micro-shaft just wants a tollbooth for developers
"Unfortunately for Microsoft, developers did not rush to build Store apps, and users continued primarily to run old-style desktop applications, because that was why they used Windows."
That, AND that "the METRO" interface is FLUGLY (flat,ugly), WAY too fat-finger friendly, and reminds me of child-drawn art (and not in a good way). So why should people WANT to use something ugly? (It's bad for the psyche)
But "the ugly" isn't the MAIN reason "the Store" isn't being used: "The Store" is just a TOLLBOOTH for developers, and there's no POSSIBLE 'marketing advantage' for putting "yours too" into a ginormous pile filled with zillions of existing [CR]apps, ones not easily distinguished from those few things that are actually USEFUL.
"Microsoft's approach now is to make the AppX installation files used by the UWP standard for all kinds of Windows applications. In some ways it is the next generation of Windows Installer."
i.e. pay a toll to distribute your application, particularly BAD for shareware and freeware applications, and place them into a ginormous monolithic "store" that's already "full of [CR]apps". I suppose some form of 'payola' comes next so that your 'app(sic)' gets some form of 'search priority' over the next guy... (self-slap for giving Microsoft that idea)
So instead, you can create an 'AppX' that you can deploy EITHER through "the Store" _OR_ from your own thingy? What advantage is THAT ?
"Provided [that] an AppX has been signed with a trusted digital certificate"
Oh, a DIGITAL CERTIFICATE - that you have to BUY from some "Partner" of Microsoft. Right. YET ANOTHER "tollbooth" to discourage open source and independent developers. Device drivers having to have this (since Vista) is BAD ENOUGH ALREADY. But *NOW* the APPLICATIONS THEMSELVES?
What ever happened to "Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers"??? (run over after being placed under the bus)
And then, there's this: "'You never have to write an installer ever again,' said Sheehan."
I already WROTE one, so why do I need an INFERIOR model to take its place? And why put my appLICATION into "the STORE" where it's buried in a big pile of [shaving cream]?
You generally do not have to do much for an installer anyway, _IF_ you statically link, don't use ".Not", and do some kind of very simple version control. Or if you're me, you already WROTE one, over a decade ago. Now, if your version of an application is 34 "redistributable shared component" DLLs of various makes and models, slapped together with a single "glue" executable, then maybe you might want this... because *THAT* sounds a LOT like one of those "the Store" 'apps(sic)' to me.
So, looks like Micro-shaft needs to scrape revenue from EVERY APPLICATION INSTALL in addition to annual subscriptions. And they think we're just going to ACCEPT THIS?