Jivaro wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 11:24:
And Beamer, while there might be some who don't see the difference that you correctly pointed out...that isn't his point either. There is a larger picture that I am very sure you are more then aware of. Please don't pretend you don't, you would have to be completely naive and your posting history does not seem to indicate that you are that blind. This is a step-by-step process MS is taking in the evolution of their OS and people have a problem with the direction because they know where it goes. So do you.
But it isn't entirely.
I agree with Notch's decision not to get it signed. He doesn't need to be in the store, and being in the store would likely damage what has made Minecraft great on this platform (in ways it isn't great on other platforms.)
Microsoft has no real interest in ever closing Windows, though. They're not that dumb. What they want to do is close it for many people - those that already view it as mostly closed and don't much care about the openness. I don't see much of an issue with that, in fact, it's pretty well shown to be the only method of survival.
Apple is nearing a trillion dollar company due to this business model. Google, as of this morning, is $12 billion behind Microsoft - about 4%.
This is how the masses want their software. And that's fine. Let them have it this way. But Microsoft knows that there's a large fringe that does not want their software this way. They also know that businesses CANNOT have their software this way.
So Microsoft isn't interested in closing this loop. They're just interested in giving consumers what they want and what they pay enormous amounts of money for.