[jon.kiparsky]

no2pencil, on 29 October 2012 - 02:06 PM, said:

The future of development is 'Software as a Service' anyway. Imo, standard installation type programs have been going away since the day after Cloud Computing was introduced.

By "cloud" you mean "thin client"?

Yeah, I really don't see that happening this time any more than it happened the last time. Especially since at some point the cloud providers are going to have to start making money to pay for those server farms - and then people will go right back to the hard drive on their machine that they've already paid for.

[no2pencil]

jon.kiparsky, on 29 October 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

By "cloud" you mean "thin client"?

Yes. The over-glorified dumb-terminals.

[Curtis Rutland]

I'd just like to reiterate a point here. You will 100% be able to distribute desktop software under any channel you were able to before. Metro-style apps are store-only. Both can run on Windows 8, so you're free to make and sell your own applications. You just won't be able to get them onto the Windows Marketplace if they're not metro, and if they are metro, you won't be able to sell them any other way.

Kinda like you can't get apps onto an iPad unless you sell them in the store.

The difference is, Windows 8 runs on both ARM tablets and Intel PCs. The ARM tablets can't run the desktop software (except office, which was specially compiled for it), so that's a lot like iPads.

The Intel versions can run any x86/x64 applications, as well as the Metro applications.

You can say it's legacy, but Metro will never be the only way people interact with their desktops. Too many things require proper multitasking to eliminate the Desktop. They're still supporting WPF and Windows Forms, and they still have VS Express versions that can build applications for them (or they will soon, don't remember if they're out yet). It's not legacy, it's just tied to the x86 processors.

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Well, that's reassuring. So you did a Metro app (with a tile and so fourth), compiled it, and moved the executable over to another machine? It wasn't a Desktop app?

That wouldn't work, of course. Metro apps can only be sold in the store.

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Now, of course Valve is going to have a fit. They've just upgraded Steam to also have applications. It's a competing marketplace, one that Steam pretty much had all to themselves! Having a first-party marketplace is going to be a threat to them.

But the kind of games Steam really makes money on will never be Metro applications, so all Steam has to really compete with is Casual games and Applications.

Too many people don't understand what's actually going on, because they just hear a rumor and misinterpret it and spread it. I've been using W8 since the developer preview, so I'm not just talking out of my ass.