Switch from WinRT to UWP

[spodskubka]

I assume that the switch from WinRT to UWP could have many advantageous possibilities:

• Update my ancient fork of SSH.NET to a current build, which is supported on UWP
• Maybe more stable connections because of different app suspension behavior
• Offer a build for Windows 10 Mobile (according to user feedback some people would like that)
• Rework GUI to make it more conforming to Windows 10 design language
• Make it possible for future development to implement features not available on WinRT
• etc.

The only disadvantage I can think of would be that new versions of the app would not be available on Windows 8.1, but I consider this negligible in consideration of all the possible advantages.

[CGomer]

When you submit a Windows 10 UWP to the store you can still offer the old WinRT app to Windows 8, 8.1 users from the same store entry. This way no users get left out.

See here, under App bundles:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/publish/app-package-requirements

[spodskubka]

@CGomer I am actually doing that already. Windows 8 clients can still install and update to version 1.7.0 of Remote Terminal, everyone on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 is offered 1.9.1 (released today).

The issue I was referring to was that I would not want to maintain both the UWP and the WinRT version of the app in parallel in the future (something like that is also not really compatible with git-flow, which I am using).
So after switching to UWP only Windows 10 users would benefit from future updates, everyone on Windows 8.1 would be stuck on e.g. the current version 1.9.1, like Windows 8 users are stuck with 1.7.0 now.

It's really not a problem for me personally, don't get me wrong. Everyone using Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 now doesn't have a financial reason to not upgrade to Windows 10 (as we all known the free upgrade still works, just not officially). Many people are just hesitating to upgrade, and I don't know how many of them are active Remote Terminal users.

[CGomer]

I see your point now! Maybe app analytics could tell you how many people are using Remote Terminal on win 8?

[spodskubka]

I am looking at the analytics right now and they tell me the following percentages for app acquisitions over the last 30 days.

OS Version	Acquisitions
Windows 10	91.3 %
Windows 8.1	8.2 %
Windows 8	0.5 %

Percentages are similar for the last 3, 6 and 12 months. Windows 10 gained about two percent points in favor of Windows 8.1 over the last year. The small Windows 8 fraction stays pretty constant.

Because this is only acquisitions (new "customers" obtaining a license for Remote Terminal, i.e. installing it for the first time ever) it doesn't tell me anything about the people that already have it and are using it regularly.
The Installs and Usage reports are only available for Windows 10 so I have no way to find out how many people are actually using Remote Terminal on Windows 8 or 8.1.

[MitchellSingleton]

I am using Remote Terminal on Windows 8.1 and am enjoying it, thank you! I am stuck on Windows 8.1 since it is the last release that will work with my device, a Surface RT (arm32).