I disagree. Legacy software and games can run through translation layers. We already do that with windows software on Linux.
Maintained software doesn’t really have an excuse not to support ARM, unless the developers are woefully incompetent/lazy/personally biased against supporting it.
The thing is, for the Windows ecosystem, ARM doesn’t have a good “hook”.
When tablets scared the crap out of Intel and Microsoft back in the Windows 7 days, we saw two things happen.
You had Intel try to get some android market share, and fail miserably. Because the Android architecture was built around ARM and anything else was doomed to be crappier for those applications.
You had Microsoft push for Windows on ARM, and it failed miserably. Because the windows architecture was built around x86 and everything else is crappier for those applications.
Both x86 and windows live specifically because together they target a market that is desperate to maintain application compatibility for as much software without big discontinuities in compatibility over time. A transition to ARM scares that target market enough to make it a non starter unless Microsoft was going to force it, and they aren’t going to.
Software has plenty of reason not to bother with windows on arm support because virtually no one has those devices. That would mean extra work without apparent demand.
ARM is perfectly capable, but the windows market is too janky to be swayed by technical capabilities.
I disagree. Legacy software and games can run through translation layers. We already do that with windows software on Linux.
Maintained software doesn’t really have an excuse not to support ARM, unless the developers are woefully incompetent/lazy/personally biased against supporting it.
Still no Discord ARM app…
The app for MacOS? On apple silicon doesn’t use Rosetta any longer I believe
Definitely not on Windows for ARM. Idk about Mac
Discord has gotten way too big for its own good and only focuses on getting people to subscribe to nitro.
There is no excuse for them, just plain greed and laziness.
Translating syscalls and translating opcodes (especially efficiently) are different things.
And we don’t.
But yes, this is possible and Windows for ARM includes such a translation layer. Except it’s not very good yet.
In some sense ARM everywhere is a nightmare. There’s no standard like EFI or OpenFirmware for ARM PCs.
I hope that changes.
The thing is, for the Windows ecosystem, ARM doesn’t have a good “hook”.
When tablets scared the crap out of Intel and Microsoft back in the Windows 7 days, we saw two things happen.
You had Intel try to get some android market share, and fail miserably. Because the Android architecture was built around ARM and anything else was doomed to be crappier for those applications.
You had Microsoft push for Windows on ARM, and it failed miserably. Because the windows architecture was built around x86 and everything else is crappier for those applications.
Both x86 and windows live specifically because together they target a market that is desperate to maintain application compatibility for as much software without big discontinuities in compatibility over time. A transition to ARM scares that target market enough to make it a non starter unless Microsoft was going to force it, and they aren’t going to.
Software has plenty of reason not to bother with windows on arm support because virtually no one has those devices. That would mean extra work without apparent demand.
ARM is perfectly capable, but the windows market is too janky to be swayed by technical capabilities.