Microsoft's Windows 8 App Store Is Full of Scamware 188
Deathspawner writes Windows 8 brought a lot to the table, with one of its most major features being its app store. However, it's not a feature that Microsoft seems too intent on keeping clean. As it is today, the store is completely littered with misleading apps and outright scamware. The unfortunate thing is that to find any of it, all you have to do is simply open the store and peruse the main sections. Not so surprisingly, no Microsoft software seems to be affected by this, but many open-source apps can be found at the store from unofficial sources that have a cost, or will lead the user to download a third-party installer. It's only a matter of time before malware sneaks its way in, if it's not there already.
Windows 8 app store? (Score:0, Insightful)
Who actually uses this shit? I'm not surprised it's filled with malware.
Re:Windows 8 app store? (Score:5, Insightful)
They wanted so badly to be Apple, taking a cut of every software sale by being the only vendor for their own system.
What they neglected is that people don't want brainless "apps" for true multipurpose computers. So their brainless store got filled with brainless garbage to take advantage of the brainless users who'd use it.
Selling Free Software (Score:5, Insightful)
but many open-source apps can be found at the store from unofficial sources that have a cost
FSF says it's perfectly fine to distribute free software for a fee [gnu.org], so long as the license is followed.
But platforms relying on a single app store have in the past made copyleft license compliance difficult or impossible. The GNU General Public License, for example, defines "source code" to include what GPLv3 calls "Installation Information" and GPLv2 calls "scripts used to control compilation and installation". When a platform requires all code to be digitally signed, a signing key is part of this "Information" or these "scripts". And the terms for obtaining a code signing certificate tend to forbid developers from sharing the private key with the public. This is why GPL software like VLC can't be on Apple's App Store [slashdot.org], nor can ScummVM be on the Wii console [slashdot.org].
Re:Does Microsoft f*ck up everything? (Score:2, Insightful)
Their business is going well. Why would they care about their customers? Of course, if ever a real alternative comes along (or they cannot bribe enough people anymore), quite a few people will never look back.
Re:Notify them (Score:3, Insightful)
All this means is that companies like Apple and Mozilla happen not to have notified Microsoft of the infringement yet. So if you're worried about it, go tell Apple's legal department [apple.com] and Mozilla's [mozilla.org].
Why should they have to? The store is supposed to be curated and given these examples, it's obvious it is not curated at all.
Re:Windows 8 app store? (Score:2, Insightful)
That's easy.
Can you code on it?
Multipurpose.
Re:Yeah, it brought a lot to the table (Score:5, Insightful)
But why should I get Win8 when I have to get it and then jump a few hoops to get what I already had with Win7?
Re:Three more years of support (Score:3, Insightful)
My hope is that by then either Windows 10 is out or a replacement OS is available to escape the upgrade hell altogether.
Re:Windows 8 app store? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to throw an assumption out there: very, very few people are doing this. Yes, you could - in theory - "dock" your phone/tablet and do productive things with it. But a really top-notch phone is going to cost you $600+ and a really low-end computer that can kick the shit out of it will cost $200. I think that anyone who can afford the monitor, keyboard, and high-end phone will probably not sweat the cheap cpu too much.
So in the end, while I'm sure there are people in the fringes doing productive things on their phones and tablets, for the vast majority they are toys. This is not meant to be a disparaging comment - I have a smartphone, I have tablets... but I don't do anything more productive on them than take short notes and check email. Mostly they are consumption devices.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)