Microsoft Throws in the Towel on UWP, Elevates Win32:
Years ago — back before the launch of Windows 8 — Microsoft announced that going forward, app development would be driven by fundamentally different rules and capabilities than what had been the case before. Applications distributed via the Windows Store would be written to new standards, with new rules about what data they could access and which languages were supported. Older Win32 apps would still run, but they were ultimately intended to be replaced by an entirely new suite of applications written under new design rules, and distributed through the Windows Store.
Pretty much none of this actually happened. The Windows Store went on to become a dead-letter trainwreck of applications no one wanted or used. It was stuffed with counterfeit apps for applications like Facebook that pretended to be genuine products. Microsoft recently removed its own Office installer from the Windows Store. Over the years, Microsoft has tried rebranding its own software development push in various ways, but none of it has sparked much interest in creating UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps. Now, the company is taking multiple steps to allow Win32 applications to take advantage of the same features it's rolled out for UWP in the past. While Microsoft isn't admitting defeat in its effort to push everyone into using the Windows Store, that's what this practically amounts to.
"You've told us that you would like us to continue to decouple many parts of the Universal Windows Platform so that you can adopt them incrementally," Microsoft corporate vice president Kevin Gallo wrote this week, in a developer-centric blog post. "Allowing you to use our platform and tools to meet you where your customers are going – empowering you to deliver rich, intelligent experiences that put people at the center."
But doesn't everyone want a program that plays for sure on Windows?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 11 2019, @11:48PM (5 children)
Didn't realize they were still around... thought Oracle bought them a few years ago after Zune failed.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 11 2019, @11:53PM (3 children)
FLOSSing Linux fanbois BTFO: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MSFT/microsoft/revenue [macrotrends.net]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday May 12 2019, @12:37AM
Embrace . . . Extend . . . Self-Destruct.
Fear. . . Uncertainty . . .Self-Demolition
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:07AM
Larry may be rich, but he's not richer than Bill, Paul and Steve.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @01:02PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Sunday May 12 2019, @04:14AM
I think they still make mice.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 11 2019, @11:55PM (4 children)
Cool now bring MFC and ATL back. With those two back and I can get a job.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by driverless on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:00AM (3 children)
That was Microsoft's mistake (and arrogance), they figured that since they own 100% of the market they can dictate what the ecosystem has to do, like IBM dictating that everyone had to move to PS/2 and OS/2. Problem is that what people care about is stuff that runs on Win32, not whatever MS dictates everyone should be doing today. If you're going to throw away 30+ years of code base and move to something new, you may as well make it in Electron rather than tying yourself to a platform (UWP) no-one cares about and that MS will abandon in a few years when they dream up the next big thing that isn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @05:36AM (2 children)
Problem is that what people care about is stuff that runs on Win32
Not really.
Java, Javascript, python, C#. If you are doing anything else right now you are on old tech. Sorry, I was being a bit sardonic with my post about getting a job. I rather enjoyed that goofie win32 API. But going back to it I doubt anyone will.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @08:38AM
Aren't those languages now a bit on the old side themselves?, thought the brave new world was supposed to be all Rusty Goey?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @10:49PM
Most of those bindings use the Win32 APIs, well other than C#. Microsoft pushes C# and other .NET languages hard, but you can still use other languages, and most of those hit the Win32 or Win64 API. I can't really think of ones that don't.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday May 12 2019, @12:49AM
If you'll bear with me, I'd like to link to one of my posts on that other site [slashdot.org], because I feel like I've had this called right for years now. I can't find the older post to which I referred, perhaps because they hide low-modded posts from search engines, which is a shame.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by progo on Sunday May 12 2019, @12:53AM (2 children)
The vast majority of good software for Windows is free/libre software.
I just looked right now, and it costs a minimum of $19 to join the Windows Store as an individual publisher -- $99 for a "company" account. Plus I think you're required to sign your builds with a certificate you buy on the CA market that you can't get for free.
Meanwhile, on the Win32 platform, you can publish GPG-signed free software, for free.
My Windows 10 laptop that I use for work has the Windows Store disabled. I'd hardly noticed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Sunday May 12 2019, @04:57AM (1 child)
And the first thing I did with the seldom-used Win10 box was banish everything that looked like a Store, restore the Classic menu, and promptly forget that Win10's reason for existence was to sell apps from the Windows Store.
Hey Microsoft, repeat after me: the desktop is not a cellphone!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 12 2019, @10:44PM
I could never get the Windows store to work. I typed sudo apt-get install programname and just get an error.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:10AM (2 children)
"But doesn't everyone want a program that plays for sure on Windows?"
I do but they discontinued that too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @02:37PM
You missed your chance. The correct response is "like, totally". (source [youtube.com])
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @04:37PM
You mean it supports Lose32? No thanks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Sunday May 12 2019, @02:55AM (3 children)
They REALLY don't know what they are doing, do they?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday May 12 2019, @10:47AM (2 children)
But somehow they haven't sunk yet. Got the passengers all quaking in their boots that they might be thrown overboard or left behind at the docks. Vista was such a horrible poop cruise I wondered if that would finish them off. But no, seems they are a real floater. How do they do it? It must be MS Orifice and DirectX. Want game? Hold your nose and climb aboard.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:16PM (1 child)
Definitely MS Orifice and that their legacy and sales force in business. And sheeple....loooots of sheeple.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Monday May 13 2019, @05:10AM
Speaking as an old fart, I find it a bit aggravating the younger people put up with the shit thrown to them... For when they put up with it, I am expected to put up with it too.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]