To me it seems likely:
Windows 8 brought out a new application layer, where apps are compartmentalized and can only stash their shit in specific locations. Windows 10 improves on the new application layer by allowing the apps to run in the desktop environment, and Microsoft apps (such as the browser, Office, and even Calculator) are being rewritten to (potentially) 100% comply with the new application layer.
With the new Modern app layer all programs have a degree of separation between them and the core OS, which makes the programs agnostic to the fundamental setup of the core.
Windows 10 runs the NT kernel, which harkens from before Windows XP and the major viruses. Over time it has been patched and upgraded to comply with security and speed requirements, but these are still patches and wrappers for code that still needs to work with decades-old software. This means that although it works, it is relatively inefficient and with many points of vulnerability. This is what is being exploited in viruses, who get free reign of the system once they get their teeth in. It's core made compromises to run on old slow systems, but was altered so that newer faster systems can punch it through faster. But it is
A new Kernel - written from scratch with current hardware and security risks in mind - would be smaller, faster, and highly secure. Heck, Blackberry's QNX is a prime example of what a new MS kernel could be like.
But, there is still the problem of over 20 years of code designed for the old system. It seems like the Modern application layer is Microsoft's solution.
Thoughts?
If you change that base, you are throwing millions of software in the trash can.
If you create an emulation layer for them, you are defeating the purpose of the move.
I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
NT is not really the OS most apps use anyways. Win32 is. Win32 is a "personality module" that runs on top of the real NT OS. WinRT (the core os that runs Modern/Metro/Store apps) is a similar "personality module". Microsoft could, at any time replace that core "NT" with something else (they always could have) and only a small subset of very specific apps would need to be rewritten.
However, what is different about WinRT is that it uses a model more similar to .NET and Java, so apps are written in bytecode which is Just in time (JIT) compiled on the target platform when it's installed, so these apps can run on any CPU architecture, such as x86, ARM, etc..
The question is not could MS replace NT? Yes, they could, and they always have been able to. The question is whether they will replace Win32, and that answer is more murky and depends on many factors. They already did replace it to a certain degree with WinRT tablets, and they will have replaced it with Windows 10 phone OS, as well as with Windows 10 Raspberry Pi OS. But, Win32 will probably remain in the x86 version for many years to come, if nothing more than a virtual layer.
Have you ever heard of Microsoft Singularity? That is the new kernel/OS they started working on when Windows 8 was released
I don't know much about programming at all, so it's a bit over my head, but would it be possible for Adobe to create a Windows store app version of full blown Photoshop or Premiere for example? Or is the store app environment/API's too restricted for more advanced software?
I remember reading an article last year about 'Photoshop Streaming' for Chrome and wondered then whether in the future all Windows software would eventually become 'Store apps' (at least non-enterprise, non ad-hoc software). When I say 'store apps', I don't mean toy-town consumer apps that people think of now, but fully functioning proper software. And also, not streaming like in the 'Photoshop Streaming' article, but an actual locally stored store app, like what they're doing with Microsoft Office. Basically all your software is stored in the Windows store, and when you buy a new computer/device you can sign into your Microsoft Account and all your software is sat there waiting to be installed.
There is a photo shop app in the store I believe it's cc6 and is 9.99 a month
