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The Windows Store Is the App Store Mac Developers Secretly Want

14 points by ductionist 10y ago

tradersam 10y ago
Not one app I use on Windows (that doesn't come directly from Microsoft) is downloaded from the Windows Store. Although it might fit developer's needs, it really isn't a place people browse regularly like the iOS App Store. It's kind of a chicken-egg problem.
- ductionist 10y ago
  Fair point. Traffic levels aside, it would be nice if Apple took some cues from Microsoft, especially for macOS (iOS is much further ahead).
suyash 10y ago
Bias is clearly visible that this blog is written by Windows developer and not Mac/iOS developer. Windows platform is years behind iOS development both in terms of developer experience and what matters the most - success of paid apps.
- ductionist 10y ago
  I'm both, actually - this post draws on my personal experience as an iOS, macOS, and Windows developer. Your point about Windows lagging iOS in terms of developer experience might be true, but macOS lags both by a long shot, which is what I'm trying to highlight here. (There's no arguing your point about paid apps :)
Eridrus 10y ago
I think App Stores are a positive for consumers, so I do want the Windows store to succeed, but the downside of not being as pedantic as Apple about what is in there is that it's largely full of crap.
- ductionist 10y ago
  They're slowly raising the quality bar, fortunately. I'd say Microsoft's submission standards are now equal to the macOS App Store.
discordance 10y ago
Quoting an insightful user from some other HN thread I can't remember: Judge a company by its actions when it's at the top, not the bottom.
H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
I think most of the problems here is that Microsoft has it's fancy new UWP executable which they're pushing like crazy, while Apple still hasn't found any major issues with .app which would mandate the sort of architectural rebuild requires to add these features in. As far as I can tell the Mac App Store just ships .app bundles which meet a certain set of requirements(instead of the user downloading a .dmg containing the app).
- ductionist 10y ago
  Good point. Windows is moving in that direction with Project Centennial / "desktop bridge" apps. There are more and more win32 apps in the Store (wrapped in a thin layer of UWPness).
anon_lastname 10y ago
A prison for its users

14 points by ductionist 10y ago

Not one app I use on Windows (that doesn't come directly from Microsoft) is downloaded from the Windows Store. Although it might fit developer's needs, it really isn't a place people browse regularly like the iOS App Store. It's kind of a chicken-egg problem.

ductionist 10y ago
Fair point. Traffic levels aside, it would be nice if Apple took some cues from Microsoft, especially for macOS (iOS is much further ahead).

suyash 10y ago

Bias is clearly visible that this blog is written by Windows developer and not Mac/iOS developer. Windows platform is years behind iOS development both in terms of developer experience and what matters the most - success of paid apps.

ductionist 10y ago
I'm both, actually - this post draws on my personal experience as an iOS, macOS, and Windows developer. Your point about Windows lagging iOS in terms of developer experience might be true, but macOS lags both by a long shot, which is what I'm trying to highlight here. (There's no arguing your point about paid apps :)

Eridrus 10y ago

I think App Stores are a positive for consumers, so I do want the Windows store to succeed, but the downside of not being as pedantic as Apple about what is in there is that it's largely full of crap.

ductionist 10y ago
They're slowly raising the quality bar, fortunately. I'd say Microsoft's submission standards are now equal to the macOS App Store.

discordance 10y ago

Quoting an insightful user from some other HN thread I can't remember: Judge a company by its actions when it's at the top, not the bottom.

H4CK3RM4N 10y ago

I think most of the problems here is that Microsoft has it's fancy new UWP executable which they're pushing like crazy, while Apple still hasn't found any major issues with .app which would mandate the sort of architectural rebuild requires to add these features in. As far as I can tell the Mac App Store just ships .app bundles which meet a certain set of requirements(instead of the user downloading a .dmg containing the app).

ductionist 10y ago
Good point. Windows is moving in that direction with Project Centennial / "desktop bridge" apps. There are more and more win32 apps in the Store (wrapped in a thin layer of UWPness).

anon_lastname 10y ago

A prison for its users