The Glade 4.0

Shhhhh

I was being snarky.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Chromebooks are overpriced for the functionality you get. You can get a Windows based netbook for about the same money, and not be crippled by the lack of a real OS. I believe Mr. Sky made a similiar comment in another thread.

As others have suggested, I'd go with Windows 8 for her usage and skill set.

So, I mentioned my Windows 7 vs Windows 8 conundrum to my fiancee, and she said to go with Windows 7 because Minecraft doesn't run on Windows 8. I disabused her of this notion, since I was able to run Minecraft on Win8 while I was testing it out. However, I was curious why she mentioned it, so I poked around. It turns out that Microsoft asked Mojang to have Minecraft "certified" for Windows 8, and Notch (the head of Mojang) told them to get bent.

Which leads to my question: what is this certification that Microsoft was pushing? AFAICT, they want to certify Minecraft so it can be sold in the Microsoft store? Is this all that it's talking about? How important is this certification now and in the future, and what implications does it have for the future of the Windows ecosystem?

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Yes, the certification is essentially ensuring that you meet the specs to be sold in the Metro store. Playing nice with the tile format, etc. I'm not positive, but it may also involve coding an ARM version.

As for how important it is in the future? Who the hell knows. Currently, anything that runs on Windows can be sideloaded onto any x86 Win8. The attitude Microsoft is taking towards the Metro store certainly has several developers nervous, though -- who's to say sideloading doesn't get the axe in a Service Pack so Microsoft can force all Windows software onto the Metro Store and take a cut?

I mean, it's not like Windows 8 and the Metro Store aren't clearly eyeing the Apple iTunes ecosystem very jealously, and Microsoft never, ever, ever uses its marketshare to push its own built-in products over competitors. That's what's got folks like Notch and Gabe Newell pushing back against Metro and Windows 8 quite vocally.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It isn't just Mojang.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9137
But I cannot for the life of me find any articles explaining WHY all these game developers are so strongly anti-Win8.

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Because MS wants 30% of their moneys.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Here are Notch's Tweets on the matter. It seems to be an issue with keeping Windows the PC an open platform.


I guess he is concerned about Windows turning into a walled garden like iOS.

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Minecraft runs fine on Windows 8, just not RT, because Notch is stupid and refuses to put it into the Microsoft Store. Him not doing so means his program wont run on ARM computers, but he obviously doesn't give a crap. The only implication that certification has is whether or not something will run on Windows RT.

Is there a demand for it on the Microsoft Store? Is the demand strong enough that he judges it outweighs the risk of Microsoft eventually closing the platform and locking in a publisher's cut?

I'd say Mojang's concerns and ideological stand are nothing but intelligent and thoughtful, and quite probably motivated by his estimations of long-term profit.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Microsoft currently has the best profit model for developers out of any platform, App Store and Steam included. His concerns are unfounded, especially considering the fact that his refusal to put his product in the MS Store does nothing but hurt RT users, since anyone else can download it normally.

Do they? I've never seen anybody publicly quote Steam's terms. And those leading the push-back against Microsoft here aren't shy about ramping up Linux support. It's pretty obvious that if Microsoft moves to close the platform, they'll simply find "free" elsewhere, no matter how "reasonable" Microsoft's publishing fees are.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

According to them, yes. Until Steam releases any data I'm inclined to believe MS. I'm sure if Gabe could refute the claim, he would.

The platform is nowhere near being "closed." The MS Store certification is only required for ARM processors and that's because they can only run so much. Any Windows 8 running on x86 or better can install whatever they want, from wherever they want.

And according to them, Bing wins blind preference tests.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sometimes it does.

Find out for yourself...

http://bingiton.com

I had three bings, a google and a draw, but honestly, they could have all been draws for me....

Weird, I just had the same results...

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The Dude abides.

It's the same as the IE/chrome/firefox conundrum. Up until now, you had to download a 3rd party "store" to buy your games/software. Now, Microsoft has it built into the OS, and has full control of it. Will the other platforms still be available (in desktop mode)? Yes. Will most users who buy windows 8 use the store? Likely, it's the same reason there are so many people who still use IE.

Up until recently, Microsoft wasn't even going to allow Mature rated software on the windows store, so their own games wouldn't even have been sold there. Apparently, they've looked at the money involved and changed their minds.

It is kind of obvious which one is Google

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Bingiton strips out all video previews and many of the image suggestions as part of its "helpful" attempt to set up an apples to apples comparison.

Of course, I'm sure it has nothing to do with that being one of the features many people prefer Google for. Just like I'm sure those helpful suggestions on what you might want to enter as search phrases aren't hand-picked to be ones that Bing has worked hard to optimize.

Edit: Nevermind. Looks like somebody must've called them on the image stripping. There's still a lot of format-mangling going on, though.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I ended up with 3/5 Bing although I never actually use it.

I switched over to Bing a month or so ago and have been perfectly content.

So... what have you gained over Google? What does Bing do that Google doesn't?