Signups start at 'Windows Store for Business'

Microsoft's wanted an enterprise app store for ages, but hasn't been able to get one going because one the many messes in Windows 8.x was “side-loading”, a strange Microsoft's method for allowing businesses to install Windows apps en masse to their PC fleets. Now it looks like Redmond's revving a replacement, as a new Windows …

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice Try Microsoft

I really cannot see this working. First, do we really want to trust the beast with our enterprise software? Second, who takes responsibility when bugs/viruses/hidden bots etc attack member's systems? A finally, for now at least, what happens when the mighty ones' cloud systems fail?

Microsoft has to realise that this is not like Google's play store with lot's of little apps performing one-off tasks like logging your position and sending a text; this is BIG stuff. Would you like your bank to be using stuff it found on an app store? Look at VW's has problems with a software "feature" in it's ECU. That is small potatoes compared to a large scale, cross continent, plc debacle with Microsoft saying "it wasn't our fault" or "we were making the system a more immersive experience.".

Windows 10 is looking more like a part of Microsoft's corporate bot every day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nice Try Microsoft

I dunno, sounds like a vast improvement on "Run Advertised Programs"

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Nice Try Microsoft

Could work, though. If the decision which software to buy is made by the management alone (i.e. without even considering any input by their own IT people or, heaven forbid, the grunts who have to use the stuff to get stuff done) - need I go on? Been there, done that, didn't even get a teeshirt to show for it.

[Chairo]

One more nail in the coffin...

of legacy installers.

I fear it's just a matter of time until the possibility of installing software without Microsoft's appstore is taken away in Windows 10. Or is there any official commitment from Microsoft to keep it?

Maybe I'm paranoid, but unfortunately the paranoid are far too often right, lately.

[Test Man]

Re: One more nail in the coffin...

The fact that Microsoft had to dial back the whole promotion of the "Metro" interface and "Windows Store" apps, and go back to the Desktop as the default with Win32 apps front-and-center, pretty much shows that Win32 won't be going anywhere.

So yeah, you're paranoid.

[Roland6]

Re: One more nail in the coffin...

Disagree. Yes MS have dialled back, but they haven't totally removed it - something we've seen before. Also this isn't the first announcement of a store for business. So I would read this as being a restatement of MS's direction of travel, so don't expect it to go away; MS desperately wants to build it's own version(s) of the walled garden.

"Windows Store for Business" does have a logic to it. Firstly, if you've gone all cloudy and deployed Office 365 etc. then the Store becomes a way of adding third-party stuff into your cloud.

Likewise, if you are running System Center and managing your MS Updates, it makes sense to also bring third-party software into the same update distribution system (and earn MS a small commission on the transaction and any future updates...). But then I do note that MS (currently) aren't really talking about System Center, but about end users going to the store and directly downloading stuff, so perhaps the initial market isn't enterprise but those who don't run System Center ie. SME.

[Anonymous Coward]

MSFT's strategy

Say evil, do evil, celebrate evil. Yep, they're evil!

That said, Sharon in Account's says she wants Windows 7 and Excel back instead of Linux Mint and Libre Office. OMG! She has joined the evil ones!

[azaks]

conspiracy theories aside...

...the costs of maintaining in-house software provisioning / repair / licensing systems that actually work well are pretty high and haven't changed that much in a decade. As are the costs of packaging apps and their updates for distribution by these systems. I can see this being very attractive to businesses of all sizes, as long as it lives up to its promises. By ensuring that apps are signed, you can basically outsource this task to anyone.