Why Windows coming soon to ARM is good...

[PhillyPhil]

...IMHO.

It's good because MS occupies a (relatively) huge space in the minds of the general public when it comes to computing, so Windows on ARM is going to be a MASSIVE boost for ARM, a blow to Intel, and we're going to start seeing a lot more ARM based personal computers for sale than there are at the moment.

That's enough to make me happy, because I'm an ARM fan (mainly because ARM products have a much better [processing power / energy consumption] ratio than any existing x86 chips) and this may mean in the not too distant future I'll be able to move *all* my computing to ARM products (and Ubuntu for ARM means I won't even have to change OS...).

To be honest I hadn't really thought about whether this is good for Linux or not (I'm only interested in what it does for ARM), but I suppose it probably will be, because:
- although Linux distros for ARM will now have to compete with Windows, at least there will me an ARM market to compete in!
- Windows ARM will break compatibility with all existing Windows software (except Office, which will be ported), which is going to remove a big hurdle between Joe Public and Linux.

EDIT: a link for anyone living under a rock : https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/...ocsupport.mspx

[Paqman]

It's good for Linux, because maybe OEMs will feel like they can actually push ARM netbooks out to market. And then we can put Linux on them.

[Lucradia]

It's good for Linux, because maybe OEMs will feel like they can actually push ARM netbooks out to market. And then we can put Linux on them.

Tegra is ARM, if I remember, which runs Android 3 really well.

There's also a big ARM team that contributes to ReactOS alongside Wine.

[Paqman]

Tegra is ARM, if I remember, which runs Android 3 really well.

There's also a big ARM team that contributes to ReactOS alongside Wine.

Sure, but the market has hardly seen the flood of ARM devices that was predicted once upon a time (tablets running phone OSes aside)

[Oxwivi]

[...] a blow to Intel [...]

Why would we want that? Intel is one of the most open-source friendly manufacturers. I would rather Intel took over mobile computing with their upcoming even more efficient x86 chips.

[el_koraco]

Why would we want that? Intel is one of the most open-source friendly manufacturers.

Diversity and competition is always good and everybody profits from it.

[uRock]

It's good for Linux, because maybe OEMs will feel like they can actually push ARM netbooks out to market. And then we can put Linux on them.

Diversity and competition is always good and everybody profits from it.

+1 to both.

[forrestcupp]

That's enough to make me happy, because I'm an ARM fan (mainly because ARM products have a much better [processing power / energy consumption] ratio than any existing x86 chips)

ARM doesn't have built in floating point operations, does it? If that's the case, it's processing power is only better in certain cases.

Besides, there is not going to be a mass move to ARM just because of Windows. The reason people want Windows is because of compatibility. If they can't run any of their software they've invested in, they're not going to go that way. Even all of the free software we use will have to be rewritten to run on that platform.

The reason Windows is porting to ARM is for tablets, not for desktops and laptops.

[Simian Man]

Even all of the free software we use will have to be rewritten to run on that platform.

No, it will just have to be re-compiled. With very few exceptions this is trivial with open source.

[forrestcupp]

No, it will just have to be re-compiled. With very few exceptions this is trivial with open source.

Well, that's good.