I was able to turn up this article, which raises more questions than it answers:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/85114 ... ps-bridges
Excerpt:
The idea is simple, get apps on Windows 10 without the need for developers to rebuild them fully for Windows. While it sounds simple, the actual process will be a little more complicated than just pushing a few buttons to recompile apps. "Initially it will be analogous to what Amazon offers," notes Myerson, referring to the Android work Microsoft is doing. "If they’re using some Google API… we have created Microsoft replacements for those APIs."
The first question is just how much rework will be involved, but with the section I bolded it gets even murkier.
Has counsel at Microsoft managed to not hear about one of the most pivotal cases in the history of our industry?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Ame ... oogle,_Inc.
It's kind of a big deal, and at the moment (despite a lot of very poor reporting in the lay press) undecided.
At the heart of it (keeping in mind I'm not a lawyer) is whether an entity that defines an API can seek ownership of any code that uses the names of functions in that API in their own code.
In the first trial the case was heard by a judge with actual programming experience, William Alsup, who more or less laughed it out of his courtroom.
But on appeal Oracle was lucky enough to have their case heard by a judge who has no experience with software development, Kathleen O'Malley, and she granted the appeal to allow the suit to proceed.
These articles sum up the appeal, and the risks to the industry:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/d ... ower-court
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-o ... ing-2014-5
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oracle-copyright/
Last I heard Google was petitioning the Supreme Court on this, but AFAIK no decision has been made whether they'll hear the case or go to a lower court.
Until the dust settles, all bets are off for not only Microsoft's ability to do this, but for a wide range of important issues throughout the industry.
And in the meantime, we'll have to see if Win 10 can get more than a 1% share of the mobile market.
