> What you're missing here is that Apple bans everyone equally while Microsoft does not.
You could not have this more backwards. The fundamental issue that Metro apps cannot write to executable memory pages. This is a fundamental security feature of both WinRT and of iOS. Browsers download code off the Internet JIT compile it to native code and execute it. This is what Firefox needs to do. It's not like Windows 8 is checking for Firefox.exe and refusing to load it.
What Mozilla wants is an exception to the normal rules for applications on ARM Windows 8.
Microsoft makes exceptions for their own applications (Office and IE) but that's it. These are the same sort of exceptions Apple make for their apps on iOS.
>What Mozilla wants is an exception to the normal rules for applications on ARM Windows 8.
i think where the frustration is coming from is that windows gave them exactly that exception on x86 windows 8. they created a special class of applications for third party browsers, that can run JIT'd and native code in metro mode. now, with ARM, they've decided to revoke that exception for no apparent reason other than "because we can", and it seems more than a little unfair.
It's not quite the same because Windows 8 x86 already lets you run every kind of Win32 application that has ever existed. The door is already wide open. Allowing Firefox to run in Metro mode with more compatibilities than the average Metro app actually changes very little.
It certainly more complicated than "because we can".
You could not have this more backwards. The fundamental issue that Metro apps cannot write to executable memory pages. This is a fundamental security feature of both WinRT and of iOS. Browsers download code off the Internet JIT compile it to native code and execute it. This is what Firefox needs to do. It's not like Windows 8 is checking for Firefox.exe and refusing to load it.
What Mozilla wants is an exception to the normal rules for applications on ARM Windows 8.
Microsoft makes exceptions for their own applications (Office and IE) but that's it. These are the same sort of exceptions Apple make for their apps on iOS.