That's cool, Eduard! Is this official yet? Was it hard to do?
Some questions (I hope you don't mind...): Does it really only support English? Wouldn't Inkscape require keyboard and a mouse? What happened to the logo? Where does the support link go to?
Certainly not yet, as Mc is still working on it. I created the screenshot for him, as he did not have access to any Windows 10 environment at the time (don't ask me what got into him to look into it in the first place...).
Even further down the line I'd not advertise it at all for a whole lot of reasons: * The UWP version has no advantages over the standalone version, only disadvantages - there's really nothing to advertise. * I despise anything "Store"-related out of principle (to name just two of the most important points: privacy concerns and the fact that I consider app stores harmful for the FLOSS community) * By design an UWP app is run in an emulated environment/container that makes it incompatible with standalone Inkscape and will probably cause more issues than it solves. * As far as I'm concerned the whole reason to have Inkscape in the Windows Store is to give those people a chance to obtain it, who really have no idea how to work with a PC and would not be able to use it otherwise. If somebody manages to visit the site, I assume they'll also manage to find the download link and install Inkscape by hand. * We're chronically short of Windows developers. As one of the few I'm not willing to spend any time on giving support for a platform I did not want to support in the first place. The more people might use the unpreferred store version the more people might hit store version specific bugs (and as far as I'm concerned they'd be on their own with them).
I could obviously go on forever but I think it's better I stop here... ;-)
I certainly do not want to discount Mc's effort to bring Inkscape to the Windows store (on the contrary: I appreciate it very much, even more so as he seems not to be too fond of Windows himself) and I certainly hope it will gain us a new group of users previously unreachable who will enjoy Inkscape as much as we do! For the general audience however I'd say the established channels to obtain Inkscape are certainly preferrable and we should not cause any confusion about that by a potential news article.
:-) I understand you, Eduard. When they hit unheard-of issues, and ask us about them, we can send them a link to the download page :)
Maybe a teeny, tiny note in the next 'Inkscape 0.92.2 released' article would still be okay... Just so people have a chance to verify that it's an official version.
That's cool, Eduard! Is this official yet? Was it hard to do?
Some questions (I hope you don't mind...):
Does it really only support English?
Wouldn't Inkscape require keyboard and a mouse?
What happened to the logo?
Where does the support link go to?
Hi Maren, you've got to thank Mc! He did the work, I just created the screenshot.
Okay - then thanks for the screenshot :-P (else I wouldn't have found out so fast). And kudos to Mc, for venturing into this territory :)
Do we want to advertise this? E.g. in a news article, or by mentioning on the download page?
Certainly not yet, as Mc is still working on it. I created the screenshot for him, as he did not have access to any Windows 10 environment at the time (don't ask me what got into him to look into it in the first place...).
Even further down the line I'd not advertise it at all for a whole lot of reasons:
* The UWP version has no advantages over the standalone version, only disadvantages - there's really nothing to advertise.
* I despise anything "Store"-related out of principle (to name just two of the most important points: privacy concerns and the fact that I consider app stores harmful for the FLOSS community)
* By design an UWP app is run in an emulated environment/container that makes it incompatible with standalone Inkscape and will probably cause more issues than it solves.
* As far as I'm concerned the whole reason to have Inkscape in the Windows Store is to give those people a chance to obtain it, who really have no idea how to work with a PC and would not be able to use it otherwise. If somebody manages to visit the site, I assume they'll also manage to find the download link and install Inkscape by hand.
* We're chronically short of Windows developers. As one of the few I'm not willing to spend any time on giving support for a platform I did not want to support in the first place. The more people might use the unpreferred store version the more people might hit store version specific bugs (and as far as I'm concerned they'd be on their own with them).
I could obviously go on forever but I think it's better I stop here... ;-)
I certainly do not want to discount Mc's effort to bring Inkscape to the Windows store (on the contrary: I appreciate it very much, even more so as he seems not to be too fond of Windows himself) and I certainly hope it will gain us a new group of users previously unreachable who will enjoy Inkscape as much as we do!
For the general audience however I'd say the established channels to obtain Inkscape are certainly preferrable and we should not cause any confusion about that by a potential news article.
:-) I understand you, Eduard.
When they hit unheard-of issues, and ask us about them, we can send them a link to the download page :)
Maybe a teeny, tiny note in the next 'Inkscape 0.92.2 released' article would still be okay... Just so people have a chance to verify that it's an official version.