by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2013/09/23 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2013/09/23/10451161.aspx
As I mentioned in my blog on Friday The downsides of a broken Microsoft ID (and the power of the Store!), one issue makes itself clear.
The Windows Store, both in the Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Phone 8 incarnations, is a serious game-changer in a way that nothing has been or will be any time in the future.
I've been hinting around this issue for weeks now, in various blogs. I've been giving credit where it's due many times, but never really paying heed to the importance of the Store itself.
And that needs to change.
Right now.
No need to wait for Microsoft to fix a bug any more; you can fix it yourself and give it to everyone!
Perhaps you will charge people for the fix, perhaps not.
But the whole nature of sustained engineering might change! I have no idea if that is the plan, but it could be!
Imagine hot fixes as Apps, with updates as easy as updating the App!
The importance of the Store cannot be ignored.
My manager will have to be informed ASAP (probably when reading this very blog!) and then communicate to the wider team as needed.
For the wider world reading this Blog? I might be making requests of developers from time to time for Apps I think somebody needs to write. 😏;-)
Sachiko on 23 Sep 2013 8:58 AM:
Build a store for desktop programs and maybe there'd be more interest.
John Cowan on 23 Sep 2013 5:03 PM:
Gee, you mean Windows will become just like Linux and *BSD and BeOS? Wow. Except, like, nobody will be able to fix those bugs, because they won't have access to the, er, (say it!) source code. Oh well.
cheong00 on 23 Sep 2013 9:09 PM:
It'd be helpful if the WindowsStore has something like bug tracking provided.
For now some of the App have bugs but I can only report them in "Review", which could be buried very fast if the App is popular.
There are some App developer that's kind enough to leave their email address/link in the App so user can point to them when bugs are found, but I heard in each new release, when new bugs are introduced in that release, their mailbox could easily get bursted by email telling them the (mostly) same bug.
It'd be kind of helpful if there is centralized place for them to report bugs (or see if a bug has been reported first).
mvadu on 24 Sep 2013 4:33 AM:
I like the idea of the built-in bug tracking. More like google code issue tracker. It can be a nice thing for the app developer too as they can not only see issues but feature requests too. Instead of going through all reviews, it will give a systematic way of tracking bugs, features, and plan the release cycles.