Windows RT / Store App

[ianlee74 0]

It's been my goal for a long time now to eliminate my dedicated laptop and move to a small Windows tablet for printing. To use Cura, I'm currently required to use a tablet that runs Windows 8 Pro which means a more expensive tablet with fewer hardware options. With the recent announcement from Microsoft that 9" or smaller devices can get Windows for free, I expect these prices to drop and many more device options to appear. While I haven't seen any clarification if this applies to Pro (desktop) OS's, my assumption would be that it will not. It would be nice and give us a lot more options in regards to hardware if Cura were converted to a Windows Store app. I wouldn't mind if you added a small price tag to it. As a RepRap user, I welcome an opportunity to help support Cura.

Thanks for considering!

Ian

 

[anon4321 16]

I'm a little confused about your request. Are you using W8 Pro? or RT? It's been some time since I've looked at this but I believe Win8 Pro is the x86/x64 version and RT is the ARM(?) version.

I believe Cura has two arch requirements. Python must be available and the slicer engine is compiled so requires an x86/x64 based proc. Python might be supported in RT but I doubt the slicer is available under RT.

So for RT, I think it would be more effort to get Cura to run. However, for Pro it might just require packaging for the app store.

Are you locked out from installing non-store apps by policy?

Biggest problem with packaging the Pro version for the app store would be the extra effort required each time an upgrade is available.

 

[Daid 306]

As an OpenSource software developer supporting Windows RT would be a bad option. Just look up the mandatory UEFI Secure Boot and what it means for Open Source, sharing, and distributed development.

There is no technical reason why it cannot be done. There are ethical reasons, as well as time reasons not to do so.

 

[anon4321 16]

Hey Daid, with RT does the code need to be signed to run by a MS issued cert? Is that the issue that open source developers object to?

The problem is I think most OSes will need to go UEFI in the future for security reasons. I think even Win8 Pro will run in UEFI if the MB supports it.

 

[Daid 306]

Hey Daid, with RT does the code need to be signed to run by a MS issued cert? Is that the issue that open source developers object to?

 

Yes, that's a big problem.

It's quite simple really. With WinRT (and iOS) you do not decide what you can and cannot run. Microsoft (and Apple for iOS) decides. It's pretty much against all that is OpenSource. Which is "freedom", freedom to do, run, modify, what you want.

Finally there is a very simple reason why I'm very much against this development of requiring everything signed. It would have made it impossible for a project like Cura to get of the ground. It started in my free time, without any resources. I could just put releases on the web and people could run those. That's how initial development starts for small open-source projects.

EUFI and how it's implemented by WinRT kills this development cycle.