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Firstly, bravo. I really applaud Microsoft for realizing what it wanted to have in a Q&A site, and realizing Stack Exchange was that realizing. Then realizing t

Firstly, bravo. I really applaud Microsoft for realizing what it wanted to have in a Q&A site, and realizing Stack Exchange was that realizing. Then realizing that people are probably going to go to SE, instead of a Microsoft forum or product. That said, I think Microsoft is going to be in an adapt or die philosophy for the next few months, and I think this is one of those decisions. They know they need to foster a community that anyone can be a part of. Open Source move? Check. More Open Source? Check. Stack Exchange? Check. The only thing this piece is missing is a better hardware platform, so I'm going to be very interested in seeing what Microsoft can produce in the coming months.

Avalaxy 12y ago
> The only thing this piece is missing is a better hardware platform, so I'm going to be very interested in seeing what Microsoft can produce in the coming months. Why? Honestly, I think the Surface tablets and Nokia's Lumia devices are really high quality.
- dec0dedab0de 12y ago
  I think the Surface tablets and Nokia's Lumia devices are really high quality. I agree, I would buy a surface pro if I could get it without windows.
  - k-mcgrady 12y ago
    What OS would you want to run on it? I can't think of something better suited. Android apps aren't optimised well for a large tablet and iOS is too focused to work well on a device that is supposed to allow you to replace your laptop. You could run a linux distro but I don't know of many that are touch optimised very well (Ubuntu has something in the works but I read recently it's definitely not ready for primetime yet).
    - johnmaguire2013 12y ago
      I think Ubuntu touch-based stuff has loooooong been in the works. Unity is a part of it.
    - larssorenson 12y ago
      I have a touch screen Lenovo laptop I bought my freshman year of college and I put Mint on it. Works pretty well for what I want to do with touch, I can take notes and it supports pressure sensitivity. I haven't had the chance to get my hands on a Pro to test Mint, but that would be my go to.
    - anonbanker 12y ago
      I used kubuntu. plasma active on a surface 3 is divine.
      - k-mcgrady 12y ago
        Maybe I was wrong about Linux then! Are apps optimised in any way? Is this up to devs or does the OS/window manager do any of the work.
    - dec0dedab0de 12y ago
      I would likely run Ubuntu or LinuxMint. I came really close to buying the system76 Darter Touch when it was available, but the fact that it didn't convert into a tablet was the deal breaker.
      - k-mcgrady 12y ago
        Interesting how many responses suggested running Linux. I wouldn't have thought it would even be worth trying on a tablet. First I've seen the system76 Darter Touch. I guess with Unity Ubuntu is quite touch friendly now.
- alexggordon 12y ago
  I really think Microsoft could do a much better job at fostering a productive App development ecosystem, which is the heart of a good mobile operating system. My ability to use a mobile device hinges on an expectation of UI and Hardware, but a gold standard of an incredible App environment. Obviously, Apple has achieved this. Google Play has had some rough spots but is definitely a close second. Then there's the mortal wounds; the Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft App Stores, That leaves Microsoft as the only company that designs Hardware/OS but still has a terrible App Store. In fact, scams and misleading apps were so bad[0] Microsoft actually had to address them[1]. Don't get me wrong though, if the App Store were better, I would love me some Lumia, but really, when Hardware and OS become a toss-up, really the next thing to look at is the App Store. Microsoft has some great momentum in the right direction now though and I would love for that to continue. [0] http://www.howtogeek.com/194993/the-windows-store-is-a-cesspool-of-scams-why-doesnt-microsoft-care/ http://www.howtogeek.com/194993/the-windows-store-is-a-cessp... [1] http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/08/27/how-were-addressing-misleading-apps-in-windows-store/ http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/08/27/how-were-ad...
  - Avalaxy 12y ago
    You're absolutely right, the WP appstore really has a lot less to offer than its competitors. It's really frustrating as a WP user to see companies ignoring WP all the time. Honestly, there is no good reason any more to leave WP out, there are multiple really solid cross platform development frameworks out there nowadays.
    - kmdev 12y ago
      Tradeoffs (and I'm sure I'm mostly preaching to the choir). Generally, for non-trivial mobile apps, you want to try and build native versions for Android/iOS first. Frameworks that are cross-platform just aren't up to par in many aspects (again, for non trivial apps). While you may be able to get performance close enough to native performance with a cross-platform framework, you're still going to be spending a significant amount of time on the UI/UX side customizing to ensure your app's look, feel and general flow line up with the standards and best practices for that platform. This is not a trivial concern. Facebook found that out the hard way on Android as one example. Users learn and form muscle memory on the platform they choose to invest in and respond very poorly if your app doesn't deliver a UI/UX that adheres nicely to the platform standards. Another concern, which is being addressed, but is going to be an ongoing concern for still some time, is API feature access on each platform. Cross-platform frameworks are continually playing catch-up to try implement access to the most important new API additions on each platform. The gap has certainly been shortened, especially in the location services area but ultimately, there won't be API access parity across platforms for quite some time and it will still lag behind the native implementations. Again, this is all in general, applies the most to bigger apps and/or apps that rely heavily on fast performance or access to specific native APIs and based on one mobile devs experience. It is exciting to see that for most things that are somewhere between a blog and a small to non-trivial application, just focusing on making sure your site/small app works well on most mobile browsers is sufficient. You can also usually wrap things up in each platforms' version of a WebView if you want to get your app/site listed on each store for that extra exposure. Again though, you have to be very careful doing that for the same UI/UX concerns mentioned earlier. Getting away from the more technical aspects, just looking at WP market share vs Android/iOS means that even if a business wants to hit every platform, they're still going to start with iOS/Android and making sure they have a good mobile site experience before looking at WP. Add in the cost of finding a dev to work on your WP build (or assigning one from another team to it) and you end up with only the largest entities having the man-power and expertise to be able to justify a priority list that includes executing nice implementations across all platforms, including WP.

Avalaxy 12y ago

> The only thing this piece is missing is a better hardware platform, so I'm going to be very interested in seeing what Microsoft can produce in the coming months. Why? Honestly, I think the Surface tablets and Nokia's Lumia devices are really high quality.

dec0dedab0de 12y ago
I think the Surface tablets and Nokia's Lumia devices are really high quality. I agree, I would buy a surface pro if I could get it without windows.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  What OS would you want to run on it? I can't think of something better suited. Android apps aren't optimised well for a large tablet and iOS is too focused to work well on a device that is supposed to allow you to replace your laptop. You could run a linux distro but I don't know of many that are touch optimised very well (Ubuntu has something in the works but I read recently it's definitely not ready for primetime yet).
  - johnmaguire2013 12y ago
    I think Ubuntu touch-based stuff has loooooong been in the works. Unity is a part of it.
  - larssorenson 12y ago
    I have a touch screen Lenovo laptop I bought my freshman year of college and I put Mint on it. Works pretty well for what I want to do with touch, I can take notes and it supports pressure sensitivity. I haven't had the chance to get my hands on a Pro to test Mint, but that would be my go to.
  - anonbanker 12y ago
    I used kubuntu. plasma active on a surface 3 is divine.
    - k-mcgrady 12y ago
      Maybe I was wrong about Linux then! Are apps optimised in any way? Is this up to devs or does the OS/window manager do any of the work.
  - dec0dedab0de 12y ago
    I would likely run Ubuntu or LinuxMint. I came really close to buying the system76 Darter Touch when it was available, but the fact that it didn't convert into a tablet was the deal breaker.
    - k-mcgrady 12y ago
      Interesting how many responses suggested running Linux. I wouldn't have thought it would even be worth trying on a tablet. First I've seen the system76 Darter Touch. I guess with Unity Ubuntu is quite touch friendly now.
alexggordon 12y ago
I really think Microsoft could do a much better job at fostering a productive App development ecosystem, which is the heart of a good mobile operating system. My ability to use a mobile device hinges on an expectation of UI and Hardware, but a gold standard of an incredible App environment. Obviously, Apple has achieved this. Google Play has had some rough spots but is definitely a close second. Then there's the mortal wounds; the Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft App Stores, That leaves Microsoft as the only company that designs Hardware/OS but still has a terrible App Store. In fact, scams and misleading apps were so bad[0] Microsoft actually had to address them[1]. Don't get me wrong though, if the App Store were better, I would love me some Lumia, but really, when Hardware and OS become a toss-up, really the next thing to look at is the App Store. Microsoft has some great momentum in the right direction now though and I would love for that to continue. [0] http://www.howtogeek.com/194993/the-windows-store-is-a-cesspool-of-scams-why-doesnt-microsoft-care/ http://www.howtogeek.com/194993/the-windows-store-is-a-cessp... [1] http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/08/27/how-were-addressing-misleading-apps-in-windows-store/ http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/08/27/how-were-ad...
- Avalaxy 12y ago
  You're absolutely right, the WP appstore really has a lot less to offer than its competitors. It's really frustrating as a WP user to see companies ignoring WP all the time. Honestly, there is no good reason any more to leave WP out, there are multiple really solid cross platform development frameworks out there nowadays.
  - kmdev 12y ago
    Tradeoffs (and I'm sure I'm mostly preaching to the choir). Generally, for non-trivial mobile apps, you want to try and build native versions for Android/iOS first. Frameworks that are cross-platform just aren't up to par in many aspects (again, for non trivial apps). While you may be able to get performance close enough to native performance with a cross-platform framework, you're still going to be spending a significant amount of time on the UI/UX side customizing to ensure your app's look, feel and general flow line up with the standards and best practices for that platform. This is not a trivial concern. Facebook found that out the hard way on Android as one example. Users learn and form muscle memory on the platform they choose to invest in and respond very poorly if your app doesn't deliver a UI/UX that adheres nicely to the platform standards. Another concern, which is being addressed, but is going to be an ongoing concern for still some time, is API feature access on each platform. Cross-platform frameworks are continually playing catch-up to try implement access to the most important new API additions on each platform. The gap has certainly been shortened, especially in the location services area but ultimately, there won't be API access parity across platforms for quite some time and it will still lag behind the native implementations. Again, this is all in general, applies the most to bigger apps and/or apps that rely heavily on fast performance or access to specific native APIs and based on one mobile devs experience. It is exciting to see that for most things that are somewhere between a blog and a small to non-trivial application, just focusing on making sure your site/small app works well on most mobile browsers is sufficient. You can also usually wrap things up in each platforms' version of a WebView if you want to get your app/site listed on each store for that extra exposure. Again though, you have to be very careful doing that for the same UI/UX concerns mentioned earlier. Getting away from the more technical aspects, just looking at WP market share vs Android/iOS means that even if a business wants to hit every platform, they're still going to start with iOS/Android and making sure they have a good mobile site experience before looking at WP. Add in the cost of finding a dev to work on your WP build (or assigning one from another team to it) and you end up with only the largest entities having the man-power and expertise to be able to justify a priority list that includes executing nice implementations across all platforms, including WP.