashlight is for.
(Score: 2) by pendorbound on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:09PM
Yes. By definition. I might make a possible exception if they're late-stage comp-sci (might...) or if they've successfully hacked the school's computers to change their grades and evaded detection. Otherwise, idiots. No question.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:22PM (2 children)
If they happily put up with it then yes, they are idiots, and probably should stick to their toy cell phone for looking at pictures of cats. Any school or company issued computer should already be locked down anyway, so Windows 10s would not matter. It would be absolutely silly to lock everything else down and yet allow arbitrary applications from an on-line "store". If anyone gave me a Windows 10s computer, they would get a fist in their face because that would be totally useless to me. Xbox speaks for itself. :P
Right, because useless little "apps" filled with advertising and ways to leach money from your wallet and anticompetitive rules are so much better. That is part of my point, people who are not cell-phone pussified idiots should have little trouble discerning if the software they obtain is legitimate. So no one has ever abused trust in a fancy-shmancy locked down store? That is what this story is actually about!
There is no reason not to have one. Just because manufacturers cut corners and leave things out doesn't mean you can not or should not add them. Personally I find archiving certain kinds of data to optical media incredibly useful as one erroneous write will not erase the entire thing, and it is all under my control unlike crap in teh cloudz. And around here isn't like Japan where eveyone has a T-1 line to their PC.
[Hugs my pile of 5.25" floppy disks]
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:39PM (1 child)
"Beggars can't be choosers. You're grounded for a month, son."
What video gaming platform should you drag out when you have friends over who didn't happen to bring a PC with a copy of the same game that you want to play? Or are tabletop games preferred in such a situation?
What steps do "people who are not cell-phone pussified idiots" take toward "discerning if the software they obtain is legitimate", especially when it's a niche application from an individual developer?
I agree for smaller data sets, especially with par files for ECC. But if you have dozens to hundreds of GB of photos or especially videos, swapping 4 GB discs in and out of an external DVD+R burner becomes less practical than buying an external HDD.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:46PM
And how is that even a choice? If I can't do what I need to do, then I still can't do what I need to do.
I see, by your standards I'm just supposed to ignore my needs and conform to your consumeroid masses.
Sort of like a school cafeteria where only approved Coca-Cola beverages are allowed, under penalty of losing funding. You have a health problem that prevents you from consuming high-fructose corn syrup beverages? Tough, why are you not just conforming? You might not have a direct say in the matter, but you would be an idiot not to try and get out of that situation.
Hmph. If I need a door stop, then by your Windows 10s standards, I should not be allowed to drive over to Home Depot and buy a REAL one, and under absolutely no circumstances should I be allowed to cut my own from a block of wood. Instead I should just make do using a crushed Coca-Cola can like everyone else.
I suppose you need me to spell this out step by step using only words that can be found in the Sunday newspaper and with no more than two syllables? You kids these days just want everything handed to you with no responsibility, no research, no thinking, and no understanding. You make me sick. How much is Statya Nadella paying you to troll for him?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:49PM (7 children)
Most likely, but the greater issue is that schools would do such a thing to begin with. Parents, students, and teachers should all be passionately fighting against such injustices. It should be illegal for schools to force students to use non-free proprietary user-subjugating software, since it does not allow education, independence, or freedom; schools should promote all of those ideals. If the Free Software schools need does not exist, then schools should collaborate to create it so the entire world can benefit, instead of being dependent upon corporations.
Also, there is no good evidence that giving everyone a computer actually improves the quality of the education being provided, and some evidence that computers can serve as a distraction for classes that normally would not use them. So it's also quite likely just a waste of money in general.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:04PM (6 children)
Should it also be illegal to force students in a literature class to read post-1922* novels, short stories, or poems? Those are typically just as non-free, proprietary, and reader-subjugating.
Schools are "dependent upon corporations" for hardware on which to run free software. How should a school corporation secure the production of reasonably small and rugged laptops designed to run (say) Trisquel GNU/Linux? Then watch high school graduates not be able to find a job to pay their way through university because people with LibreOffice experience technically "don't know Word."
Would you prefer to require students to handwrite their research papers instead of typing them?
* Assuming current U.S. law. For other industrialized countries, substitute literature whose author is alive or died after 1946.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:39PM (2 children)
Baldfaced lie. Who do you work for? How much do they pay you to spread this kind of disinformation? Shills like you are about as effective as internet advertisements. I, for one, will redouble me efforts to persuade all and sundry, especially in businesses that I own, work for, or patronize, to dump all Microsoft products. They drew first Blue Screen of Death!
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday December 21 2017, @12:24AM (1 child)
Jobs exist that don't require skills in the MS Office suite. More jobs exist that do require these skills. I don't like using MS products, but it's preferable to being poor.
I know that there will be a few replies saying something to the effect of "well, I don't use them and I'm doing fine!". Good for you. Your job is probably different to mine. We can't all perform the same jobs.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:53AM
If you can use LibreOffice you can use Microsoft Office, and vice versa. If one is unable to handle the minor differences between the two they should hire someone else who can. Most users do not use any of the features that might cause an issue between the two, or even realize they are there.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
You would think so, but ironically they aren't, really. We still tolerate libraries lending books, also resale of used books, and of course physical books don't come with 'licenses' of dubious validity and expansive restriction; so in practice this is hardly an issue.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:56PM
If you read a short story, and then years later you write a short story that is accidentally "substantially similar" to the earlier short story, you have infringed copyright in the earlier short story. This is established precedent in the U.S. since Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, 420 F. Supp. 177 (SDNY 1976). How is that not "user-subjugating"?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:49AM
I have yet to see a single one that dictates which brand of eye-glasses the reader is required to wear (including those with perfect vision).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:36PM
I just love it that there are still things that Soylentils can all agree on, both bloodthirsty antifa and involuntarily celibate alt-righties. Windows brings us all together!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:18PM (1 child)
"A desktop application downloaded from some website can see, disclose, and modify everything in the user's profile.* By contrast, a UWP application is sandboxed to see only those documents that the user chooses to make available to it, making it more difficult for the application to abuse the user's trust."
A false sense of security is not a good thing.
ANYTHING that you download and run can potentially do anything to the machine. ESPECIALLY if you're running Windows.
"What should the operator of a lesser-known website from which desktop applications can be downloaded do to make the website and applications appear trustworthy?"
Provide the source.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:46PM
Not all kinds of application are amenable to being released as free software from day one, particularly things like video games, players for rented movies, and privately developed tax document preparation tools. Would an arrangement to distribute proprietary software in source code form similar to the following be acceptable?
Besides, the Underhanded C Contest [wikipedia.org] demonstrates that source code can hide malware.
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:44AM (1 child)
If a company issues a Windows 10 PC to their employees without making them a local admin, the Windows Store enables them to install applications instead of being stuck in a locked down image.
... unless they disable the Windows Store too, which is really annoying.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:56AM
So, the Windows Store enables them to break company policy. Got it.
Those companies that don't make employees local admin are generally a subset of those that don't allow employees to install anything, but requires them to request any software they need from the IT department.
I.e. any company that cares about software licenses.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:00PM (1 child)
Users downloading installers directly from web sites is one of the reasons that Windows 95 was such a playground for malware.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @09:20PM
Downloading arbitrary binaries and running them is simply an additional risky practice added on top of a fundamentally insecure system. Putting the binaries in a 'store' does not change this situation, it simply encourages inappropriate trust among the more naíve users.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:21PM
I would extend that to "Windows is for idiots": it is a gaming system only. Anything beyond games? Idiotic.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:06PM (8 children)
An important bit of explanation, unmentioned in the summary, is that Windows 10 S is quite different than Windows 10. 10 S only runs apps from the store. It boots fast. In short, it is intended to be like a Chromebook. It is unclear what the S in 10 S stands for. Maybe "sucks" perhaps. Or some other Stupid pejorative.
Does Microsoft think that Google's browser and Blink engine is somehow less safe than Microsoft's browser?
If third parties can provide apps, through the store, and users can execute them, and such an app could be a Browser, then would it make that much difference in what rendering engine the browser uses? As long as it keeps the machine from getting additional malware beyond the basic malware OS. If Google provided a browser that used EdgeHTML as the rendering engine, it seems it wouldn't change the user's general experience -- so why not allow a real Chrome browser?
Maybe Microsoft wants all rendering done through its own EdgeHTML engine in order to spy on users? That would make cents.
If the App Store terms are unacceptable to Google, I wonder how many other developers find the terms unacceptable?
If Windows 10 S is such a small installed base relative to Windows 10, then it seems like it might never catch up with Chrome OS / Chromebooks. Especially if Google can make their product more attractive. I don't know of Google would want to play the way Microsoft did in the 80's, 90's, 2000's, etc. But Google's highly attractive online properties not working, or having a sub-par experience on Windows 10 S would be sweet turnabout using Microsoft's own bag of dirty tricks.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:27PM (7 children)
It is mentioned in the summary.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:21PM (5 children)
Maybe I'm two dents. I had to google to grasp the 10 vs 10 S difference. Or maybe caffeine levels critically low.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:30PM (4 children)
The 'S' in Windows 10 S stands for so many things. Senescence, perhaps?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by c0lo on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:10PM (1 child)
Counting the number of S-es in the above, I'd say that's statistically true.
No matter how dents, you no it makes cents (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:21PM
if it is for students, perhaps its an S for Sophmoric?
It'd be soperific if it was... most students I know that have had to use it express disappointment with it because of the limitations.
You never hear that about books, but I guess when you use the same tool for one thing, and then the powers that be add restrictions to how it can be used when using it for another thing... you miss what you had and resent what you were given
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:58AM
"Sucks". It stands for "Sucks".
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:55PM
I've been reading it as "Subset". Similar to the old "Win32s" add on for Windows 3.1, that was neither 95 nor NT, but rather a crappy restrictive subset of the Win32 API.
Windows 10s is useless restricted subset of Windows 10.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @06:02PM
yes it is, but its one of those things people that use their computers to do things besides facebook youtube and fox news would notice. few others would know that windows 10 s prevents you from doing something besides what some curator permitted--for your own safety.
perhaps the poster unwittingly revealed a bias by drawing attention to it
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:43PM (5 children)
Wasn't there once an antitrust case because Microsoft tied their browser to their operating system? And now they do it again, openly? How come they get away with it?
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:02PM (1 child)
Yes. Microsoft lied about all kinds of things, artificially tied their browser to their OS, and in 2000 were found guilty of anticompetitive practices. But they only got a slap on the wrist. As you can see, it didn't stop their anticompetitive practices at all.
Presumably they have since found the right people in Washington DC to pay off.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pino P on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:41PM
The real reason Microsoft got a wrist slap is George W. Bush.
At the end of 2000, the U.S. elected a Republican President. The Republican Party has long favored a trickle-down approach [wikipedia.org], arguing that supply-side policies that reduce tax and compliance costs for business owners will eventually help employees and individual end users. This contrasts with the Democratic Party's more direct approach to protecting employees and end users through regulation of labor and competition. When a President of a different party takes office, it's traditional under the spoils system [wikipedia.org] to fire the upper management of ministries and replace them with appointees of the incoming party. In this case, incoming President Bush replaced Janet Reno with John Ashcroft as Attorney General (head of the Department of Justice).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:16PM
Because now, it is only them that make the hardware.
That's the lesson they learned from Apple [stackoverflow.com] (linky as an example of control that Apple is permitted to apply).
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:06PM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:56PM
Yes. If I remember right it was a case that was brought by Netscape. By the time the litigation was over so was Netscape. However it is worth noting that this move by MS probably violates a previous court order, and in so doing could land MS in contempt of court.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:19PM
It has begun.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:20PM
didn't read the article so I'm just going from the summary.
First impression is that Microsoft is using it's monopoly control of OS market and the Windows app store to prevent competition with it's Edge browser.
Second impression isn't any better.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by rleigh on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:59PM
Microsoft Windows Store, Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon and the rest. They all suck. The problem isn't that the idea is bad, because having a convenient and uniform way to purchase and install software isn't inherently awful. The problem is that none of them can resist the lure of corporate control over both the user and the developers. Rather than having a simple set of objective technical criteria for review, they start using it as a way of getting one over their competitors to push their products and corporate ideology. It's sort of understandable from their point of view (even if the rest of us find it objectionable), but in doing so they remove much of the value the store might have to an end user or a third-party developer. I'm pretty sure I'll never purchase anything from the Microsoft Windows Store, let alone submit anything to it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:55AM
Such inertial abuse of the unwashed masses makes me sick. I wish we would collectively stop enabling these insulting techno-oligarchs. Think for yourself instead and take charge of your life.