A battle is erupting between the world of developers and the emerging Windows 8 platform. At the root of the matter – a closed distribution system and what that means to application developers. Microsoft’s new Windows 8 ecosystem is designed with Microsoft as the sole distributor of software through its Windows Store. The provisions within official documentation exercise absolute control over software that will be included, raising lots of questions.  A rising call is emerging from developers for changes in Windows 8.

A declaration put forward by Game Developer Casey Muratori of MollyRocket makes the case:

“the closed distribution model of Windows 8 must be changed for the sake of developers, consumers, and Microsoft itself.”

Muratori slams the closed distribution model, starting with certification requirements that restrict content and how that relates to game releases. By peeking into the future of an application market controlled by the Windows Store, the case is made that based on certification requirements, leading games would not pass.

Continuing with “Anatomy of a Microsoft Platform Shift” and “The Return of 1990”, a quick historical view unfolds telling the evolution from MS-DOS days, to GUIs, and termination of the MS-DOS environment into obscurity. In doing so, the correlation is made that despite allowing open installation in the Windows 8 Desktop environment, the closed model is the direction Microsoft is taking forward. Certain forthcoming tablets and phones will only be able to access approved Windows applications.

In “Promise of Windows 8”, Muratori reflects on the lost opportunity of establishing a solid platform that is:

• open
• built on well-specified hardware requirements
• features a well-documented native code interface
• native development eliminates the need for cross-compiling.
• Backed by the weight of a massive patent portfolio

The call is made for Microsoft to change this course, to those ends, he states the following:

Taking the long view, Microsoft can’t afford not to change course. They are already behind in every consumer market category beyond the desktop, so there’s no room for error. If a new software innovation comes around and, say, Android is its primary platform because it has open distribution, that could easily lead to another “lost decade” for Microsoft as they once again play catch up.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is in a pivotal position to help make this future a reality. They could become one of the primary forces fighting to make tablet development as open as desktop development was under traditional Windows. They could take market share from the completely closed (and thoroughly dominant) iPad, and help restore to that space the freedom to innovate that developers lost when Apple imposed its restrictive policies.Or, Microsoft can ship Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows 8 Pro with their current policies in place, and be just another player in the touch device space, with their own set of ridiculous hurdles that severely constrain software possibilities and waste developer time with ill-conceived certification processes.

It appears that Microsoft is abandoning the open development model. Closed systems are really a hallmark of Apple and its lineup of technology. While open installation exists for now on the Windows 8 Desktop environment, the deprecation of this environment seems inevitable. Creating a line of profit from that market using this controlled model appears to further be shutting out developers that cannot through restrictions participate.