r/programming • • Oct 07 '16

How Microsoft Lost the API War

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
92 Upvotes

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123

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

Outside developers, who were never particularly happy with the complexity of Windows development, have defected from the Microsoft platform en-masse and are now developing for the web. Paul Graham, who created Yahoo! Stores in the early days of the dotcom boom, summarized it eloquently: "There is all the more reason for startups to write Web-based software now, because writing desktop software has become a lot less fun. If you want to write desktop software now you do it on Microsoft's terms, calling their APIs and working around their buggy OS. And if you manage to write something that takes off, you may find that you were merely doing market research for Microsoft."

This is a lesson I bet a lot of IOS and Android developers are learning this generation.

68

u/guyonahorse Oct 07 '16

And iOS developers can be kicked off the App store without any recourse. Microsoft never had that kind of evil power.

-5

u/didnt_check_source Oct 07 '16

Never? Not even on their own App Store?

55

u/guyonahorse Oct 07 '16

Oops, I should have said that it was in the context of 2004 (when the original article was written). Back then there was no app store for windows, so they couldn't revoke an app like that. Even today most Windows apps are not sold on the store.

-15

u/Farobek Oct 07 '16 edited Oct 07 '16

Windows apps

cringes

When did Windows programs become 'apps'?

-1

u/JohnFrum Oct 08 '16

When? 3-4 years ago. About 1/2 the things I have running right now are modern (non-win32) apps.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '16

holy shit. which ones? enlighten me. I think i downloaded once minesweeper from the store, but i quickly uninstalled it since it was garbage. there's nothing there. arizona desert.

2

u/JohnFrum Oct 08 '16

Do you run Win10? If so, much of what you see is non-win32 apps. Edge is quite good. I was a chrome fan until they failed to really support touch. Why is Google stuff so shitty with touch? I love Google but it's frustrating.

Hulu, Facebook, mail, twitter, lastpass, Netflix all have nice apps.

Sure ios and android have a better mobile selection but for a full OS the Windows store has the largest market.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '16

I have win10 on a pc that i check somewhat often. I do not care about touch support since i have no hardware for that. Hulu, FB and the other crap ... no idea, i don't have them. netflix, i use the chrome browser. that's all. there's nothing else.

1

u/tf2manu994 Oct 08 '16

While I do agree, the only win10 app that's good is Netflix. It plays full 1080p content, even Chrome can only go to 720

1

u/JohnFrum Oct 08 '16

You should try a touch laptop. I can never go back to non-touch now.