Just to be fair, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are getting pretty evil these days too (just to demonstrate I'm not picking on Microsoft just to be picking on Microsoft) but I never thought MicrosoftFT would be going straight back to its old evil ways. I thought they changed... haha...PC is what MADE Microsoft what it is today, and now after all this time this is how MicrosoftFT gives thanks to its customer base by shafting us? (more on this later below... I'll explain in a second)There parallels are astounding.....Reading PMDG's rsrandazzo opinion on FLIGHT made me really dissappointed in both FLIGHT and Microsoft after confirming the suspicions that I've had all along...( http://forum.avsim.n...ghts-on-flight/ )Back then I was called a "troll" or FLIGHT "hater"... but then again... somehow "I TOLD YOU SO" just doesn't cut it...http://forum.avsim.n...93#entry2140793http://forum.avsim.n...87#entry2140787http://forum.avsim.n...le/page__st__50" By "onerous financial burden" are you implicitly referring to the possibility of a "Games for Windows Live" sort of app store marketplace that takes a 10% to 30% "cut" ?By "creativity strangling restrictions" are you perhaps hinting at the fact that MS FLIGHT will be developed on xbox360 and then ported over to the PC platform... then DRM'd to the hilt and MS will want to sell their own DLC's so they will severely lock-down the FLIGHT from third party addons? I wonder how realistic FLIGHT can possibly be when they canned the ACE team and are now going for MASS appeal, dumbed and watered down kiddie version with training wheels... xbox 360 and kinect controllers, GAMES FOR WINDOWS LIVE, etc etc... what will we be doing? flapping our arms in the living room while watching netflix?"-----What I find alarming is that Microsoft is planning the EXACT same greedy thing for the next version of Windows 8. Windows 8 will also have an "APP STORE" and basically taking a 30% cut from all the PC / Windows platform developers. So for example, Adobe will no longer be allowed to sell its Photoshop products on their own website or at brick and mortal stores like retailers Best Buy or even online on Amazon.com etc... Everything will have to be installed using the built in Windows 8 App Store embedded within the Operating System.Windows 8 App Store will be the only official way to install anything on your computer. And then you can expect prices of software to go up before MicrosoftFT is taking a 30% of everything. It is like a built in SMS/SCCM but tailored towards the residental home lowest common denominator users (just like how Xbox360 is handicapping the progress of gaming) except you are forced to use it and cannot remove.What is so ironic is that it was the OPEN nature of Windows that originally allowed Microsoft to quickly rise above Macintosh and Apple..... Now that MicrosoftFT has basically created two operating systems that can last forever (Windows XP/ Windows 7) it needs new revenue streams because it knows no one in their right mind would go out and upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8... There is ZERO reason to! The ONLY two reasons they anyone would want to upgrade from Windows XP is for gaming because directx10/11 is not supported on XP... and the second reason is for RAM because of the 4GB limitation of 32-bit operating systems like Windows XP. Now that Windows 7 has solved these two problems, why in the name of Buddha would anyone in their reasonable state of mind want to switch from 7 to iPad interface metro copycat Windows 8? Exactly... If I wanted an adriod or an iPad I would up and go GET ONE. I don't need MicrosoftFT borg to convert my Desktop into a smartphone!Office 2010 (another one of Microsoft main monies streams) is "good enough" for the foreseeable future. And by that I mean basically forever.So Microsoft is scared and shaking in its boots and has to resort to greedy desperate tactics to scam more monies off of us average people...So what do they do? They take a playbook from arch enemy Apple and copy their App store idea. But the irony is the whole "app store" concept is ANTI-PC... so in one fell swoop Windows 8 operating system has killed the PC platform, shafted all the loyal windows/pc platform developers, and basically making you pay MicrosoftFT for the privelege of being a prisoner on your own paid and purchased for computer! They want to make the desktop another "tablet" and charge you and developers a premium for nothing at all! This is robbery and thievery and illegal and MicrosoftFT lobbyist probably paid off the FTC/ FCC/etc for them to allow MicrosoftFT to do this kind of bait and switch and stoop this low... MicrosoftFt, in the name of greed, has basically killed Flight simulator in favor for a dummied down sugar coated GAME that forces you to pay for each parcel out land that is outside of HAWAII and pay for every engine on an aircraft that is more than just single engine, even pay for the virtual Aviation fuel within the confines of the GAME. Now Microshaft is basically killing all the PC platform by coming up with this Windows 8 App store crap to shaft all the third party developers that make Microsoft what it was to begin with!Luckly, no one NEEDS FLIGHT, no one NEEDS Windows 8. We can and must all stand up to boycott this evil and vow to never pay a single penny to Microsoft for crappy restrictive trojan horse products again.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by etheris

+1

Everything will have to be installed using the built in Windows 8 App Store embedded within the Operating System.Windows 8 App Store will be the only official way to install anything on your computer.

got a citation for this? nothing i've seen about windows 8 suggests that this is the case at all. it just looks like a new integrated channel for people to sell apps if they want to.cheers-andy crosby

I think it might be an option for developers to reach a large customer base similiar to the app store. Don't think Angry Birds would have been a hit sitting on a Best Buy shelf. Can't see it being a only way of purchasing software as MS does too much business with Governments/DOD to strangle hold them into an app business model.

Just to be fair, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are getting pretty evil these days too (just to demonstrate I'm not picking on Microsoft just to be picking on Microsoft) but I never thought MicrosoftFT would be going straight back to its old evil ways. I thought they changed... haha...Luckly, no one NEEDS FLIGHT, no one NEEDS Windows 8. We can and must all stand up to boycott this evil and vow to never pay a single penny to Microsoft for crappy restrictive trojan horse products again.

If anything Bo, your post is very thought provoking. Makes you wonder where it is all heading.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by ZK-SUH

meh. they're just talking about metro apps in those articles. nothing suggest that x64 app development will be altered or that legacy apps will be rendered inoperable. i guess this is news if you write stuff for windows phones and tablets. cheers,-andy crosby

Why is this discussion in the PMDG General Forum?

Just use Linux. Since we have no voice with these big companies, just vote with your dollar. People in the marketing career field have lost touch with where stuff really comes from. There will always be someone more talented to fill the void left by greedy marketing models.VRTodd

I didnt see anything there that said developers were required to publish their applications through Microsofts app store. Maybe I wasnt looking hard enough

You have interpretered it little wrong. Windows 8 is an OS for all kind of devices. By default it will have apps activated, but you can easy change to classic view. If you run in "app mode" you can only run apps from their store, just like Ipad and Apple today (they take same fee also) but in classic view you can run any application you want. This "app mode" is more for portable devices rather than on your PC.

This is wrong - Win8 has an app store but it is not the only way to install programs. This is just like what MacOS Snow Leopard and Lion have, nothing more. I've seen the Win8 beta, trust me.

_{I'd be happy with Linux if X-Plane would support the 'hat' in Linux correctly OR if TrackIr people would write drivers for the thing :(}

This is wrong - Win8 has an app store but it is not the only way to install programs. This is just like what MacOS Snow Leopard and Lion have, nothing more. I've seen the Win8 beta, trust me.

I pray that you are correct. I migrated from a comodore64 to MS DOS back in in days of the dinosaur so, I do like Microsoft.I think well of Bill Gates: don't try to convince me otherwise but, after Microsoft Flight, my "like" is very tenuous.I want my desktop to function the way it has for ages: if there's a built in capability to switch over to sometng else? that's OK, as long as it doesn't degrade my "normal" PC operation. I do use Houdini Apprentice so the Linux schema isn't that alien to me.

Microsoft's market is changing. I live in Wellington, New Zealand and one of my clients was looking for a desktop computer here. They don't sell them here anymore at our shops, laptops only. The only place you can get one is from a computer supply store or Dell.With that in mind the Operating System is adapting with the death of the Desktop. Microsoft Flight is more inline with an XBOX game now compared to FSX which shows they are adapting it towards XBOX for the future.Microsoft is provided with every new computer and they know the numbers of desktops to laptops and other devices. Desktops don't sell anymore, we are a dieing breed of computer users.

I think well of Bill Gates: don't try to convince me otherwise but, after Microsoft Flight, my "like" is very tenuous.

Bill Gates has nothing do to with it. He left Microsoft back in 2006. Others are making the decisions now. Bill Gates was the one that liked Flight Simulator and bought it from SubLogic. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a part of his legacy at Microsoft and is being changed by others...Not him.Today he is a Pilanthropist and has nothing do to with computers anymore. This is his life after Microsoft now:http://en.wikipedia....ates_Foundation

Edited January 10, 201214 yr by ytzpilot

Only METRO apps (which can be cross platform and runs on non-Intel CPU, so they'll run on ARM tablets and phones too), will require certification, development of regular x86 or x64 apps will continue to be free.Windows 8 has two modes of operation: the Metro mode and the Desktop mode, which works just like Win 7, under Desktop mode, all the previous apps will work without requiring any certification and can be sold or given away freely.