Of even more interest, perhaps, Modern Reader is the first actual AppX application we’ve uncovered. AppX is a new type of packaged application model in Windows 8, and it very closely resembles Windows Phone 7 application packages. For this reason, we surmise that the AppX application type could be common to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 (codenamed “Apollo”), providing developers with a way to write applications that target and can transition between a variety of devices, including traditional PCs, tablets, and phones.But it will be interesting to see how all this turns out; it seems certain that Microsoft is learning from its competition. Now all we need from Microsoft is an App Store (or Appstore, if Apple has any say in the matter), but I bet that it is coming soon.
Microsoft’s Window 8 AppX technology outed
Yes, Microsoft is making great strides with Windows 8. Yes, Microsoft is making a document reader. Yes, it is a document reader… but there is a reason why this is noteworthy. Why? It’s called AppX.
This Windows 8 document reader is the first known application for Windows 8 that will utilize AppX technology. AppX is a new packaging technology that will make applications act more Windows Phone 7 apps. They will be self-contained packages that can be used to run and install applications to the operating system. And if it sounds a lot like what Mac OS X already does… well… yeah…:
Philip McCrickard
Just so you know, Linux has had this WAY before Apple… centralized repositories full of software packages. A popular distribution of Linux, Ubuntu, for example, has an “app store” called the Ubuntu Software Center where you download package files called Debian Packages,file format “.deb”(Debian is another Linux distro). There are many other linux package managers, such as Synaptic, apt-get, etc. which have been around longer. You can even download packages from the Internet or add Personal Package Archives (PPAs) to add more packages to the repositories. An advantage to this design is that updates are all done in ONE PLACE not many different update programs for every possible application on your computer. This also adds security and makes installing programs MUCH EASIER. I’m glad that Microsoft is finally adding a package manager to Windows.