Alright, the Windows 8 appstore is a non-starter (except for fart-apps)

1 hour ago, BitFlipper wrote

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I think once you require certificates you might as well forget about something like this ever being successful. The whole point is to keep it simple so that developers don't balk at implementing the minimal amount of work needed to make it useful for both themselves and for end users.

You are aware, of course, that code signing is required for all apps in the Apple Appstore? Or are you claiming that the Apple Appstore isn't successful?

20 minutes ago, evildictaitor wrote

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You are aware, of course, that code signing is required for all apps in the Apple Appstore? Or are you claiming that the Apple Appstore isn't successful?

This has nothing to do with any App store. What I'm proposing is simply a way to allow "legacy" applications a simple way to add themselves into a global list that shows which applications have newer versions, and possibly allow an easy way to update those applications (irrespective of which installer they use, or no installer at all). That is all. This is something that can be added into Windows 8 but once again would only apply to non-Metro applications. If it makes sense then Metro apps could also be listed here, but see below.

As for any App store, of course each one should have its own update mechanism, and hopefully anyone implementing an App store going forward would have learnt from past mistakes and have as part of its app requirement an easy, reliable and consistent way to update existing applications.

2 hours ago, brian.shapiro wrote

Also the current model seems to create problems for people who want both Immersive and Desktop versions of their apps, where the two versions would switch between each other. You would have to tell the user to download two separate apps in two separate places, leading to a complicated install process.

I think that generally that's just a bad model to try and implement, either your app is designed for an immersive experience or it isn't. Creating some sort of bodged hybrid is really only going to cause more problems than it could ever hope to solve. IE sort of does it and that feels kind of kludgy at best, I really wouldn't want to find myself having to use an app that really required that sort of behaviour.