No, I was referring to RT in the sense of the platform/API not RT the OS. Confusing? Welcome to Microsoft marketing...dr_st wrote:The RT is supposed to be sandboxed and more secure. I can see why they want to go that way, since the primary complaint against Windows-based OSes has always been that they are not as stable as Linux/Mac. Justified or not, dunno.
AFAIK they take a cut from sales via the store, but they don't exclude third party purchase/payment options (i.e. in-app purchases). So it'd possible to dodge giving them a percentage if you're willing to do the leg work of creating your own sales mechanism. You'll still have to use their distribution infrastructure, of course, but you'll at least be able to sell, say, the pieces of a software suite yourself.They could have done it years ago. It's been over a decade that they have changed from the "upstart" as you put it to an established company, almost a monopoly. In all this time they never tried to get excessive control, and by not doing so, they actually got more control than anyone else (and in the process caught less "hate" from tech-savvy people than companies like Apple). I wouldn't be trying to change that, if I were them.
So I think the problem with Microsoft is that the people who got them there in the first place have either left or were incompetent and just in the right place at the right time (ex: Ballmer). As a result, everyone making the big decisions there has never known anything *but* dominance. In their minds, customers will still buy Microsoft because they have to, not because they want to. The developers will still develop for Windows because it's Windows and they have to, not because it's the better platform. Of course we're rapidly reaching a day when that's no longer the case, but I don't think that's really set in yet as far as the management is concerned. Keep in mind, this is the same management that only saw the iPhone getting a point or two in market share some five years back. The idea that a good toolchain and a pleasant API would help Apple as much as it did completely sailed over their heads.






