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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

"Windows Store apps that browse the web must use HTML and JavaScript engines provided by Windows 10"

Why is this restriction allowed? Isn't this a violation of the browser choice consent decree, or has that expired?

Edit: I see this is "Windows S", which inherits from the failed "Windows RT" the attempt to jam everything into the walled garden of the store. This is unlikely to work and I hope it doesn't; only Apple have succeeded in doing this so far, but a world where every application developer has to give 30% to the platform feudal lord and suffer arbitary restrictions on development is going to have a lot less innovation.

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Windows RT, for the record, was a horrifically missed opportunity for Windows to compete with "low-end" ARM devices.

I use quotes as I much prefer the ARM Chromebooks I've owned over the years to any other computer I've used, regardless of price.

Thin, light, cheap and with battery life for millenia.

Microsoft is trying to address this now with running x86 code on Snapdragons (which may well be too little too late), but at the time it would have been trivial for them to build a basic laptop with a 15" form factor and three full days of battery life. I'd have thrown money at that.

> Microsoft is trying to address this now with running x86 code on Snapdragons (which may well be too little too late)

I disagree. I think it's a fantastic idea. Windows has a lot of legacy software, which I'd guess is mostly closed source.

If you want to have a laptop with all-day battery life, but run the application from your defunct vendor that's x86 only, then this is a great solution.

For Microsoft, it's the best of both worlds. Lower power consumption of ARM and all the backward compatibility of x86, in one piece of (low cost) hardware. The only other ARM productivity OS (IMHO) is Chrome OS, but it's lacking backward compatibility with pretty much everything. Unless you're going to use a Linux chroot, but that's something only power users will do and not at scale.

The potential of this combination (ARM+x86 emulation) is so huge that Intel is threatening Microsoft/Qualcomm over it. [1]

[1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/intel...

Sorry, my comment might have made it seem like I think it's a bad idea.

Absolutely I think it's great for all the reasons stated above, I just think it would have been a lot better if Windows RT either would have had this at the time (I realize it wasn't ready then and must have been a massive job), or would have been less restricted with the advertised caveat that apps would need to be compiled with ARM support - somewhat akin to how Apple managed the whole PowerPC -> Intel transition with universal binaries back in the day.

> Microsoft is trying to address this now with running x86 code on Snapdragons

Is this real Windows or a crippled app store only version?

It's a better version which has discoverable, current API apps, that don't kill your battery and all update at the same time thanks to an app store.

100% this. They will also be treating PWA (progressive web apps) as first class citizens. Same as everyone else.

Honestly, I think if they would just buy Nox (https://www.bignox.com/) and bake it into Windows 10/S as a side channel in the Windows store they would start to control the PC narrative again.

I'm currently on a slick Dell XPS 13, using the linux subsystem _and_ android apps through NOX without issue. This is also my dev machine and I get 9 hours consistently.

Thanks. Using Windows 10 fast ring, PWA support is poor. Opening a pinned site in the taskbar for say, Olark, doesn't highlight the Olark taskbar item, but highlights the Edge item, and starts a bunch of unrelated tabs. Are they going to fix that?

To the best of my knowledge this will be PWAs delivered through the Windows Store. Not for example, Chrome/FireFox/Edge PWAs having better support within Windows.

As to what they'll fix/implement when. I only have my opinion which is - Microsoft has been chasing this dragon for sometime and they love to redefine and confuse terms as they go.

This link is the root of my confirmation bias though -> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/142649/microsoft...

> Isn't this a violation of the browser choice consent decree, or has that expired?

It's expired (sadly, and rather than the better option which would have been that it should apply to all operating systems).

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