The Future of Computing? x86 vs ARM64 in 2024

[@slembcke]

Uff, as a developer I've been just as unimpressed by Windows on ARM this time around. This is now the second time that MS has *absolutely* bombed the launch of a major ARM platform. They just do not seem to care. The "preview" of 64 bit Windows emulation didn't come until 2021. That's NINE years after they launched Windows on ARM! It _still_ doesn't work with most GPU accelerated applications either, so good luck if you want to play games. (Maybe they'll fix it in 9 years...) As for Qualcom, maybe they aquired Apple's best chip designers, but they'll failed to deliver a platform from the deal. They were going to sell devkits, but it didn't start shipping until a month after the target Copilot+ laptop hardware did! What on earth was the point?" They were awfully expensive for throwaway hardware too, and I can't imagine many developers bothered, especially with how little ARM software seems to be available on Windows. Then lets talk about performance, supposedly half of the point. Native ARM code just does not consistently run faster or even more power efficiently on the Snapdragon X chips than AMD's latest mobile chips. At this point it's hard to say if it's software issues on MSs part, driver issues on Qualcom's, or if the hardware just didn't live up to the hype. It doesn't really matter though until they fix it. Speaking personally, I just don't see the point bothering to support Windows on Arm when there are much more stable and "popular" platforms like Mac and Linux sitting at a few percent each. (and yes, I'm quite aware of how painful it is to support Apple in 2024) For a historical perspective, Apple has actually transferred architectures 3 times including m68k to PPC, and they all went (relatively) smoothly compared to whatever this is.

[@RaffyHalim]

I didn't realise about the 'extra' transfer on the Apples side. I've run into some compatibility issues and only have the previous gen Intel Surface to compare to rather than latest AMD device, but for the basic day to day stuff, I've actually been pleasantly impressed by both performance and battery life. That said, part of the reason I'm doing the basics is because I can't get Gigapixel to run or my video editor to recognise the Adreno GPU. The biggest surprise for me was how little performance difference there was on battery vs plugged in. In the older hardware, it was like running 2 different machines. I hope they continue to expand their support- agree that it could've been done a lot better. Count me as cautiously optimistic even though MS seems to have gone a bit quiet on this side of Copilot+ PCs

[@NasiLemakTech]

Windows on Arm with the Snpadragon X Elite flopped hard. Powerful hardware, horrible software support.

[@RaffyHalim]

I think it really depends on your use case- I've hit some software compatibility issues, but my wife has found to smooth sailing. There's definite scope for a lot of improvement, but I think for the first time I'm a bit optimistic since the absolute basics aren't as bad as previous attempts

[@NasiLemakTech]

@@RaffyHalim That I agree. I do think that people need to know their use case before buying one.

[@adrianwolff2007]

Microsoft is the culprit for the failure of Arm processor.

[@RaffyHalim]

Still a lot of work to do, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Surface Pro 11. I just hope they continue the momentum

[@GraveUypo]

No. Arm has flopped on pc over and over

[@redpillsatori3020]

If Apple can do it, then I'm sure regular PCs can get there as well.

[@wingman3469]

It’s a software problem we need translation layers if that sorted out we will get desktop arm computer. They have to be good arm computers for windows Apple is good already.

[@SnazzieTV]

snapdragon elite is working amazingly for me.

[@omduggineni]

It seems to be going fine so far (though it will take a while to become a significant percentage and intel will continue to exist)

[@RaffyHalim]

So far, I've really liked the Surface pro 11 and the trade offs that come with it. Not perfect, but a lot closer to what I need