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Does anyone else get confused by "apps" and "executables"? This one uses the term "Windows Apps" for ".exe" files, I wondered why anyone would want to run a Win

Does anyone else get confused by "apps" and "executables"? This one uses the term "Windows Apps" for ".exe" files, I wondered why anyone would want to run a Windows App https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows I don't understand how its better than VM, it says run them like they're native, but its separate windows for single applications, I thought it would use something like WINE. It should be called "A Windows VM for executables in Linux with native windowing" unless I didn't understand it.

p_j_w 5y ago
The word "app" has changed in common usage. Most any program you ran on your computer was called an Application way back when, but now it's come to mean... whatever it's supposed to mean now. Whoever wrote the Github site is probably old like me and is using the old vocabulary.
- FpUser 5y ago
  I am an old fart but I am starting to use "app" for windows executables as this is what many of my clients "understand" better.
shaicoleman 5y ago
I had to shorten it to apps to fit the title length limit
weikju 5y ago
Before Apple's App Store popularized a specific meaning of "app", "app" was shorthand for "application", which perfectly fits a .exe file and any number of executable files/formats.
jimmygrapes 5y ago
I struggled with this a lot because of experience with Java applets which implied they were "small apps" which implied "app" meant something... and it did; it meant application, which meant program, which meant, I think, something along the lines of "mostly self contained system to accept user input, compute said input, and return a user-friendly result" to oversimplify. For a long time I boycotted the term "app" once Apple et al. used it as their term for what I considered "programs" and now I'm just done with caring. App = program = executable = distinct set of actions triggered by user or automated input = interface

p_j_w 5y ago

The word "app" has changed in common usage. Most any program you ran on your computer was called an Application way back when, but now it's come to mean... whatever it's supposed to mean now. Whoever wrote the Github site is probably old like me and is using the old vocabulary.

FpUser 5y ago
I am an old fart but I am starting to use "app" for windows executables as this is what many of my clients "understand" better.

shaicoleman 5y ago

I had to shorten it to apps to fit the title length limit

weikju 5y ago

Before Apple's App Store popularized a specific meaning of "app", "app" was shorthand for "application", which perfectly fits a .exe file and any number of executable files/formats.

jimmygrapes 5y ago

I struggled with this a lot because of experience with Java applets which implied they were "small apps" which implied "app" meant something... and it did; it meant application, which meant program, which meant, I think, something along the lines of "mostly self contained system to accept user input, compute said input, and return a user-friendly result" to oversimplify. For a long time I boycotted the term "app" once Apple et al. used it as their term for what I considered "programs" and now I'm just done with caring. App = program = executable = distinct set of actions triggered by user or automated input = interface