Universal Woe Platform: Microsoft shows UWP support – by yanking ad monetisation Welcome to the first Microsoft roundup of February 2020, the month after the plug was finally pulled on Windows 7. There remains, however, plenty left for Redmond to put the boot into, from Windows 10 Insider builds to poor old UWP. Microsoft blesses UWP devs once again, this time by yanking ad monetisation "Jazz isn't dead. …
" but Win32 will always be there."
Don't be so sure. MS has done everything ELSE in a way to try and KILL OFF the Win32 API usage, to get developers to jump on a bandwagon of "Microsoft-Only New/Shiny" when it comes to development.
It's fortunate that the real trend in windows development has remained on Win32. You can still target applications to Windows 7 or even XP with it. So from a DEVELOPER'S perspective, it's not going away. But Micro-shaft... well, I'm sure they WANT it to!!!
That is part of the problem. Win32 is a kludge from a simpler time, where security wasn't such an issue.
Microsoft need to retire Win32 in order to move forward into a secure, Internet connected world, but there is just too much legacy for that to happen and as long as Win32 is not depricated, developers will stick with it as the lowest common denominator.
But they gave up on the replacements before they matured enough to be a worthwhile replacement for developers. Take up was slow, so Microsoft lost interest and moved onto the "next big thing", which wasn't fully developed, so didn't get much traction and so on.
They need to get one replacement to be fully featured, then depricate Win32 into running in HyperV sandboxes and isolate them from the core, secure OS. But that is a huge step and will upset users and developers alike.
It is a catch-22 situation for Microsoft. As long as they have a legacy system, people won't move "into the future" and if they don't have a legacy system, people won't use their products, because none of the irreplaceable legacy software works on it...
The problem is, if Win32 stops working, the somewhere to go is Windows 7... The software cannot be replaced, it runs millions of Euros worth of industrial machinery. There is no upgrade to anything that will work on Windows 10, macOS or Linux.
Getting software that works on Windows 10 means dumping millions of Euros of industrial machinery and replacing it with new machinery, just because Windows 10... Ain't going to happen.
But NOT a fix the crappy replacement search in File Explorer! That thing is brain dead - I wish they'd bring back the one from Windows 7 which, at least, knows when you are wanting to search by modified date and pops up a handy calendar. Even in W10 (prior to 1909) the calendar is a bit finicky about opening. But 1909 and Insider - UGH!
You just go on like that, Microsoft, and you might find one day that developers have decided that it is no longer viable for them to continue developing on your platform.
So please do keep on looking at the short term. What could possibly go wrong ?
Well, at the very least, Lucy won't let Charlie Brown kick the football, evar. So when Micro-shaft acts like Lucy and holds the ball for us developers to kick, we need to remember the past with its uncertainty and potential horror, and say "no thanks".
So long as they don't try to restrict access to or remove Win32, targeting the old-school Win32 API should be "acceptable".
But if THAT goes away, I wonder if Wine development would SUDDENLY increase enough to make it a VIABLE replacement for Windows? Micro-shaft CAN shoot themselves in the foot enough times to get something *like* that to happen. Question is, at what point would that be?
Dear web developers,
If this occupation is not profitable why not move to some other fields where money is instead of choking us with ads ?
I strongly believe it is morally wrong to use "developers must pay their bills" mantra as an excuse. If you can't offer your service for free, say it clearly and tell us to shove off, OK ?
By the way, it's not me that I'm asking for pretty, amazing, complicated, interacting, engaging and rich websites. You put all those bells and whistles to convince me development is expensive, you turned the web pages into bloatware where more than 50% it's for your nefarious purpose than for providing me a service.
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