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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."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jmorris on Thursday May 11 2017, @06:23PM (1 child)
Which doesn't matter. If your school board gets a kickback from Microsoft (or more likely a Partner to provide deniability) they will mandate Microsoft and you will use it. Why do you think the utterly obsolete TI 84 was a required purchase so many years and before that an older model? Students are a captive audience.
But the goal here has little to do with education users, they are just the foot in the door. Look in your living room at your XBox and see the future Microsoft has planned for you. I have been posting the same thing for a decade now and nothing since has made me any but more more sure of being correct. Next all home users get the DRM hammer. Devels will still have the Pro / Enterprise editions because the corporate world is nowhere near being ready to let go of win32. But eventually they will get the hammer dropped, Pro will be eliminated and only Enterprise edition will retain 'legacy' features and it will require Software Assurance so Microsoft won't care since they will be raking in so much cash from it. Devels will either work for a big corp on Enterprise or get a "Developer Edition" that will require the sort of background checking console devels endure, meaning you WILL be incorporated. And the devel tools made available to all but the most pricey options (sold to maintainers of legacy corporate code) will only generate the new managed code, no new win32. Finally the login, which is already a Microsoft account unless you are corporate or try hard, will merge with the XBox and you will need a Live subscription because the PC will just be an XBox in a different form factor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @04:25AM
A windows PC is already an Xbox in a different form factor, because if you're doing most anything other than gaming with it, you're using the wrong tool for the job.