4 ms·

> Sometimes I wonder if MS would have been better served offering two version No, they want to leverage the power of the desktop Windows to get a foothold in m

> Sometimes I wonder if MS would have been better served offering two version No, they want to leverage the power of the desktop Windows to get a foothold in mobile, which they werent able to achieve on their own. Now everybody who develops for desktop windows also kinda develops for mobile windows and strenghtens the weak windows mobile ecosystem. That was the goal. One step back in the desktop, two steps forward in mobile. Thios force-bundling of ecosystems will work out if developers arent so disgusted by Metro to decide to leave the Microsoftian ecosystem alltogether.

twoodfin 14y ago
> Now everybody who develops for desktop windows also kinda develops for mobile windows and strenghtens the weak windows mobile ecosystem... I don't see this happening. You're talking about the intersection of Windows apps and their corresponding developers which: a) Haven't already migrated to the web. Discounting Microsoft's own products, the revenues for web "applications" have to dwarf desktop commercial software by several orders of magnitude. Remember when Encarta was a viable product? Or a recipe database? Mapping? Finance? You name something "ordinary people" used to do with boxed software and it's almost all being done online. b) Are suitable for a Metro/Touch-style interface and can leverage it to be cross-device easily (Games are out, so likely are IDEs, pro tools like Photoshop...). Whole classes of applications are going to keep being written against the non-Metro Win32 APIs and under the assumption that you've got a 12"+ screen and a keyboard/mouse. c) Are popular enough to go through the bother of a rewrite (and presumably popular enough to make a difference to Windows Phone or the Surface). Much of what's left when you exclude a) and b) is vertical market stuff or internally written line-of-business applications that will never be worth a radical WinRT rewrite. That's not to say Metro and Windows Phone won't be successful. I just think they're not going to be successful because the folks still writing desktop Windows software will wake up one morning and realize, "Oops, I guess I wrote a Windows Phone application, might as well ship that, too!"
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
The Windows Metro SDK and Windows Phone SDK are not the same. Windows Phone has already gotten pretty good developer support. I believe for a while it was the fastest growing platform in apps. But you hit a wall where users matter. They're not going to catch up to iOS and Android in apps without also having users. The two must grow together.
- Metrop0218 14y ago
  This is truth and is pretty much exactly the reasoning behind the shared core/kernel/graphics stack/etc.
rbanffy 14y ago
> Now everybody who develops for desktop windows also kinda develops for mobile windows Not quite. I am sure not everyone will port their apps to Metro. There is also the format thing - a keyboard/mouse desktop app will require a lot of adaptation before it works as expected on a small mobile device.

twoodfin 14y ago

> Now everybody who develops for desktop windows also kinda develops for mobile windows and strenghtens the weak windows mobile ecosystem... I don't see this happening. You're talking about the intersection of Windows apps and their corresponding developers which: a) Haven't already migrated to the web. Discounting Microsoft's own products, the revenues for web "applications" have to dwarf desktop commercial software by several orders of magnitude. Remember when Encarta was a viable product? Or a recipe database? Mapping? Finance? You name something "ordinary people" used to do with boxed software and it's almost all being done online. b) Are suitable for a Metro/Touch-style interface and can leverage it to be cross-device easily (Games are out, so likely are IDEs, pro tools like Photoshop...). Whole classes of applications are going to keep being written against the non-Metro Win32 APIs and under the assumption that you've got a 12"+ screen and a keyboard/mouse. c) Are popular enough to go through the bother of a rewrite (and presumably popular enough to make a difference to Windows Phone or the Surface). Much of what's left when you exclude a) and b) is vertical market stuff or internally written line-of-business applications that will never be worth a radical WinRT rewrite. That's not to say Metro and Windows Phone won't be successful. I just think they're not going to be successful because the folks still writing desktop Windows software will wake up one morning and realize, "Oops, I guess I wrote a Windows Phone application, might as well ship that, too!"

MatthewPhillips 14y ago

The Windows Metro SDK and Windows Phone SDK are not the same. Windows Phone has already gotten pretty good developer support. I believe for a while it was the fastest growing platform in apps. But you hit a wall where users matter. They're not going to catch up to iOS and Android in apps without also having users. The two must grow together.

Metrop0218 14y ago
This is truth and is pretty much exactly the reasoning behind the shared core/kernel/graphics stack/etc.

rbanffy 14y ago

> Now everybody who develops for desktop windows also kinda develops for mobile windows Not quite. I am sure not everyone will port their apps to Metro. There is also the format thing - a keyboard/mouse desktop app will require a lot of adaptation before it works as expected on a small mobile device.