Re: future of development for the desktop

[Dov Grobgeld <dov grobgeld gmail com>]

There is nothing in the article that sais that you cannot use another toolchain to compile programs for Windows 8, like gcc, but I'm skeptical whether that will still be possible. I'm used to compiling my free gtk+ software for windows XP, and Windows7 with a cross compiler under Linux. Will that be possible for Windows 8, or is Microsoft going the Apple way of requiring developers to do some kind of proprietary signing of the applications before you can distribute your software to end users? Further are there proprietory header files and libraries that you cannot use with gcc? Whether gtk+ (and Qt just the same) will look "native" is a "minor" issue, the question is if is possible to run it at all?

Regards,
Dov

On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 6:53 PM, Gour <gour atmarama net> wrote:

Hello!

I must admit that after researching which toolkit to use for
multi-platform desktop project (Nov  last year) to be done in D, we
strongly considered wxWidgets due to possibly better look of apps on
non-Linux platforms.

However, after reading the articles like:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/no-cost-desktop-software-development-is-dead-on-windows-8/

&

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/u3pqj/microsoft_pu/space/backup/cdisk-sverige/dosc/users/dorit/Gammal Disk/Tysk ostkaka.doclling_free_development_tools_for/

It looks that OS vendors are greedy to lock their platforms more &
more, so the question arises what is the future for open-source
development of desktop apps on Windows & Mac OS X platforms?

If it is not so bright, then it might be easiest/simplest to simply
forget about those platforms, focus on Linux and develop using GTK+ and
let users of other platforms install (as long as it's available),
Virtualbox or something and run native Linux app that way.

What do you think?


Sincerely,
Gour

--
Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities
he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no
one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.

http://atmarama.net | Hlapicina (Croatia) | GPG: 52B5C810

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