The upcoming new version of Microsoft Windows, called Windows 8, will be an even bigger change from Windows 7 than Vista was from XP. You'll be able to use something like the traditional Windows desktop, but by default you'll use something called Metro, a simplified interface which looks sort of like Windows Phone and has animated square tiles.
Metro is, essentially, Microsoft's bid to make tablet PCs replace the iPad. Metro apps won't look anything like what you know of as Windows software, like Microsoft Office, because they'll be designed for touchscreens. And unlike most programs, you won't be able to download them on the Internet; you'll have to get them from Microsoft's Windows Marketplace.
To put apps on the Marketplace today, developers have to pay a $49 per year subscription fee. Now there's an even bigger roadblock, which could mean trouble for some programs you depend on.
$499 for Visual Studio Professional
"Visual Studio" is the software that developers use to write programs for Windows. Unlike with writing apps for the web or an iPad, Microsoft doesn't just give it away or charge a nominal $5 fee for it. Hefty price tags, like $499 for the latest version of Visual Studio Professional, are a part of Microsoft's strategy of charging for software like Windows and Office.
There's a free version, called Visual Studio Express, which people can use if they don't mind having fewer features. One feature that's being removed from the latest version of Visual Studio Express, though, is the ability to write traditional Windows desktop apps, as Microsoft explains on its product page and as Peter Bright discussed on Ars Technica.
How this affects your apps
Developers will be able to use the free version to write apps for Windows 8's Metro interface. But they won't be able to use the free version to write most of the software you're accustomed to using today. They'll either have to stick with the old version as long as they want to do that, or pay $499 for the full version. This is especially a problem for the volunteer developers behind free, open-source software, like the Mozilla Firefox web browser ... which, along with Google's Chrome browser, is already running into other problems with Windows 8.
Finally, this is a problem for student and hobbyist programmers. According t o Bright, "Windows 8 won't, in general, support side-loading of Metro-style applications", so if (for instance) your child uses Visual Studio Express to write a Windows program as part of a school project they won't be able to share it with anyone. Not unless they have a $49 per year account on the Windows Marketplace, and the people they want to share it with are all using Windows 8.
Microsoft does, however, give away free or discounted versions of its professional software to some college students.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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