>>That only has to happen a few times before someone will introduce
>>a system where those apps can be tested before being installed.
>>And people will start going to that website to see if their app is
>>safe to install.
>The website you talk about is called Windows Store ;)

It seems the only solution we're begin given. The downside there is that all apps HAVE to go through Microsoft. They're logging what everybody has, when they got it, most likely additional metrics like how often you use it, how quickly it's upgraded after an update is released, etc. And more. It's going to do to metro UI apps what the Kindle did for book reading ... log everything about everybody. And why? It's not just because the technology enables it. But that's a dangerous ability to possess when it comes time to find out who may have read book X or book Y.

My idea was to have a generic, uninterested-in-control-or-monitoring, third party website, some Microsoft competition to handle such things. They could develop the rating system and even provide links to the download.

I'm really tired of monopolies. It's all we get anymore. As much as I don't like the man's values as a person, his philosophy on software and the ecosystem which should exist around software is and was dead on ... "Stallman was right ... yet again." The only reason we're not seeing his ecosystem is because there's no control there. All big corporations are about control. All freedom-loving people are about freedom. The two are in conflict.

Compare Diaspora (freedom to host and run anywhere you want) to Facebook ("all your contents are belong to us").

More of this control we see in applications, hardware ... it's what's coming. :-(