Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can start loading the operating system (OS) on new PCS, tablets, and notebooks for retail sale from 18 October, and you can also expect to see a lot of announcements soon about new Intel Haswell Core and Silvermont Atom processor driven computers.
Application developers, however, seem to have been left out of the loop, as the gold code (final) update is not being distributed by the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) TechNet, to its volume licence customers until 18 October, leaving little time to prepare for any changes that may be needed for their apps.
Microsoft countered that 8.1 is an update, not a completely new OS and its future direction will be to update via a Microsoft account and the Windows store – why should developers be treated any differently. Fighting words for sure to a developer community that expects to collaborate with, not be adversarial to, Microsoft to make apps it desperately needs. Microsoft says that all Windows 8 apps will run on 8.1 without change so it is no big, or is that bug, deal.
It is widely rumoured that Microsoft is still polishing the main apps – Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Bing, Skype integration, and Office so it needs some more time.
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Opinion
Bit of a storm in a teacup but I will be at Microsoft TechEd from 3-6 September and you can be sure that it will be a topic of conversation.
My concern is the pricing model is yet to be released. It will be a free update to existing Windows 8 users if they have a Microsoft account. What about the legion of XP, Vista and 7 users? See iTwire article here for some tips for those users.
