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How Windows Everywhere finally happened

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Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#31

Post by Const-me »

voltagex_ wrote: post #11
pjmlp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For long time Windows developers like myself, the underlying model of WinRT is what the original .NET was supposed to be. It was called Ext-OS and based on an improved COM API, called COM+ Runtime. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dsyme/2012/07/05/more-c-net... So with C++/CX and .NET Native built on top of WinRT, Microsoft has gone full circle back to the original idea. Personally I enjoy developing UWP (started rig…

Do you use XAML? What do you think of it? I've never really been able to get my head around it - although my professional projects are mostly ASP.NET MVC and WebAPI so I've had no real pressing need to learn it. Am I the only one who still likes Windows Forms?

When I don’t care about the UI design, just need some GUI that works — yes, I still like Windows Forms.

When I have professionally-made UI design on input, and need to make GPU-rendered GUI — XAML is the best technology with the competitors far behind.

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#32

Post by Const-me »

sidawson wrote: post #7

First immediate thought: Can you get virus/malware scanners for XBox? Otherwise, it seems an immediate easy target for a new botnet.

Windows Azure datacenters have more than 1 million servers combined. They all run Windows, and unlike those cheap XBoxes, they are powered on 24/7 and connected to very fast fiber optics.

If you think Windows is an immediate easy target, why don’t you run your botnet on Azure?

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#33

Post by pjmlp »

voltagex_ wrote: post #11
pjmlp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For long time Windows developers like myself, the underlying model of WinRT is what the original .NET was supposed to be. It was called Ext-OS and based on an improved COM API, called COM+ Runtime. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dsyme/2012/07/05/more-c-net... So with C++/CX and .NET Native built on top of WinRT, Microsoft has gone full circle back to the original idea. Personally I enjoy developing UWP (started rig…

Do you use XAML? What do you think of it? I've never really been able to get my head around it - although my professional projects are mostly ASP.NET MVC and WebAPI so I've had no real pressing need to learn it. Am I the only one who still likes Windows Forms?

It has the developer sanity that web development lacks with its Frankenstein mixture of HTML, CSS, JavaScript to make behave like native widgets.

Have you ever tried to use any web design tool capable of matching Blend for UI design?

XAML is what web could have become if XHTML and its sublanguages had been adopted properly.

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#34

Post by cwyers »

thebigshane wrote: post #10
sidawson wrote: post #7

First immediate thought: Can you get virus/malware scanners for XBox? Otherwise, it seems an immediate easy target for a new botnet.

Windows has had a sufficient built-in virus/malware scanner for a while now. But, I agree, it's now as easy of a target as other Windows 10 machines out there.

No, because desktop and server Windows 10 machines have to be compatible with arbitrary older binaries that were written against the Win32 API. The Xbox One version of Windows 10 can leave out the backwards compatible and more easily targeted parts of Windows, and only support UWP apps, which are sandboxed and thus are less exposed to various types of exploits.

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#35

Post by [deleted] »

dingo_bat wrote: post #27

I don't like the Universal apps or whatever they're calling them this month. They are limited, slow, crashy and buggy. They regularly just disappear after a sleep and wake. I have been left questioning my sanity wondering if I closed Messenger. Also, they are clunky and slow. For example, switch to a desktop with a universal app open and for the duration of the desktop slide animation, the app window will be complete…

[deleted]

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#36

Post by dragontamer »

bigger_cheese wrote: post #29
blackoil wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment has some merit, if we ignore the fact that now same kernel is running across devices, with same subsystems and same applications, with possibility to write one application that works on all. While it is difficult to write UI to scale across screen size and input types, it is possible to build responsive UIs and people are doing so.

>"with possibility to write one application that works on all" I'm not sure this is such a good thing. Maybe I'm in the minority but my phone and my desktop OS have vastly different use cases and I'd expect apps running on each of them to be different. I'm not interested in a converging UI. I want a user experience tailored to the platform I'm running the app on. I'd rather a solid desktop experience then having to p…

> I'm not sure this is such a good thing. Maybe I'm in the minority but my phone and my desktop OS have vastly different use cases and I'd expect apps running on each of them to be different.

But why should they be programmed different?

You can create XAML forms that are optimized for each platform. But why would you want to rewrite your code to adapt to the different GUIs?

Won't it just be easier, as a developer, to create a singular platform with two XAML (one for small screens, one for large screens) that share the same codebase?

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#37

Post by yuhong »

nhebb wrote: post #28
userbinator wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a long-time Win32 programmer (over a decade), I can safely say that the vast majority of existing applications still remain (for the time being) forward-compatible. Here's some examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOj-bAZBhnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRfn4M5DXTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqFWuNmWbHk The reasons people hold off on "upgrading" Windows versions is not mainly because of compatibility…

The deprecation of SHA-1 is an issue, though. Timestamps after January 1, 2016 must be SHA-256, and SHA-1 signed files will be blocked after January 1, 2017. However, Microsoft has blogged that they may block them starting this June. Pre-Win7 systems don't recognize SHA-256, so you have to dual sign the files if you want backward compatibility. Except, MSI files can't be dual signed. I'm also finding that more Win7 u…

You can sign with a SHA1 hash but a SHA256 certificate, and have it work on unpatched Win7 and even Vista SP2 with a hotfix installed (to fix a minor problem).

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#38

Post by WireWrap »

userbinator wrote: post #16
sidawson wrote: post #7

First immediate thought: Can you get virus/malware scanners for XBox? Otherwise, it seems an immediate easy target for a new botnet.

Upon consideration, I'd consider the existence of viruses/malware for a platform is actually a good thing, as it's a sign of openness. If there isn't, it's most likely because there is a central authority deciding what you can and cannot do on the platform.

And if someone else controls what you can and cannot do on the platform, the platform really isn't secure from your point of view. This is especially true when that someone not only has that control but also has access to your activities, metadata, data, PII, etc through cloud based applications and features, telemetry, central store registration/purchases, etc.

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#39

Post by piyush_soni »

userbinator wrote: post #17
Maarten88 wrote: post #9

Operation successful, patient dead... It's kind of tragic that much of this effort may never pay off: in the process of merging platforms and restructuring API's (that started with Vista and is still going) Microsoft lost the connection to many of its developers, who went to build Web, iOS and Android apps. WPF, Silverlight, WinRT, XAML, UWP: there were too many changes, rewrites and deprecations. Windows Phone, bril…

As a long-time Win32 programmer (over a decade), I can safely say that the vast majority of existing applications still remain (for the time being) forward-compatible. Here's some examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOj-bAZBhnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRfn4M5DXTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqFWuNmWbHk The reasons people hold off on "upgrading" Windows versions is not mainly because of compatibility…

That's great! I didn't know about it. Would anyone happen to know how does it compare with the applications on Linux? Are they similarly forward compatible?

Re: How Windows Everywhere finally happened

#40

Post by bitmapbrother »

I must have missed something because last time I checked it was still on the desktop, a failed phone platform and a game console with an installed base of less than 30 million. Meanwhile Android is everywhere from phones, tablets, desktops, cars, TV's and numerous IoT devices.
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