[etoys-dev] Windows 8 effect on Etoys

[Bert Freudenberg]

On 15.09.2011, at 04:03, Harness, Kathleen wrote:

> Hi,
> My guess is that you already know this but, I saw an article that says Windows 8 doesn't support plug-ins. What will this mean for Etoys? 
> Kathleen
> 
> http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/09/Metro-Plug-ins

Apparently Windows 8 will have two different user interfaces, the old windowed mouse-based UI and the new "Metro" touch-centric UI. The article you linked to says that in the touch UI there will be no plugins. If I understand correctly, you should still be able to switch to the "old" UI which hopefully would still support the plugin (Microsoft does have a history of trying hard to keep old software working).

But it is increasingly hard to support the Etoys plugin on all platforms. The OLPC XO does not have the plugin, and it is our largest user base. On recent Macs it does not work in Safari anymore. Some platforms (e.g. iPad) do not support plugins at all. 

I think the best we can do in browsers that do not have the plugin is to offer the Etoys project for download. And that's what the current Squeakland launcher does. Better ideas welcome :)

- Bert -