On the other hand, a completely open ecosystem works well too — ARM for Linux feels exactly like ARM on x86/64 in my experience. Granted this is for headless stuff on an (RPi and Orange Pi, both ARM, both running Debian), but really the only difference is the bootloader situation.
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geekworking@lemmy.world 5 months ago
One of the hurdles to ARM is that you need to recompile and maintain a separate version of every piece of software for the different processors.
This is a much easier task for a tightly controlled ecosystem like Mac than the tons of different suppliers Windows ecosystem. You can do some sort of emulation to run non-native stuff, but at the cost of the optimization that you were hoping to gain.
Another OS variation also adds a big cost/burden to enterprise customers where they need to manage patches, security, etc.
I would expect to see more inroads in non-corporate areas following Apple success, but not any sort of explosion.
qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 5 months ago
micrsoft has spent the last few years rebuilding their shit to work on ARM. no idea how far theyve come, but you will absolutely see windows on arm for the enterprise.
frezik@midwest.social 5 months ago
Apple has the benefit of having done architecture transitions a few times already. Microsoft has been trying to get everyone out of the “Program Files (x86)” directory for over decade.
originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 5 months ago
also, apple doesnt have the burden of being backwards compatible for decades and able to run on most commoditized hardware.
apple undoubtedly has it easier than a company thats actually in use in most of the business world.
frezik@midwest.social 5 months ago
Uhh, one reason they don’t is that they have made the switch twice. Even if they didn’t have to deal with any other third party, they still had to convince Adobe, and Adobe doesn’t want to do shit if they don’t have to.