Re: All about margin
"Third party developers would be wise to avoid participating in their war, playing in their rigged game."
I came to that conclusion with the ".Not" initiative back in the early noughties... that MS was trying to corner the market and provide "one login for the internet" and generate a kind of "toll booth". That eventually turned into a bloated, monolithic set of libraries, and an inefficient layer between the appLICATION and the operating system.
Well, that "one login" came BACK like a zombie, as the new "Microsoft Logon" complete with a privacy violating EULA. That ties directly in with "the Store" and potentially tracks EVERYTHING you do (read the EULA, it's in there).
The trend is obvious, the goal is obvious, and Ballmer's infamous "Developers Developers Developers Developers" ape dance [I saw this, live] means NOTHING any more. It's not about 3rd party developers making Windows successful. It's about rounding them up and FORCING them into this "new model".
NOT participating is the only way to go. I continue using Windows 7 dev tools, target XP, and *REFUSE* to use ".Net". [in fact, an MFC application can be ported to Linux and even Mac using wxWidgets, which is similar enough to make the overall process REASONABLE].
Biting the hand that feeds IT
