[angryteabag]

I think they need to focus more on encouraging developers to get into making Apps for their platform.

In my opinion, we don't need another platform to learn - you can see how many people agree with me when you look at how prevalent web > native technologies are right now. PhoneGap, ReactNative, NativeScript.

If Microsoft decided to focus on Edge, not as a token "we still make browsers" gesture, but with a genuine interest to innovate.

They focused on web technologies, providing native support for web within their operating systems. Support in ways other manufacturers haven't.

Imagine if their app store was a place where you could publish a progressive web app (along side their current apps).

How low would the barrier of entry be then?

[int_19h]

> Imagine if their app store was a place where you could publish a progressive web app (along side their current apps). How low would the barrier of entry be then?

Win10 (UWP) apps can be written entirely in HTML5/JS:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/windows/uwp/get-started/create-a-...

Insofar as the HTML and JS standards specify APIs, it uses them - e.g. you get IndexedDB, websockets, canvas, WebGL etc. For OS-specific things that aren't covered by the standards, you invoke WinRT APIs directly, but they're exposed as JS objects (and in a way that maps naturally to idiomatic JS - e.g. callbacks for async).

All this has been there since Win8. What more, Microsoft is also investing into PhoneGap, e.g. by adding direct support for it in its tooling:

https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/cordova/

so as to encourage people developing HTML-based apps for other platforms, which would, coincidentally, then be easier to port to UWP.

So if you're right, then this is already actively being pursued. But so far it doesn't seem to be having a big effect.