Windows 8 To Natively Support ISO and VHD Mounting

MrSeb writes "With a masterful nail in the optical disc coffin, Microsoft has announced that its new operating system will natively mount ISO disc images. On the slightly more enterprisesque side of the equation, VHD files will also be supported by Windows 8. Both new features will be smoothly integrated into Windows 8 Explorer's ribbon menu, and mounting an ISO or VHD is as simple as double clicking the file. This is obviously an important addition with Windows 8 being available on tablets — and in a year or two, it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike."

Comments

Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one

[elrous0]

it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive which can be read by tablet and PC alike

I hate to say it, but I think Apple's "walled garden" formula is probably the one that's most likely to succeed--for tablets anyway. No loading software on USB drives (Apple's tablets don't even have USB ports), no mounting ISO's, no unapproved outside software. Everything is downloaded through the official app store. And Apple/Microsoft get their cut, of course.

Even more scary is the possibility that this could become the model for not just tablets, but also PC's in the future. About the only thing stopping this now is tradition and bandwidth limitations/download caps. The days of walking into Best Buy and buying a game or application and getting a physical copy of the software could well be numbered. Of course, Linux will still be there, but how many developers will devote resources to Linux development when Apple and MS can pretty much guarantee them a locked-down, piracy-free platform (even if they do take a cut of the action)? For that matter, how many hardware developers will be making locked-down PC's that won't even let you install Linux without some hardware hacking?

Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one

[reashlin]

Linux will still be there, but how many developers will devote resources to Linux development when Apple and MS can pretty much guarantee them a locked-down, piracy-free platform (even if they do take a cut of the action)?

The same people that do it now - for the same cut they take now. Mostly because people working on such products don't want restricted platforms. They enjoy the ability to install what *they* want too. This crap about protecting me from myself and not letting me install {mal,crap,free,whatever}ware is preposterous and an idea I'd happily see put in the bin.

Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one

[CastrTroy]

Maybe you don't want this, but many people are perfectly fine running game consoles and tablets, simply because of the walled garden. I don't hear people complaining about how their game console doesn't work, unless there is an actual hardware problem. Contrast that with the complaints I hear all the time about the how people can no longer get their computer to boot because it's filled up with so much malware. The walled garden is a welcome change for most people. With the amount of junk installed on the average person's computer, I would have to say that most people should be in some sort of walled garden.

Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one

[rotide]

At some point you have to ask yourself _why_ people have so much "junk" installed on their computers. I'd wager at least part of it is due to the users wanting to install anything they want yet not knowing how to weed out the bad from the good. Saying that the solution (and the one the user wants) is to take that freedom away just seems, silly. If the solution to my family not installing malware/viruses/etc is to totally wall up a garden and only allow them to install pre-approved apps.. you can count my family out, and I'd guess a lot more users as well.

There are times I like to just install small apps that help out with little things (mythtv remote, vlc remote, stock ticker, etc) on my phone. That's fine. Heck, I don't even want to do much more than trivial things on my phone and that works great. But to suggest that that is the only experience I, or even most users want from all computing devices, including their PC?

Sure, many tasks might be replaced by a tablet, or even a phone or console. But for everything else, there is a PC. Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility. The PC tool can do a lot and a lot can be done to it (maliciously even) and you have to be educated enough to use it, at least properly. But ok, for those that have no need for one and don't really care about what's going on in the wonderful world of software, a walled garden, Angry Birds experience can also be had.

But I would agree there are quite a few people I know that _should_ be in a walled garden _all_ the time. They simply can't be trusted to not click every single pop-up that says they won something, etc.

Re:Sadly, I think Apple might win on this one

[oakgrove]

IOS piracy is there, but it's not prevalent.

I didn't say it was prevalent or not. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Do you have statistics? The person I responded to said that iOS is piracy free which judging from the links I gave is an uninformed joke.

First, it requires you to jailbreak

There are millions of jailbroken iOS devices. Cydia's business model is based on that fact and they rake in millions yearly. Jailbreaking is such a reality today that there is a specific exemption from the DMCA specifically for it.

Then you have to patch the installer application to not verify IPA file signatures, this enables pirated IPAs to run.

You make it sound like people have to break out a hex editor. Don't make me laugh. It's a one-click affair.

Even then, it's obvious you're running a pirated binary - the OS requires a special set of keys to be present in the info.plist file so that it can run a decrypted binary (this same key is also present inside beta-test apps). Oh yeah, info.plist is in the same directory as the app itself, so it exists inside the sandbox and the app is perfectly free to access it at will. So it already knows it's pirated. (Many apps use this as it's basically foolproof - there's no way to avoid it).

Matters none as the ipa's themselves are patched. And Installous makes it easier to download and install programs than the app store does. I have never seen a platform that the user has an easier time finding and downloading apps than iOS and installous.

Contrast this with Android, where it seems piracy is basically prevalent

Contrast what? That it is trivial to pirate on both platforms and any developer who thinks his precious is safe from Teh Piratez just because of the platform he writes it for is sadly deluded. As are you.

Explain "Strong and Abusive DRM"

[SuperKendall]

it was a meek surrender on here without a whimper to some extremely strong and abusive DRM.

Look, I was and am a staunch fighter against DRM.

But that was mostly for media, because I wanted the ability to easily transfer files between devices. For music, Apple is the company that finally ended DRM. For that you should thank and support them, not curse them.

For video the matter is different, but note that when it is up to Apple - for instance in the case of the WWDC videos for developers - there is no DRM present on the media. So plainly Apple would just drop DRM video if they could, but content providers have not seen the light yet. In fact Apple just dropped a more advanced use of Video DRM - TV rentals.

Lastly we come down to applications, which is what you may be talking about. But here the DRM is a benefit to most people, because it ensures you have a signed application that you know has not been tampered with. It is about as un-restrictive as such a system could be - Apple mandates developers allow the application to be distributed across multiple devices, when some application developers would make you pay per-device if they could.

So in what way is what little DRM Apple uses "abusive"? Please give clear examples.

Matryoshka Software

[Phleg]

and in a year or two, it wouldn't be surprising if all software is made available as an ISO on a USB drive

Why stop there? I plan on shipping my software by printing the ones and zeroes, faxing it to myself, scanning it in as a JPEG, and pasting that into a Word Document. Only once that's done I'll tarball the Word doc, encode it on an ISO filesystem, and finally write it to a FAT32 USB stick.

Re:Old news for the rest of us

[ArsonSmith]

In Soviet Russia ISO images mount your.... never mind.

Re:This is new.. really?

[jalefkowit]

You're using the term "third-party software" in a difference sense than bigstrat2003 was. You mean it in the sense of "anything other than the kernel". He/she meant it in the sense of "anything that didn't come with your distro". Big difference. And in this case your definition isn't as accurate, since from the user's perspective the question is "can I mount ISOs after installing the operating system without having to acquire any other tools?" And until this announcement the answer for Linux was yes, while for Windows it was no.

Once again, following Linux's footsteps

[maztuhblastah]

You know, I have to give Linux all these props, but once again they set the standard only to have Apple copy them and claim innovation. Linux boxes have been mounting ISO images and other image files for well over a decade now.

Re:Old news for the rest of us

[powerlord]

Heck, OSX has been able to Create ISOs from Disks, and mount them natively for at least the last 6-7 years (not sure if this feature was included in 10.0).

Its an incredibly useful feature in troubleshooting, in a Remote VM environment, or for bringing along a DVD full of (legal) 'old school' games to play (on a convenient USB drive instead of as lots of disks).

Its nice to see Windows catching up with the rest of the world.

Unlike iOS, Android has Unknown sources

[tepples]

Just look at how quickly Apple's iPhone took off, with its walled-garden app store. And then Android came along, with the exact same concept, and it's been doing great too.

Unlike iPhone, Android phones don't lock out applications obtained outside the Market. AT&T used to hide the "Unknown sources" checkbox until earlier this year when popular demand for Amazon Appstore forced AT&T to either reconsider or lose customers at contract renewal. But even AT&T phones still supported and continue to support adb install.