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> or the other laptop manufacturers can get their act together Microsoft is willing to sell you an ARM-based PC if you like. Qualcomm's efforts aren't quite up

> or the other laptop manufacturers can get their act together Microsoft is willing to sell you an ARM-based PC if you like. Qualcomm's efforts aren't quite up to Apple Silicon's par, but they aren't terrible either. Of course, if you are looking to put Linux on a PC I can definitely understand why Microsoft wouldn't be your first thought for your hardware vendor. It's a weird time we live in, if you remember (or are unfortunately stuck in) 90s Slashdot mindsets.

baq 2y ago
Being arm-based is not important. They could still be Motorola for all I care. It’s how the final product works as a whole. macOS does a disservice to the hardware package, which is too bad, because the hardware is really unmatched.
- WorldMaker 2y ago
  The hardware package of Microsoft's Surface line is quite elegant at this point. They've taken a lot of notes from Apple and are doing some strong things. At this point Windows itself is doing some disservice to that hardware, too, especially as the current Windows design team seems stuck trying to turn Windows 11 into a watered down macOS clone.
  - baq 2y ago
    Not sure if the ARM Surfaces have WSL2 but if yes, that alone would be a very serious consideration for my next enterprise laptop requisition, because Apple very obviously doesn’t care.
    - WorldMaker 2y ago
      I've heard WSL2 on ARM works as expected, with the caveat that you are still limited to ARM Linux distros and their quirks.
  - LilBytes 2y ago
    I highly recommend against Microsoft Surface products. I bought them for my dev team and we saw 3 of the 10 or so devices fail and need to be replaced. The RMA experience in other countries may differ to Australia, but it meant my team were without a dev spec'd laptop in total of close to a month across the whole team. They had to use off the shelf laptops and use a VDI for computational taxing workloads while waiting for a replacement device. Throw in how ordinary the support process was with Microsoft, e.g., no phone contact number, only email, correspondance takes 1-2 days to start and the back and forth taking another few hours each way. We wasted a lot of time on these devices and the bullshit Microsoft support process. Devs are now split between Lenovo ThinkPads and MacBooks now depending on their wants and needs. I've never seen a failure record like what we had with the Surfaces as we have with any other hardware provider.

baq 2y ago

Being arm-based is not important. They could still be Motorola for all I care. It’s how the final product works as a whole. macOS does a disservice to the hardware package, which is too bad, because the hardware is really unmatched.

WorldMaker 2y ago
The hardware package of Microsoft's Surface line is quite elegant at this point. They've taken a lot of notes from Apple and are doing some strong things. At this point Windows itself is doing some disservice to that hardware, too, especially as the current Windows design team seems stuck trying to turn Windows 11 into a watered down macOS clone.
- baq 2y ago
  Not sure if the ARM Surfaces have WSL2 but if yes, that alone would be a very serious consideration for my next enterprise laptop requisition, because Apple very obviously doesn’t care.
  - WorldMaker 2y ago
    I've heard WSL2 on ARM works as expected, with the caveat that you are still limited to ARM Linux distros and their quirks.
- LilBytes 2y ago
  I highly recommend against Microsoft Surface products. I bought them for my dev team and we saw 3 of the 10 or so devices fail and need to be replaced. The RMA experience in other countries may differ to Australia, but it meant my team were without a dev spec'd laptop in total of close to a month across the whole team. They had to use off the shelf laptops and use a VDI for computational taxing workloads while waiting for a replacement device. Throw in how ordinary the support process was with Microsoft, e.g., no phone contact number, only email, correspondance takes 1-2 days to start and the back and forth taking another few hours each way. We wasted a lot of time on these devices and the bullshit Microsoft support process. Devs are now split between Lenovo ThinkPads and MacBooks now depending on their wants and needs. I've never seen a failure record like what we had with the Surfaces as we have with any other hardware provider.