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Microsoft Removes Google's Chrome Installer From the Windows Store (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the gone-in-the-blink-of-an-eye dept.

Not too long after Google published a Chrome app in the Windows Store, Microsoft removed it, claiming it "violates our Microsoft Store policies." The Verge reports: Citing the need to ensure apps "provide unique and distinct value," Microsoft says "we welcome Google to build a Microsoft Store browser app compliant with our Microsoft Store policies." That's an invitation that Google is unlikely to accept. There are many reasons Google won't likely bring Chrome to the Windows Store, but the primary reason is probably related to Microsoft's Windows 10 S restrictions. Windows Store apps that browse the web must use HTML and JavaScript engines provided by Windows 10, and Google's Chrome browser uses its own Blink rendering engine. Google would have to create a special Chrome app that would adhere to Microsoft's Store policies. Most Windows 10 machines don't run Windows 10 S, so Google probably won't create a special version just to get its browser listed in the Windows Store. Google can't just package its existing desktop app into a Centennial Windows Store app, either. Microsoft is explicit about any store apps having to use the Edge rendering engine.

7 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Same with Apple App Store and Safari by MikeDataLink · · Score: 2

    And they wrote chrome for iOS....

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    1. Re:Same with Apple App Store and Safari by klingens · · Score: 2

      Both, Safari and Chrome's HTML engines are forks from KHTML, well Chrome's is a fork of Apple's webkit, so it's probably easier to make Chrome work with webkit if needed than a totally different Spyglass browser engine from 1990 where the MS browsers are coming from.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:Same with Apple App Store and Safari by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      First, UWP browsers have to use the same broke ass HTML/javascript engine that Edge uses. Second, iOS has a viable market of users, UWP does not. Likewise, it doesn't make any sense to bend over backwards for Microsoft. Notice Mozilla doesn't port firefox there either, and it wouldn't make any economic sense for them to do so. Third, this doesn't make any sense on Microsoft's part, because they already do exactly what Google did for some of their own products, like Skype for example.

      Besides, UWP is total shit anyways. Ever notice how every app on there is stripped down to shit compared to their Android and iOS counterparts? It's because Microsoft is completely unresponsive to developers when they ask for features to be added. Android and iOS meanwhile have a very rich feature set in comparison. This is a problem across Microsoft's entire platform. Notice how there are hardly any webextensions available for Edge? It's very common for Microsoft to not respond -- at all -- to developers who ask to have their addon whitelisted.

      If Microsoft wants UWP to go anywhere, they should at least give it feature parity to its competition, because right now it's not even halfway there, and developers basically can't implement anything that Microsoft hasn't already thought of. As it is right now, developers are much better off creating webapps.

  2. This will be devastating by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Funny

    To the three people who still use the Windows store.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  3. Facebook for Windows Store should go, too. by segin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look, you can hate me for being a Facebook user, I don't give a shit. My life, not yours.

    That aside: Facebook's port of their iOS app to Universal Windows Platform doesn't use EdgeHTML, either. They bring a full port of the WebKit engine, on top of their own reimplementation of the Cocoa Touch (iOS) APIs (which Facebook got by acquiring a stealth-mode startup called OSmeta in 2013.) WebKit is clearly used, in DLLs JavaScriptCore_osmeta.dll, WebCore_osmeta.dll, WebKit_osmeta, and WebKitLegacy_osmeta.dll. It becomes more painfully obvious if you e.g. make a post or comment with a link to a page that displays the browser's User-Agent, as opening the link in-app should (by default, unless configured otherwise) use the in-app webpage preview, revealing the User-Agent string for the WebKit engine embedded and used, instead of Microsoft's EdgeHTML.

    If Microsoft was to be truly fair, Facebook's apps would get yanked from the Microsoft Store as well.

    1. Re:Facebook for Windows Store should go, too. by mark-t · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You appear to presume that the world around you is somehow supposed to be fair.

      It's a common misunderstanding.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. Windows Store by darkain · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To be entirely honest, after using Windows 10 for an entire year at work, I've gone and acquired an app from the Windows Store exactly once only. That app? Ubuntu for the Windows Subsystem for Linux. I think this about sums up how relevant the Windows Store is.