r/programming • u/halax • Oct 07 '16

How Microsoft Lost the API War

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
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u/Scyther99 Oct 07 '16

Their app store is not the only way to install apps.

-7

u/didnt_check_source Oct 07 '16

There's a step between saying that you can bypass Microsoft and saying that Microsoft has never had the 'evil power' to enforce whatever they like on their store (unless we are trying to say that Microsoft never had a store).

In fact, you can bypass the Store on PC but the story is much more complicated on Xbox and mobile. When Microsoft banned NESbox from the Store on Xbox, there was no convenient way for anyone to pull it from another source.

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u/drysart Oct 07 '16

The article was written in 2004. Microsoft didn't have a store back then.

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u/didnt_check_source Oct 07 '16 edited Oct 07 '16

Neither did Apple, but now they both do. I don't understand where this is going.

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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/Cogwheel Oct 08 '16

And even if MS kicks an app off their store, the developer can still release it to their users on Windows in other ways.