Microsoft Store: no astronomical pricing and paid open source or free copycat applications anymore
Microsoft updated the Microsoft Store policies on June 16, 2022. One of the changes prohibits publishers from charging fees for software that is open source or generally available for free. Another that irrationally high pricing is used on the store.
If you have been to the Microsoft Store in the past couple of years, you may have noticed that it is home to more and more open source and free products. While that would be a good thing if the original developer would have uploaded the apps and games to the store, it is not, because the uploads have been made by third-parties.
Even worse is the fact that many of these programs are not freely available, but available as paid applications. In other words: Microsoft customers have to pay money to buy a Store version of an app that is freely available elsewhere. Sometimes, free and paid versions exist side by side in the Store.
Having to pay for a free application is bad enough, but this is not the only issue that users may experience when they make the purchase. Updates may be of concern as well, as the copycat programs may not be updated as often or as quickly as the source applications.
Microsoft notes under 10.8.7 in the updated Microsoft Store Policies:
In cases where you determine the pricing for your product or in-app purchases, all pricing, including sales or discounting, for your digital products or services must:
Comply with all applicable laws, regulations and regulatory guidelines, including without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission Guides Against Deceptive Pricing.
Not attempt to profit from open-source or other software that is otherwise generally available for free, nor be priced irrationally high relative to the features and functionality provided by your product.
The updated section confirms the new policies. Open source and free products may not be sold anymore on the Microsoft Store, if generally available for free, and publishers are not allowed to set irrationally high price tags for their products anymore. The developers of open source and free applications may charge for their products on the Microsoft Store, the developer of Paint.net does that, for example.
If Microsoft enforces the policies, numerous applications will be removed from the Store. Developers could report applications to Microsoft before, but the new policies give Microsoft control over application listings and submissions directly.
Now You: have you used the Microsoft Store in the past? (via Deskmodder)
Paint.net and Krita authors are now in fire
If they are the original developer, it won’t be a problem.
Yeah, I’ve used the Microsoft Store and it has the same problem as the Google Play Store. If you stop using an app, and remove it. The app stays in your library, forever. I don’t care if it’s paid, free or subscription, I should be able to permanently remove something from my library. After all, they can. There one day, gone the same day.
You can do it in play store, you can’t do it in ms store. But I wouldn’t expect M$ to add it. They are desperate to get and the most important.. keep data from everywhere and in every possible way imaginable because most people don’t like their consumer stuff and they don’t have enough data to feed the microsoft advertising platform.
lol you can remove stuff from google play store library
“Irrationally high” needs clarification. For everyone ‘rational price’ will be different. For example, to me, Microsoft 365 price is so high that the amount of use would not justify the price. It would be totally irrational for me to pay the price Microsoft ask. Microsoft need to pay overheads, maintenance, development and support costs, as well as make a profit. To Microsoft the price they ask is is rational.
Support costs… sure , it would be better if they bought customers a bra, that offers actua support even if you have no bosom to support.
Microsoft can decide on what censorship to apply to its own store. It has no right whatsoever to tell developers cant charge for opensource.
GPLv2/v3 and many others fully allow for money to be charged from opensource software, in fact one can just grab something GPL’ed that he/she never did a days work on and sell it. Fully legally and allowed.
Openness and freedom to modify it, compile it, and sharing it is not the same as free as in free beer.
But its MS’s store so they are the dictators in their domain even if they cannot prohibit what gpl allows legally.
About time. Maybe the store will actually be useful now.
All good and well but sins 2012 (Then years already) Microsoft has proved that its not capable to enforce any rule, when its concern there online store.
I have read to many posting from Microsoft promising that “This time they going to take care of business”.
If I were to be cynical that I would write that their intentions are like two drops of the same coin as the majority of their operating systems over the years.
Good.
Mind you, developers don’t help themselves by not uploading to the store themselves. No other industry is as prissy as the software industry. Any other industry people are clamouring to get their products in front as many people as possible, but not the software industry; no they want to dictate where I am allowed to get or buy products from.