This seems like another sad indicator that Microsoft has deteriorated from the company it used to be.
Though Steve Jobs infamously closed the Apple Library (which had existed since 1981) after he returned in 1997:
> “Who uses all of this?” asked Steve.
> Monica answered, “The engineers use this to do research.”
> Steve’s response: “They should know all that already.”
...
> Word spread throughout Apple that the library was closing. Employees were outraged, but an email campaign to save the library proved hopeless. Condolences came in from Microsoft’s library staff, and flowers and thank you notes were left outside of the locked doors by employees.
> Very small hobby-entrepreneur computer makers were also losers; the new testing and certification requirements to show compliance with the standard posed a fixed cost on every computer model released, regardless of how many were sold, favoring economies of scale.
Although things turned out well for Apple (and for IBM, Commodore, and Radio Shack, for a while at least), it probably narrowed the playing field and made the industry less interesting.
CP/M probably suffered as well as a platform: although it could technically run (with appropriate hardware and software kits) on Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack and (for CP/M-86) IBM PCs, it was not the primary platform for any of them. DOS, generally MS-DOS, took its place on PC until it was replaced/obsoleted (including DR DOS etc.) by Microsoft Windows.
What impresses me about the TI 99/4A (besides its unusual microarchitecture) is that PLATO (or offline versions of much of its extensive and interesting courseware) was ported to it. Apparently it could act as a PLATO terminal as well.
It selects for the most telegenic applicants with the best video production (and best coaching, etc.) In-person interviews have analogous issues but are less susceptible to cheating on the questions.
By game count and revenue, the App Store is very much a game store.
You may not think of the iPhone as a walled-garden gaming handheld with smartphone features, but that's basically what it is from a business perspective, and games are in fact the majority of apps on the system.
Epic (a game company) sued Apple to get it to charge lower platform fees than other game stores.
Since games also account for 70% or more of revenue, the App Store is more accurately described as a game store that also sells non-game apps, rather than a general store that also sells games.
The Game Store part of the app store could certainly stand on its own and operate with similar terms to Nintendo's eShop, Sony's PSN store, or Google Play.
Though Steve Jobs infamously closed the Apple Library (which had existed since 1981) after he returned in 1997:
> “Who uses all of this?” asked Steve.
> Monica answered, “The engineers use this to do research.”
> Steve’s response: “They should know all that already.”
...
> Word spread throughout Apple that the library was closing. Employees were outraged, but an email campaign to save the library proved hopeless. Condolences came in from Microsoft’s library staff, and flowers and thank you notes were left outside of the locked doors by employees.
https://annamancini.substack.com/p/how-the-apple-archive-end...
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