Earlier this week details of a Windows 8 Professional edition surfaced, with evidence that this version would include Windows Media Center while other versions might not. Speculation has arisen that Microsoft plans to separate its Media Center offering entirely from the operating system and instead make it available as an app in Windows 8 that can be downloaded… for a price.
This seems like a backwards step for Microsoft, as the service saw its inception in the Media Center Edition of XP, before it was made a standard feature through Vista and Windows 7. The current version of Media Center in the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 remains untouched, so it could be that Microsoft is planning on adding additional features to Media Center that it deems necessary to charge the consumer for in the end.
[via The Verge]
