Ravynmagi posted:
* Windows 8 ARM
Windows 8 runs on ARM but I get the impression you can't use your x86 applications on that. And any Metro style apps made with native languages like C won't run there either. Apps will have to be in either Java, HTML, Silverlight, and he was naming some other language I think began with an X I wasn't familiar with. So the Windows 8 tablets running ARM processors are not going to have access... at least that is how I understood it... to a lot of native Windows x86 applications and even some Windows Metro style apps if they were developed in certain languages.
So you probably won't be playing World of Warcraft on a Tegra 3 processor with Windows 8. But I'm sure most of the apps suited for tablets will probably be done in languages that ARM will support. So may not be that big of a deal.
You are correct, x86 apps will not function on ARM. MS has tried to be very clear about this but I think there will still be many that miss this distinction.
Metro seems to me to be the MS response to iOS. While it can and does run on the desktop, it seems to shine on the tablet. It is designed as a touch first interface and requires apps to be either recompiled and run under an emulator on ARM or rewritten within the new WinRT API environment. Metro apps can be written using JavaScript, HTML/CSS, C/C++, C#, VB, XAML or .NET 4.5. DirectX will handle high poly apps (aka games).
Silverlight is also banished from Metro as the Metro version of IE10 does NOT support addins.
The other side of Win 8 is what is loosely being called Desktop mode. This is more akin to what you are used to today. x86 apps still function here and the desktop version of IE10 supports addins.
.NET has morphed a bit in this new system as well. While you can write apps for either Metro or Desktop using .NET, the Metro implementation uses a smaller subset of the overall library in order to protect the end-user from potential malicious apps.
So basically, an ARM tablet running Metro should provide for the same long battery lives seen on iPads today. The issue however is that you will have to wait for developers to give you anything to do outside of the stock apps provided by MS. This has been, imo, the main reason iPad has so easily dominated the tablet market. They have a clear advantage in number of available apps that Android and Windows have to contend with. I see these appealing to dedicated MS fans that want an iPad but refuse to give Apple any money. MS has previously proven extremely successful when entering the market late (OS, Browser to name a couple) but only time will tell if that works here.
I still get the feeling that MS is considering slapping it on an intel-based (think i5) tablet which will take us right back to where they started in the tablet market. A bigger unit that requires some combination of keyboard/mouse/stylus in order to get the benefit of all the x86 apps it runs all on a unit that might manage to live for 2 hours on a battery charge. That model did not work then and I don't see it working now.
That leaves us with the desktop/laptop markets. There are still, if my memory serves, 4 of these sold for every tablet. I don't think those numbers will change in the short term (next 2-3 years) so handing us a tablet-centric OS is a bold move. Yes, you can get back to the desktop but it has changed quite a bit. It looks the same visually on a cursory glance but it functions differently and will take getting used to. Personally, I am not a fan of the waste of screen real estate I have seen so far. I like my work/play environment to be very clean and neat with an emphasis on minimalism. What I am seeing now deviates from this but maybe further tweaking on my part will solve some/all of this. Then again, I was around when we went from command line to GUI's and I am getting that tingling sense that we may be about to go through a similar transition here from GUI to touch-centric.
Maybe I am just too old a dog to learn these new tricks, time will tell
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Fare thee well VN, Vini, Vidi, Vici!
