
Progressive Web Apps in Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 - twapi
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2018/02/06/welcoming-progressive-web-apps-edge-windows-10/
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jpochtar
Wow, this is amazing!

"In the next release of Windows 10, we intend to begin listing PWAs in the
Microsoft Store... The Microsoft Store, powered by the Bing crawler, will
automatically index selected quality Progressive Web Apps"

First, Microsoft is encouraging devs to build with web technologies instead of
Windows APIs. This is exactly the future their anticompetitive actions in the
90s were trying to prevent.

Now, they're now treating the desktop like a browser and their Store like a
search engine. They've lost the API wars [1] so thoroughly that they're now
dedicated to working for the other side.

[1] [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/06/13/how-microsoft-
lost...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/06/13/how-microsoft-lost-the-api-
war/)

~~~
jsgo
this isn't even a recent shift though. The decoupling of .NET Framework /
Visual Studio / SQL Server / IIS years ago was probably indicative of where
the puck was going. I was considering buying a Xbox One X to replace my Xbox
One but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger because the only four things
I could see as pluses (1. I like console Diablo 3 better than PC. 2. Madden.
3. UHD Bluray Player. 4. Faster hardware) didn't really warrant $500 (and the
first two are functional on XB1 regular, just would admittedly look nicer)
when I have a gaming PC that can play most of Microsoft's "Console Exclusives"
which is another case where they don't force you into specific decisions.

Though I agree with your point that when the writing was on the wall, the
pivot happened. Unfortunately, the reverse of that has been true as well. We
had an issue with a vendor platform where we tested/developed everything in
Chrome and it all worked fine. Then, as we're going live with this flip, we
learn that the pagination is completely broken in IE9 and I believe IE10.
Reason? Their pagination was appending extra elements (? or #, can't remember
as it was about 3 years ago) which was against the standard (there could be
only one). So in Google's saving you from yourself, they deviated from the
standard which caused the platform to function incorrectly in another browser.

Let's also not forget their weaponizing of Google services when it comes to
other platforms that aren't iOS (because splitting from that amount of
marketshare would be ill advised).

------
mimsee
Hopefully this would get some traction so Apple would jump aboard, especially
on iOS. Maybe we'd need some EU antitrust on not allowing different browser
engines.

~~~
ryantownsend
iOS is getting Service Worker support in 11.3 [1], this is one of the key
foundations for PWA support, so the situation is improving. I reckon it’ll be
a long time before we see PWAs in the App Store though!

1: [https://caniuse.com/#search=Service](https://caniuse.com/#search=Service)

