6 ms·

To be fair to linux, this time could actually be different with a market shift as big as this. The biggest reason(s) Windows wins consistently is backwards comp

To be fair to linux, this time could actually be different with a market shift as big as this. The biggest reason(s) Windows wins consistently is backwards compatibility and a large suite of software/apps. Windows for ARM kills these advantages. If ARM is the future, the playing field is being leveled significantly.

dontblink 5y ago
Gaming is the thing that locks a lot of us into Windows. Direct3D really has allowed MS to keep the Desktop Windows as a monopoly IMHO (in addition to what you have said).
- pjmlp 5y ago
  It helps that OpenGL is an API designed by committee, where the amount of extensions means having to code multiple paths anyway, depending on the card, driver and OS. Vulkan isn't any better, just the bare basic and then extension loading fun. Game developers tend to prefer proprietary APIs because vendors actually care about the overall development experience end to end, instead of expecting the community to come up with something.
  - toxik 5y ago
    Wait until you find out who’s on these committees…
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      I know who are there, and the fact that they rather contribute to the private APIs than comunity tools kind of says it all. As an example, mesh shaders or ray tracing APIs weren't created on those commitites, rather yet another set of extensions taken from proprietary APIs.
- imtringued 5y ago
  It's not 2017 anymore. The two big things that lock gaming into Windows are anti cheat and video game launchers. I remember messing with the Warframe launcher and renaming some exes to bypass another launcher. The games run fine. The hyper complicated Chrome Embedded Framework stuff breaks all the time because it uses weird sandbox crap that is intimately tied to the windows kernel.
bri3d 5y ago
Windows for ARM has mostly-working compatibility with x86 and x86-64 Windows apps. It's not as good as Rosetta 2 on M1, but it's present and functional - so the app suite is still an advantage.
hnlmorg 5y ago
This isn't the first time the industry shifted to ARM and Linux. Remember the Netbook era pioneered by Asus EeePCs but later adopted by lots of others? Back then Microsoft extended the life of XP specifically for those machines and offered massive subsidies to OEMs to ship Windows -- even though that meant throwing in an Intel processor instead of ARM. And eventually Microsoft won because the Intel systems were sold for less to consumers despite costing more to build. So the story isn't going to magically be different here. If Linux starts to get a foothold then Microsoft will just offer some subsidies to get their OS back on the market. The difference here is that desktop Windows does now run on ARM -- so if anything, Linux has less of a competitive advantage as it did in the Netbook eta.
- Sunspark 5y ago
  Those early EeePCs were amazing. This is before the 11" Macbooks and Chromebooks, etc. Back then laptops were full-size and expensive. An EeePC netbook allowed one to have something they could put in their bag easily for only a portion of the cost of a laptop. They were absolutely limited, but if all you needed to do was basic stuff such as write a paper in the library, they couldn't be beat.
  - Nursie 5y ago
    They were fantastic, my 901 lasted years - with Debian and a couple of upgrades (storage/RAM) it was a great little machine. Lightweight, compact and rugged. I even ran OS X snow leopard on it for a while.

dontblink 5y ago

Gaming is the thing that locks a lot of us into Windows. Direct3D really has allowed MS to keep the Desktop Windows as a monopoly IMHO (in addition to what you have said).

pjmlp 5y ago
It helps that OpenGL is an API designed by committee, where the amount of extensions means having to code multiple paths anyway, depending on the card, driver and OS. Vulkan isn't any better, just the bare basic and then extension loading fun. Game developers tend to prefer proprietary APIs because vendors actually care about the overall development experience end to end, instead of expecting the community to come up with something.
- toxik 5y ago
  Wait until you find out who’s on these committees…
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    I know who are there, and the fact that they rather contribute to the private APIs than comunity tools kind of says it all. As an example, mesh shaders or ray tracing APIs weren't created on those commitites, rather yet another set of extensions taken from proprietary APIs.
imtringued 5y ago
It's not 2017 anymore. The two big things that lock gaming into Windows are anti cheat and video game launchers. I remember messing with the Warframe launcher and renaming some exes to bypass another launcher. The games run fine. The hyper complicated Chrome Embedded Framework stuff breaks all the time because it uses weird sandbox crap that is intimately tied to the windows kernel.

bri3d 5y ago

Windows for ARM has mostly-working compatibility with x86 and x86-64 Windows apps. It's not as good as Rosetta 2 on M1, but it's present and functional - so the app suite is still an advantage.

hnlmorg 5y ago

This isn't the first time the industry shifted to ARM and Linux. Remember the Netbook era pioneered by Asus EeePCs but later adopted by lots of others? Back then Microsoft extended the life of XP specifically for those machines and offered massive subsidies to OEMs to ship Windows -- even though that meant throwing in an Intel processor instead of ARM. And eventually Microsoft won because the Intel systems were sold for less to consumers despite costing more to build. So the story isn't going to magically be different here. If Linux starts to get a foothold then Microsoft will just offer some subsidies to get their OS back on the market. The difference here is that desktop Windows does now run on ARM -- so if anything, Linux has less of a competitive advantage as it did in the Netbook eta.

Sunspark 5y ago
Those early EeePCs were amazing. This is before the 11" Macbooks and Chromebooks, etc. Back then laptops were full-size and expensive. An EeePC netbook allowed one to have something they could put in their bag easily for only a portion of the cost of a laptop. They were absolutely limited, but if all you needed to do was basic stuff such as write a paper in the library, they couldn't be beat.
- Nursie 5y ago
  They were fantastic, my 901 lasted years - with Debian and a couple of upgrades (storage/RAM) it was a great little machine. Lightweight, compact and rugged. I even ran OS X snow leopard on it for a while.