Comments on: Windows RT – White Elephant

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By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:02:08 +0000

Win8 drivers can be re-written to run on ARM, but I don’t think that would allow apps to run on ARM based computers without re-compiling and optimizing for the limited computing resources. I think Apple approach of joining iPad and iPhone OS’es makes more sense than merging x86 and ARM.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:56:00 +0000

No it cant. Windows RT needs to be binned and Windows 8 drivers re written to also run on ARM..thats what I mean by putting the two together.

Microsoft still thinks that if it builds it they will come…they have built loads and spent loads in the last year but no one has turned up…I hope it gets the message soon

By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:09:46 +0000

I don’t think WinRT can ever be fully compatible with regular Win8 or of much use if MS tried. ARM has a different architecture, so all apps has to be either re-compiled for ARM or run in an emulator. ARM is already substantially slower than x86, so an emulator would make the apps even slower. ARM tablets tend to have a lot less RAM to save power, so many apps that run well on a regular laptop would choke on an ARM tablet, especially with an emulator using some of the memory. Besides, Windows already takes up a lot of storage space as it is, requiring a lot more flash just to give the same free space for documents and pictures. I am afraid of how much bigger and inefficient it would get if it were to be pushed into an (almost) full compatibility with regular Win8.

Of course, all these drawbacks were obvious way before the product actually launched. It seems either MS believed its hype of “no compromises” oblivious to the actual compromises of carrying Windows onto ARM or the management teams could not decide what to keep and what to leave behind in a touch optimized separate OS, like a deer caught in the headlights.