cheesyking wrote:Why do you keep mentioning Google? Sure they have the Play store but there's nothing stopping any android owner from side loading their own apps or even installing another app store... just as Win8 x86 can do but Win8 RT users can't.
Yes, but the word "app" is a little different in that analogy, isn't it?
Every program on Android is an app, whereas not every program on Windows is an "app," right?
You already can "side-load" programs on Windows 8, just not a specific type of program known as an "Windows 8 style App."
As to installing another "app" store, gee, does Steam no longer work on Windows 8? And, to hark back to your discussion of "side-loading," umm,
can I side-load Half-life 2? No? Looks like I should be talking about Valve too, shouldn't I?
Does an exception like the "Windows 8 style App" exist on the Android platform? I don't really know, but the concept is much more similar than it is different. People would rather just hate on Windows 8 and Microsoft rather than face the fact they're just following the trend.
Furthermore, I guess you didn't read PixelArmy's link. You can't really make an app outside of the app store, but the entirety of the WinRT API isn't at all locked down.
If you want to make a program on Windows, you still can. It just can't be a "Windows 8 style app" without Microsoft's approval and distribution. In a way, this makes sense. It's a seal of quality and better guarantee of security.
You can act like such things don't matter, but that's
exactly why Microsoft now recommends that users disable the earlier incarnation of the app idea on on the window platform: gadgets.
Does it even occur to you that perhaps they're doing it right this time but that there are trade-offs? Trade-offs that many users are more than willing to accept? Trade-offs that their competitors have already made to the acclaim (and sales!) of tens of millions?