by Mark Barley
Croteam speaks out against Windows 8
Serious Sam developer Croteam chief technical officer Alen Ladavec recently spoke out against Microsoft's Windows 8, calling it a "walled garden".
He was mainly speaking of Microsoft's certification system, something Ladavec thinks will force PC gaming to become more like console titles.
In a recent Steam forum post, Ladavec stated;
“Gabe Newell did not overreact. What you don’t see here is that, under the hood, the new tiled UI is a means for Microsoft to lock Windows applications into a walled garden, much like the one on iOS."
“There is this ‘small detail’ that Microsoft is not advertising anywhere, but you can find it dug deep in the developer documentation: one cannot release a tiled UI application by any other means, but only through Windows Store.”
Ladavec continued; “There is this ‘small detail’ that Microsoft is not advertising anywhere, but you can find it dug deep in the developer documentation: one cannot release a tiled UI application by any other means, but only through Windows Store.”
“If it was just about ‘being downloaded from Windows store’, it would not be a problem. It would be nice to have a common hub to download things from,” he said.
“But to get an app onto that store, it has to be certified by Microsoft. This means bringing the ‘console experience’ onto your desktop. Each app that you will get through the Windows Store will have to adhere to certain requirements imposed by Microsoft.”
Ladavec stated that Microsoft as already taken precautions against modding and he doesn't think open source software can survive. However, even if Microsoft didn't have so many restrictions the certification process would pose such a threat. “But to get an app onto that store, it has to be certified by Microsoft. This means bringing the ‘console experience’ onto your desktop. Each app that you will get through the Windows Store will have to adhere to certain requirements imposed by Microsoft.”
“Uncertain release dates, rare and late patches, and everything turning out to be more expensive and sucking more,” he said.
“Theoretically, desktop applications are exempt from these requirements, it looks more and more like just a foot-in-the-door technique. A large number of developers have expressed their concern with possibility that, probably in Windows 9 or something like that, the ability to get even desktop apps in any other way than through Windows app store may very well be removed. When that happens it will be too late.”
Ladavec is in fear that Windows 8 and Microsoft are leading the masses down a trail of sponsored apps and the dependence of the Windows Store, forcing developers to go through Microsoft's certification process, relinquishing open source software opportunities. “Theoretically, desktop applications are exempt from these requirements, it looks more and more like just a foot-in-the-door technique. A large number of developers have expressed their concern with possibility that, probably in Windows 9 or something like that, the ability to get even desktop apps in any other way than through Windows app store may very well be removed. When that happens it will be too late.”
“Certification is a broken concept and should be abolished,” he declared.
“It is a vicious circle. And not an accidental one. This one was carefully designed to be that way. I say: no thank you, I’ll skip on that one.”
Windows 8 is out now. “It is a vicious circle. And not an accidental one. This one was carefully designed to be that way. I say: no thank you, I’ll skip on that one.”
Via VG247