Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
531–540 of 724 posts
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#532LOOK AT THIS. https://www.richestpeopleonearth.com/
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#533Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest frustration, to me, is that WPF was basically left on the vine while they pursued this WinRT stuff.
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.)
The problem with UWP is that it requires Win10. This makes it a no-go for vast majority of developers targeting desktop Windows, given that Win7 is still dominant, and will be for a while to come.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
You couldn't just port from WPF to Silverlight. They took away tons of features. WinRT was even worse. No idea about UWP but I don't care anymore.
That's why I mentioned semver. APIs change all the time, backwards compatibility gets broken. Yes, conversions weren't always straight forward, but often were possible , and there was an evolutionary arc to it all, and a migration story to follow, even when sometimes that story was a bit rougher than anyone wanted.
They couldn't have done that because these technologies are not exactly for the same things and don't have the same features.
Silverlight was mainly for apps embedded in the browser. It was very limited compared to WPF and not meant to replace it.
Similarly, Metro was not meant to replace WPF. It was extremely limited in what you can do. You couldn't build serious desktop apps with that.
The fact that all those technologies use XAML does not mean they're newer versions of the same thing. The difference in APIs is not what matters, it's the difference in what they can actually do and how that makes them different.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 St…
> from what I hear the Windows Store is fairly successful in Windows 10.
Here's one data point for you. Windows Store used to have an official Kindle app. It doesn't since the end of last year, because Amazon basically said they don't see the return on that investment. They now recommend their desktop Win32 app if you want to read Kindle books on Windows.
Needless to say, iOS and Android do have well-supported Kindle apps.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It doesn’t matter. Yeah, I remember this argument. It depends on whether it benefits Apple or not. For example, when Apple moved off of Google for it's mapping, people were saying that this was just the first iteration, the first version of Maps, when it clearly wasn't, and that the fact that it lost features and information that were there before, people were okay with it because it was Apple's first map software…
It's not hard to see why Apple launching one iPhone in America only, a full decade ago, doesn't matter when the next nine iPhones came out everywhere.
Sure, but why tell me?
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#537I 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…
Microsoft decided that a great way to get apps for their phone would be to make a UI for both desktop and phone and force developers to use it. In a single stroke they alienated all their existing desktop developers while forcing potential phone app developers to have to think about far more complex problems. Their message to developers was that they must learn something new. And so they did. XCode.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#538Earlier 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…
I didn’t say “make iOS”. What I’m saying is that an operating environment built around Office and its functions would be more useful than the cruft built around Windows that is mostly redundant. Windows is a boat anchor on Office.
Why would an OS built around Office be more useful than Windows 10 is currently?
If Microsoft released an update tomorrow that made it into an OS based around Office the user base would riot. "How to prevent windows from updating" would become the most popular google search in history overnight.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#539Earlier 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…
> 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. If the wifi doesn't work, no phone will use it. If the wifi is BAD, that is completely different.
I am implying an inconsistent wifi with speed or LAN issues. The wifi goes down all the time at my house because of Spectrum/time warner cable issues. My iPhone prior to Wifi Assist will use the network at my house if it has a good wifi connection regardless if was broken or just slow.
Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
And Active Directory. I mean, I haven't found another platform yet that allows a sysadmin to control 10,000+ computers at the OS level simultaneously via one checkbox. Clear area for disruption here. But it's IT stuff, so no one wants to touch it because it's not a cool selfie app.
Sysadmins aren't big fans of disruption either. You could build the greatest active-directory replacement in the world and no IT department would touch it with a ten foot pole because it isn't what they're used to.
I built one over ten years ago, and it's true, it's a difficult area to disrupt for these reasons.