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Comment by kaszanka | Hacker News Reader

You will be able to install the software you want on the computer you own without going through some corporation's central "store"? The fact that this is surprising or noteworthy is just sad.

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If APKs were normal Windows executables I'd agree with you. But given that they're not, there's not really an expectation that they'd just work.

Exactly—also given that side loading was, for a brief moment, a Windows Enterprise-only feature, if only for Metro apps.

What does the fact that they are not PE exes have to do with expectations about sideloading? Would you not expect to be able to side load a .jar either?

Microsoft previously disabled side loading of Metro apps. This happened in the Windows 8 era. You either had to purchase a side-loading key (per machine) or use Windows Enterprise.

My memory of the details is fading, thankfully, but I think side loading was disabled for 8.0 and 8.1 (without a key), and the restrictions were removed or relaxed in 8.2.

Parent was talking about side loading without store, not that Android Apps work on Windows. So it shouldn't be anything special to install whatever file format you want on Windows regardless the source.

That's absolutely not the same thing. I can download APK files all day on just about any operating system I want. That isn't equivalent to "installing" them.

It's not about the file type but the file source. On Windows the source of file to install bis irrelevant, so side loading is not a feature. So why is new that you can install files that are not from a store? Install APK? That's new. Sideload a program? Not new, it's windows standard.

Here some news for you. You can even side load Exe files and MSI files. See, nothing special. APK yes, side loading no.

Side loading is a term that in the context of Android applications is well understood to be installing android applications that are not on the Play Store. It is not a synonym for downloading files to your computer system nor is it a synonym for moving files between two devices.

>It is not a synonym for downloading files to your computer system nor is it a synonym for moving files between two devices

Actually, it is:

"Sideloading describes the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading

Additionally side loading refers to mobile devices not desktop PCs.

Yes, I suppose you absolutely can refute my point if you choose to discard the first half of my statement which specifies the scope.

Words can have different meanings under different contexts, and I'm providing you that context, which is important for understanding what people are talking about here. Please stop being obtuse.

You can just specify the scope as you like. It's about Windows mot about Android. Just because APK is an Android format doesn't change the context to Android.

Is it, or is not, possible to run arbitrary APK-formatted applications without regard for code signing or any app store[1]? If so, sideloading is not a thing, that's just the normal way to use a application[0]. If not, the operating system is malicious, and kaszanka's complaint about that fact stands.

0: Provided it runs on your OS in the first place, obviously; adding support for APKs in general is a meaningful feature, in the same way as wine adding support for EXEs on linux.

1: In the same windows has been able run arbitrary EXEs since... well the entire time it's existed, give or take incremental extensions and revisions of the file format.

They are not normal executables, but they sure are normal Android executables. I don't see how that changes the expectations about being able to execute them.

"Normal" (as in most common) means Google Play Store native apps. That's a lot of functionality to shim.

Sure. And 'normal' ELF executables link against libc and will not work if it's missing. If you want to argue quality-of-implementation[0] issues, go right ahead, but that's not the same problem as requiring code signing/app store.

0: ie, that windows doesn't really support APKs because it doesn't provide the APIs needed for them to work properly

I'm not sure ownership applies to today's software. When you buy it and get security updates for some time - sure, but when you get new features in mandatory updates it washes out what the actual product is. Maybe you don't want new features? Best you can do with Windows 10 is postpone updates for 35 days.

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