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Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#501

Post by tonyedgecombe »

emodendroket wrote: post #473
WorldMaker wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the evolutionary path connecting WPF and "this WinRT stuff" is extremely clear and if you've built WPF you can build UWP. UWP .NET/XAML is great to work with if you know WPF, it's truly a successor to WPF in every way. (It'll be even better soon [as in next month] thanks to .NET Standard 2.0.)

That may be so, but WinRT comes with a bunch of limitations, so there isn't really a no-brainer choice for application development, and also, considering how deeply it's associated with the unpopular Windows Store app and Windows phone, who wants to throw in their lot with it? Frankly it hasn't seemed worth investing that much time into any of them and I pretty much just end up reaching for yet another WinForms MVP a…

I'm still maintaining a WinForms app, the only problem I've had is dealing with high dpi displays is really messy.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#503

Post by Buttes »

itsmenotyou wrote: post #30

I was working in Microsoft about 5 years ago and Satya's not lying when they say they tried everything to incentivise app developers. It was a big focus of the company at the time. For keystone apps they tried to partner with developers doing most of the work for them. For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc. But nothing was enough to get over the pr…

It's almost like if you shit on developers for a decade people don't wanna bother with your new platform.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#504

Post by tonyedgecombe »

megaman22 wrote: post #440
fpig wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what your beef with Windows as a client OS is but if you're saying that the UI should be dumbed down, remember how the attempt to do so with Win8 backfired and that Microsoft quickly reverted most of those changes in Win8.1. As the older generation is dying off / retiring, the percentage of people who have been using a computer for a long time has increased immensely, the "secretary who can't figure out…

Increasingly, I'm having trouble with interns who don't know basic computer interface paradigms because they've never used real desktop operating systems, just a ton of phones and tablets.

They know how to send me screenshots taken with their smartphones.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#505

Post by HillaryBriss »

thomasz wrote: post #413
HillaryBriss wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but marketing was always a core M$ strength. it's been a standard criticism of the company for a very long time.

They were great at getting their OS preinstalled on nearly every PC. They were really good at backwards compatibility, and they were absolutely ruthless against their competition. But they always, always sucked at marketing.

you don't view "getting their OS preinstalled on nearly every PC" as marketing?

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#506

Post by pjmlp »

dc443 wrote: post #472
pjmlp wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it a few more OS releases and Android will be the only one supporting GL.

Would Apple really drop OpenGL? They are smarter than that... They could do it, though. They could.

They already re-wrote most all relevant graphics APIs including the macOS compositor to use Metal as backend.

All major middleware engines already support Metal as well, and relevant companies like Adobe are using it as well.

Even if they don't officially drop GL, they could just leave it on life support, similarly to Carbon APIs.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#508

Post by cesarb »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #486
executesorder66 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean that literally. As an example see this [0] discussion from a few days ago. Not involving microsoft, but the guy literally gave up millions just because of morals. The principal is the same. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15372048

My surprise wasn't at the fact that someone would give up money due to morals; my surprise was at the fact that helping Microsoft (or putting ads in software, in VLC's case) would be considered a moral wrong. That sounds like quite an exaggeration to me. Microsoft has done a lot of good things too, and so have ads. The fact that they have negative aspects doesn't mean anything less than 90 degrees away from their dir…

In VLC's case, it's a question of trust. The users of VLC trust the developer to not put ads on that software; it's breaking that trust that would be the moral wrong, not necessarily the ads.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#509

Post by lloeki »

mpweiher wrote: post #400
limeblack wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that at no point had even a single feature that wasn't available better on iOS and Android According to the dates[0] I found online says Windows was the first to have a feature that would automatically connect to your cellular connection if the Wifi didn't work. Most consumers don't care but it is something I was surprised iPhones[1] and Android[2] didn't have at least at the time. In addition continuum is unique/b…

> first to have a feature that would automatically connect to your cellular connection if the Wifi didn't work. Huh? Maybe my memory if failing me, but that's how networking on iOS always worked.

Previously to iOS 9 if you had a solid WiFi connection but were stuck in the LAN for some reason (broken DNS or captive portal, no WAN connection, broken route or whatever not affecting the LAN segment) you were toast and had to turn WiFi off. WiFi Assist solves that.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#510

Post by WorldMaker »

emodendroket wrote: post #473
WorldMaker wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the evolutionary path connecting WPF and "this WinRT stuff" is extremely clear and if you've built WPF you can build UWP. UWP .NET/XAML is great to work with if you know WPF, it's truly a successor to WPF in every way. (It'll be even better soon [as in next month] thanks to .NET Standard 2.0.)

That may be so, but WinRT comes with a bunch of limitations, so there isn't really a no-brainer choice for application development, and also, considering how deeply it's associated with the unpopular Windows Store app and Windows phone, who wants to throw in their lot with it? Frankly it hasn't seemed worth investing that much time into any of them and I pretty much just end up reaching for yet another WinForms MVP a…

Limitations change as API priorities shift. The platform has grown over time. Some inherent limitations are useful (to be a medium to creativity, to the user's control over their system overriding a developer's narcissism, to the idea that security and reliability are worth engineering for), and yes, unlikely to disappear entirely.

I can't dispute the unpopularity of Windows Phone, but from what I hear the Windows Store is fairly successful in Windows 10. Many consumers use it to install apps, which is a judge of popularity. However, if by popularity you instead mean sentiment, then I get the impression that currently most people are ambivalent about the Store in so far as it is a pragmatic tool that people neither love nor hate, just as most people neither love nor hate their toaster so long as it toasts. (Certainly there are haters, but volume of their voices is not necessarily an indication of their size/number/consumer spending activity per the first definition of a popularity, just a reminder of the passion with which they feel their sentiment.)

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