[Info-vax] Microsoft On ARM Failure (was Re: VSI licensing policy (again))

[David Goodwin]

On Friday, September 24, 2021 at 1:41:16 PM UTC+12, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Friday, September 24, 2021 at 6:00:11 AM UTC+12, John Dallman wrote: 
> 
> > They seem to have decided that Windows on ARM is /strictly/ for mobile 
> > devices. 
> 
> Which seems like an attitude that is doomed to fail, when you consider the variety of ARM-based machines like the Raspberry π. 

Seems like a reasonable enough decision - most people buy laptops and
tablets these days and that is where ARMs low power and cooling needs
are most useful. On a desktop ARMs only advantage is maybe price.

And Windows 10 does run on the Raspberry Pi with some effort. Performance
doesn't seem to be great but it does work. Maybe Microsoft will eventually
license the full Windows 10 or 11 for it. Or maybe they'll decide the performance
isn't good enough and don't want people running Windows on it only to get a
bad experience and decide all Windows on ARM devices are slow.

> Also the most powerful computer in the world right now <https://top500.org/lists/top500/list/2021/06/> is based on ARM CPUs, and it has been at the top spot for over a year. 
> 
> And naturally, Linux runs on all of these things.

I'm not really sure what your point is. Are you suggesting Microsoft should be
trying to compete in the supercomputer market with a slimmed down version
ARM Windows NT?