News Mature content banned from Windows 8 Marketplace

i'm 34, so i was in the epi centre of the changed with an old enough mind to know the difference. that was a different time and even tho seem to be the same, meaning change is feared, but its defo not. i view this in another way.

change the subject: if u buy a BMW... and then u want to add new tires, and BMW tells you u can only by tires from us, or u can buy ur tires and keep them in the car but they wont work on the car. u wont like that as much since the tires u like is not sold by them, and the only way u gonna get them is if that tire manufacturer has to go through the BMW whoops and pay them to sell their tires through BWM. (hussel?)

which will run most small tire business' out of bussiness and only the big tire companies having the money to sell through BMW. this move is not increasing the potential of the tire business through competition, but reducing the amount of companies that can now sell their tires. and in effect, creating a monopoly, which is for a reason illegal in most countries.

so with that, gabe's view that it could kill the gaming and big chunk of the pc industry is valid and not from a fearful view. as is mine and many others. closed platforms is at its core counter intuitive to growth where open source is the life blood of the pc user.

 

Sticking with that analogy: if BMW cars can only use BMW (approved) tires, wipers and other parts, how many customers do you think will end up buying BMWs? Do you think that might influence BMW's decision to make their cars a bit more accessible by third party parts?

Apple has always been closed. Apple software on Apple hardware, which can be repaired or expanded with ideosyncratic Apple-specific parts only. The PC has always been open, and Microsoft has always gone to extraordinarily complicated lengths to make sure that Windows works with any PC, in its most freakishly outlandish configuration possible, with obscure parts from the farthest, darkest corners of Taiwan or Korea. Now, which OS has the dominant market share? Exactly.

Now do you think Microsoft is going to sacrifice that for a closed ecosystem like Apple's? No. Microsoft has always aimed for having its cake and eating it. Not an iOS for mobiles with closed market and a somewhat more open OSX for computers, but a single OS for both, with a closed market and an open market. Apple stands for a smooth, sheltered user experience; Microsoft stands for choice, warts and all. Always has, always will. It is working more towards the smooth, dumbed-down user experience because that is what people want, but it is not forgetting the basis for its success: that it offers an OS for any system, any purpose, any market. Apple stands for prestige and exclusivity; Microsoft stands for everything to everybody.

And just out of cutiosity: just how open do you think the games console market is? And has that stifled it?

 

I mostly agree with you, however:

It depends on the hardware. Laptops have a closed side to them, as it is very difficult to find one without Windows in it. You can try to return the licence, but it is a bureaucratic nightmare with mixed results.

I wonder why the EU fined Microsoft over IE and Windows Media Player, and doesn't do anything about this...

Various degrees of choice if that much, as you can't buy a laptop (and some barebones) with a licence of your choosing, or with no licence at all.
If one takes into account Secureboot, I suspect it's going to be more difficult to see true choice on this regard.
Microsoft is taking baby steps towards becoming Apple, minus the hardware deployment (although, even that might change if Surface is a huge success)-

 

Microsoft stands for choice in terms of what hardware you run it on, and what programs you run on it and where those come from. Of course it does not feel obliged to make it easier for you to not use its products.

 

Indeed, that's the regulators job. However, they don't seem to care about that. IMO one of the consequences of fining Microsoft over IE and WMP was that the EU acknowledged indirectly that PC implies being powered with Windows. That's probably why Microsoft doesn't care that much about paying the EU, adding the browser choice link or making Windows N.

As far as windows 8 "openness" goes, let's wait and see. However, I'm really not optimistic. I suspect that in a few years some of us will be playing a heartfelt violin tune (feel free to add 10 years to the dates), but for the sake of the consumer, let's hope not.

 

I'm sorry but Gabe's view has nothing to do with trying to protect the industry or the 'life blood' of the PC user and has everything to do with him (and Valve) not wanting to have to compete with MS. But they can't just come out and say that because it doesn't look all that great PR-wise; much better to sensationalise the entire situation, claim MS are trying to turn PCs into a closed system and have them look like the bad guy trying to bully the rest of the PC world.

 

Well said!!

Microsoft isn't going anywhere from Desktop....besides if t hat ever does happen I pretty much guarantee you the games developers will know that waaay before we find out and will have already started developing primarily for Linux....whereas right now its kinda done as an after-thought...if at all...I'm pretty sure Gabe has already thought about it.

 

Greetings!

Microsoft already changed the no-mature content rule, now to wait for the decline of the desktop (should take some years).