A first look at the Windows 10 universal app platform

[wraith808]

http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/03/02/a-first-look-at-the-windows-10-universal-app-platform/

Earlier today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I provided developers a first look at the Windows 10 developer platform strategy and universal app platform. I encourage you to tune in to our Build conference in April for the full story.

Windows 10 represents the culmination of our platform convergence journey with Windows now running on a single, unified Windows core. This convergence enables one app to run on every Windows device – on the phone in your pocket, the tablet or laptop in your bag, the PC on your desk, and the Xbox console in your living room. And that’s not even mentioning all the new devices being added to the Windows family, including the HoloLens, Surface Hub, and IoT devices like the Raspberry Pi 2. All these Windows devices will now access one Store for app acquisition, distribution and update.

For APIs specific to a given device family (e.g. a phone dialer), the universal platform also provides an easy way to light up that functionality within an app without having to resort to using conditional compiler flags.

Today I’ll briefly touch on how this new platform delivers on the three platform goals I discussed in January:

Driving scale through reach across device type
Delivering unique experiences
Maximizing developer investments
You can expect us to go into all of the universal platform technical details at Build.

More at link.

[brahman]

Mmmhh, I just wrote in this thread before I saw your post:

"I think Windows will gain ground in the tablet and phone market big times. Maybe we'll get a deja vu of the netbook development: The first ones came out with a specially adapted Linux distro, then Windows seriously started entering the game and within a short time you could barely even find the Linux ones. We'll see...

People report good things about the Win 8.1 on tablets though, and I think Win 10 will clinch the deal and Android's dominance will abate a bit. MS gives out the Win 8.1 Bing for tablets version almost free, so there is no more cost advantage for Android, but you'll get a task centered highly usable Win operating system with nearly seamless usability from desktop PC to notebook to tablet to phone.

I think it may work out for MS that way ...   (and I am writing this even though I am a big fan of Android)

Now the small investment with which one can obtain Android apps could work against it: My 100+ Dollar investment in apps versus the 10,000+ $ investment in software in the last thirty years won't be too much of an incentive to stay with Android (but it would be a strong discouragement to change to anything Apple)."

Now let's just hope that MS doesn't muck up this thing by continuing their privacy violation policy.

Then Windows 10 could become a usable cross hardware platform OS which people can trust and use on any device with a minimal learning curve.

[brahman]

Just now I read this article:

http://infrastructuretechnologypros.com/microsoft-windows-10-paradigm-shift-toward-simplicity-empowerment/

which describes Windows 10 as

"Microsoft’s next big shift is to move all Windows users to a common, cloud-delivered operating system".

I am wondering if it wouldn't be better to remain with Windows 7 (which I use) or 8.1, because I don't want to use the cloud - period.

I want all my information and preferences to stay on my local device, f.e. I have disabled all syncing in Android and use Xprivacy so that apps do not have access to my private contacts etc. information.

[Innuendo]

I want all my information and preferences to stay on my local device, f.e. I have disabled all syncing in Android and use Xprivacy so that apps do not have access to my private contacts etc. information.

XPrivacy isn't as good as it used to be:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2ap3ag/new_library_bypasses_most_xprivacy_restrictions/

XPrivacy's author has verified this is true & while XPrivacy could be rewritten to prevent the vulnerability he's says it is too monumental a task for him to do alone.

The disturbing part is that if an app bypasses XPrivacy there is no way for the user to be able to tell.

[MilesAhead]

Just now I read this article:

http://infrastructuretechnologypros.com/microsoft-windows-10-paradigm-shift-toward-simplicity-empowerment/

which describes Windows 10 as

"Microsoft’s next big shift is to move all Windows users to a common, cloud-delivered operating system".

I am wondering if it wouldn't be better to remain with Windows 7 (which I use) or 8.1, because I don't want to use the cloud - period.

I want all my information and preferences to stay on my local device, f.e. I have disabled all syncing in Android and use Xprivacy so that apps do not have access to my private contacts etc. information.

The funny thing is the reason Microsoft existed in the first place was that people could use a computer on their desktop instead of just a dumb terminal.  The system administrator lost total control.  It seems we are going full circle.  I fear we are headed toward a fraction of a cent being tallied on your bill every time a Remote Procedure Call goes to the cloud for processing.  Kaching!!