Perhaps this IS old news, but I certainly didn't understand it if it was. So basically Windows is creating a two tier system where blessed developers can get access to key system functionality where others are left to the "legacy" desktop. Windows 7 will almost certainly be the final time that Windows get installed on one of my PCs.
With Steam coming out on Linux and shockingly even Apple having a more coherent idea about system security, I don't see a lot of reason to deal with Windows' legacy bullcrap anymore.
> So basically Windows is creating a two tier system where blessed developers can get access to key system functionality where others are left to the "legacy" desktop
It's actually kind of the other way around, desktop apps can mess around with much more on the system than Metro apps can, except for some new APIs.
> shockingly even Apple having a more coherent idea about system security
How so? What has system security to do with this? If anything, malware authors will have trouble running their malware on Windows RT tablets and in Metro.
>> "It's actually kind of the other way around, desktop apps can mess around with much more on the system than Metro apps can, except for some new APIs."
This may be true but the majority of Windows 8 users are probably going to want to use the new Metro interface. I've only being using the OS for a month and it already annoys me to have to switch to the old desktop interface. Preventing apps not distributed through the store access the new interface isn't right. Customers will want it and developers will have little choice. Either piss off customers or give Microsoft a cut of your sales and distribute through them.
With Steam coming out on Linux and shockingly even Apple having a more coherent idea about system security, I don't see a lot of reason to deal with Windows' legacy bullcrap anymore.