Windows 8 fans out-enthuse Apple fanbois
Redmond allows 81 Win 8 devices to use one user ID, solving side-loading shemozzle
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Fanbois and Fandroids often attract derision for their slavish devotion to their preferred kit, but may just have been put in the shade by dedicated followers of … Windows 8.
Yes, you read that right. Windows 8 has dedicated followers. Or to use Microsoft's wording, “our most enthusiastic customers”.
The verbiage above comes from a Redmond blog post explaining that it has increased the number of devices on which a single account-holder can run modern apps from five to 81.
And yes you read that right, too. Eighty-one, not eight point one.
Like Apple, Microsoft regulates the number of devices it is possible to associate with a user ID. Apple's limit is ten, according to this knowledge base article. (Google Play's licence doesn't mention a device limit, but reserves the right to “at any time place limits on the number of Devices and/or software applications you may use to access Products, at Google’s discretion.”)
Microsoft's previous limit was five devices, but the post we've linked to above says “Since we launched Windows 8, we heard growing feedback from many developers and from our most enthusiastic customers that the limit of 5 was not enough for their needs.”
Apple customers have never, to the best of The Reg's knowledge, demanded their account be spread across 81 devices. Windows 8 enthusiasts are therefore ahead of their fruity frenemies for once.
The Reg can't help but wonder if another motive for the move is the anomaly we spotted at TechEd Australia that sees small software developers unable to load their wares from servers into Windows 8 unless they purchase at least 100 licences. Allowing 81 devices to run an app under a single user ID seems like a nice way to get around that problem, as it is possible to create administrator accounts for Microsoft's menagerie of online services and such accounts could have the power to install apps on users' desktops.
Developers could simply change the price of their wares to reflect multiple installations so they can cash in on multi-user installations. ®
