4 ms·

I can't wait to hear all those stories of people who buy a "Windows" RT device and then find out they can't actually run any Windows software on it.

• wtracy 14y ago
  Microsoft has been through this already with the failed Alpha port of Windows. It should be interesting to see what plans they have to mitigate this.
  • wmf 14y ago
    Actually, x86 software ran fine on NT/Alpha; at one point x86 apps ran faster emulated on Alpha than natively on x86. (And emulated 68K on PPC was sometimes faster than native 68K.)
    • wtracy 14y ago
      Was there an x86 emulator that shipped with NT/Alpha? I never heard about this before, and Google isn't being helpful.
      • wmf 14y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FX!32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FX!32
  • josephcooney 14y ago
    I don't think it is fair to call it a "failed" alpha port. AFAIK WinNT was developed on multiple CPU architectures from the get go to ensure they didn't take any dependencies on one architecture. Alpha was one of those architectures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1 (also courtesy of the fact that Dave Cutler and a whole bunch of other guys from DEC were hired by MS to build NT) and continued to be supported for a while. I think Alpha's lack of success in the marketplace eventually killed NT's support for it.
    • wtracy 14y ago
      I meant failed in the sense of a commercial failure, not a project failure.
• sageikosa 14y ago
  Since everything has to be downloaded from the Windows Store (which can control the experience) and it comes with Office RT, most people probably won't notice. There will be people who will ask where the DVD drive door is...