Comment by stevage

1 day ago

I think a lot of people liked the Windows mobile experience. Shame it didn't quite get enough market share.

Resetting the app ecosystem 3 fucking times by breaking app compatibility didn't help. Windows Phone 7 - Windows Phone 8 -> Windows (Phone?) 10.

  • Wrong. There was full app compat of WP7 apps in WP8 and Win10 Mobile, and for WP8 apps in W10M. The only full backward app compat break was from WM6.5/WP6.5 to WP7.

    I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're thinking of the lack of device OS upgrades: from WP6.5 to WP7, from WP7 to WP8, and from older WP8 devices to W10M. So no forward compat, but absolutely yes to backward compat.

    • That's not what they mean. As a developer, the API you used to develop your app was now deprecated with no migration path. That meant your app was deprecated, with no migration path.

      For an app platform already a distant third place and struggling to attract developers, pissing off the few devs you do have TWICE was not a smart move.

      2 replies →

  • i guess they needed to release all that pent up backwards incompatibility

    • You joke, but I honestly wonder if this period and projects didn't involve a bunch of Microsoft employees who got a little overexcited when they were told that they didn't need to maintain the insane, sometimes bug-for-bug, compatibility layers with 20-40 year old software that they had had to deal with their entire career there.

      Must have felt incredibly liberating, and maybe they got a little too into the whole idea of "fresh start"(s).

      See also Windows RT.