Win10 and it's (likely) XP/7 popularity level is a dark horse for native apps, and looming blow for the webapp movement. Which I believe has gotten a very long free-pass thanks to the most popular platform not having a cohesive appstore ready (on a popular OS).
Win8 IMO is almost irrelevant, the marketshare isn't there to add a MS Store option for me or many others. The corporations haven't and won't hop on. Everyone is (IMO rightly) focused on iOS/Android/web at the moment. Agreed on MSIs, but I'd add the customizable corporate frontend stores should be more powerful and slick than the current method (same appstore for MS desktop and mobile). It's possible once enterprise moves to the MS Store that MS mobile devices make major inroads.
For consumers, I think they'll rejoice at Win10, upgrade to it and by default go to the MS Store for security reasons alone. Not to mention auto-updates, same apps as on MS mobile etc.
I'm not pro-MS, I'm actually anti-all-for-profits and a Mozilla fanboy. I just disagree with Eich on a bytecode for the web, he blew it as far as the web being the prime delivery mechanism for apps is concerned. The webstack sucks, it had to go. Too late now.
I understand my view isn't popular at the moment. Especially among webdevs who are most likely to be reading this HN post. Those people have invested heavily in the webapp dream with their time, skills and careers. Anything to the contrary that it was a great idea is going to get downvoted. Regardless, I think this is an accurate reading of the foreseeable future.
Isn't half of newer windows apps/widgets are just html wrappers, something similar to smart desktop or how they called it in win95/98? Haven't used windows for longer than it needs to switch on IE8 for more than 2 years.
Your prediction relies on a windows app store somehow making the web irrelevant which is amazingly unlikely and counter to every trend of the last 20 years. I suspect you have some emotional investment in the Microsoft ecosystem that is coloring your perspective.
My prediction is that your prediction is dead wrong. Nothing will stop the web, certainly not your app store dystopia, and certainly not the way Microsoft would run it.
I never spoke in absolutes, as you are. I said it was a blow to the webapp movement. Webapp movement defined here as a universal application deployment.
Presuming about my intentions or feelings towards the MS ecosystem is ridiculous. I had courses on VB6 in the late 90s, that's the closest and most exposure I've ever had to their ecosystem. I do wish I knew C# now that .Net is merging with Mono though. I see no shame in that. I don't hate MS anymore than I do Google, Apple, Oracle or ANY for-profit. For-profit means not-in-my-best-interests.
"Nothing will stop the web" sounds way too much like the idiotic quote, "always bet on JS". I'm not betting on JS with Eich, but I'm not against the web. Certainly my HN post of what I think will happen, won't affect that outcome.
I'm with (I believe) most everyone in supporting webapps being the universal delivery mechanism for apps in the future. Where did I say I wasn't? I also think there was a limited window of opportunity for this to take off. That window roughly being 2004-2014. Today, native apps are still on top.
Webapps will continue on in some form. But with Apple and Google already having appstores, will a popular version of Windows with an appstore be the closing of that door? That door being defined as webapps becoming the dominant application delivery platform. Yes, I think so.
But as of today, I fully believe webapps were/are hobbled during their glory years by the webstack, the web needed a bytecode.
If someone merely looking at circumstances and speaking on them bothers you so much, you are likely someone who speaks only to persuade others to your viewpoint. I'm not trying to persuade you and don't care where you stand. Frankly, I'm more than likely aligned with your views on webapps. I just personally find the webstack inconducive with the goal.
Action needed to be taken at a high level (likely at Mozilla, to make the webstack legacy and introduce a new bytecode standard), in a window of opportunity while the last major player (MS) was essentially out of the appstore business. I don't see it happening in time now. We'll see, but I predict it is you who has an emotional investment in the webstack.
Win8 IMO is almost irrelevant, the marketshare isn't there to add a MS Store option for me or many others. The corporations haven't and won't hop on. Everyone is (IMO rightly) focused on iOS/Android/web at the moment. Agreed on MSIs, but I'd add the customizable corporate frontend stores should be more powerful and slick than the current method (same appstore for MS desktop and mobile). It's possible once enterprise moves to the MS Store that MS mobile devices make major inroads. For consumers, I think they'll rejoice at Win10, upgrade to it and by default go to the MS Store for security reasons alone. Not to mention auto-updates, same apps as on MS mobile etc.
I'm not pro-MS, I'm actually anti-all-for-profits and a Mozilla fanboy. I just disagree with Eich on a bytecode for the web, he blew it as far as the web being the prime delivery mechanism for apps is concerned. The webstack sucks, it had to go. Too late now.
I understand my view isn't popular at the moment. Especially among webdevs who are most likely to be reading this HN post. Those people have invested heavily in the webapp dream with their time, skills and careers. Anything to the contrary that it was a great idea is going to get downvoted. Regardless, I think this is an accurate reading of the foreseeable future.