They look good — but not necessarily “playable” yet?
  • Dark ArcEnglish
    32•3 months ago

    I had a buddy who was a Linux ARM laptop fanatic back in like 2014. Microsoft had been trying to make Windows on ARM a thing for years before that.

    Apple was the first to popularize it but it’s been a work in progress if you’ve been paying attention for a LOT longer. What helped Apple is all the work they did on their own ARM chips for iOS. They managed to get pretty close to x86 performance in an ARM chip. They also had an app store of apps that could run on them and an emulator for things that wouldn’t.

    Every time Microsoft tried nobody would release ARM builds… People just bought the x86 laptops. It’s the same chicken and egg problem desktop Linux has had for years.

    • @phoneymouseEnglish
      -14•3 months ago

      …so, you admit it then. I don’t see where we disagree.

      What helped Apple is all the work they did on their own ARM chips for iOS. They managed to get pretty close to x86 performance in an ARM chip.

      Apple was the first to popularize it…

      Now that Apple has done it, the PC world wants to do it for real this time.

      • @[email protected]English
        14•3 months ago

        Look, the difference is in the language. One company hasn’t “done it”, the industry as a whole moves, sometimes cooperatively other times in a tug of war.

        As the commenter above mentioned, Apple was in a unique position of being able to leverage all the work done in the phone and tablet spaces to push for an ARM laptop. This helped other manufacturers which already showed an interest in doing the same.

        On the other hand, with the lock in mechanisms apple has in their products they also stifles competition and innovation in other areas.

        They can both help push and hinder innovation. Just like any company. It’s not about hating or loving a corporate entity.