• Michael2000 January 20

  I just read that the Windows 8 Metro Apps will only be able to be downloaded and installed from the Windows Store. Users will not be able to install them any other way.
  
  As a reseller, that sounds like a death knell for reseller software sales. Sure, the Windows Classic programs will still be out there for a while, but the trend will be to move away from them, just like DOS and Win16. Perhaps this is one reason Microsoft made 2012 the last year they would be at the reseller oriented Consumer Electronics Show. What's the point of promoting an ecosystem to resellers that they can't participate in?
  
  It's sad that the very people, the resellers, who made Microsoft so successful, are being cut out of future software markets by Microsoft. What are VARs suppose to do, when customers say "I want you to sell us a new PC with X,Y,Z software installed and ready to go."?
  
  This move will be bad for the wholesale distributors, too, and frankly, I do not think it will be good for Microsoft either. Their army of resellers pushing their software, and that of other developers will evaporate. Who's going to promote Windows 8 if it puts them out of business?
• RobWright January 23

  Good point, @Michael2000. The restrictive terms on Microsoft's App Store definitely put solution providers at a disadvantage. I wonder if the prospect of losing 30% of their revenue will prompt developers to embrace Android over Windows 8 (and iOS for that matter).
  
  This also seems like it will be a challenging rule to enforce -- VARs can develop and sell Windows 8 applications directly to customers as long as those client systems aren't using the Metro interface, so perhaps developers will be looking for shortcuts to make those legacy apps Metro-compatible without going throught the MS App Store. Think of it as a reverse "jailrbreak."

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