1. Welcome to Windows 8.1

On the first of June, 2011, Microsoft posted a “First Look” video on YouTube in which Jensen Harris, Director of Product Management for the Windows User Experience, implied that applications for the new Windows 8 platform (codenamed “Metro”) could only be written in HTML and JavaScript. Microsoft, for reasons known only to itself, refused to comment.

To say that the video set off a firestorm is something of an understatement. Developers all over the world canceled new XAML projects and started reconsidering their career choices.  (Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been for the WinRT XAML team inside Microsoft?) Even when the Developer Preview reassured all of us that our existing XAML and .NET skills would ...

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