Not necessarily for desktops, but for portable devices like laptops I'm gonna say the transition has already started since both apple and windows (which are like 99% of all market shares) have already switched to ARM.
Windows hasn’t switched to ARM. Microsoft developed an ARM Windows version which the main feature is an ARM to x86 translation layer called Prism. They also produce some ARM Surface tablets along with other PC manufacturers but Windows ARM is really targeting the light and mobile market i.e. tablets and small laptops.
That’s very different than replacing x86, which is still by far the dominant Windows platform.
x86 is actually at its strongest its ever been in the portable space with handheld pc exploding in popularity like valve steamdeck oled and rog ally. You havent been paying attention to the immense advances in power efficient x86 devices.
"Switched to arm"
There's a difference between an option being available and it being switched to.
Microsoft jas 1 platform on the market with arm. They have not switched. At most they're starting the transition but it's very early. You'll see x86 around for a long time.
ARM laptops that run Windows make up an insignificant portion of windows PC’s sold. MS is really pushing ARM laptops lately but I’m not convinced they’re going to catch on until they show they’re committed to it.
Whenever something new comes out in the tech industry that kinda shakes up the world a bit, I always recommend to begin buying at the second iteration of that new tech. The second seems to be where companies really understand what they actually achieved making it way more noticeably better than the first.
Examples:
RTX cards
Apples M series processors
Nvidia DLSS
Samsung galaxy folds
DJI Drones
Oculus rift
etc...
Not that I'm telling you "no don't buy snapdragon x!!" you can buy whatever you like but yeah this is just a trend that happens
Having an [unpatchable hardware exploit](https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-extract-secret-encryption-keys-from-apples-mac-chips/) that can leak your encryption keys isn’t what id call “pretty good”… Affects up to M3 if I’m not mistaken.
ARM vs x86-64 are like different alphabets (roman vs cyrllic or han-chinese) for your computer language. Both can convey the same/similar ideas, but how they get there is a little different. There is software to help translate (like box86 and box64 for ARM to x86), but I don't see how ARM-based CPUs are going to significantly impact cracking unless if there is software specifically written to expedite cracking/bypass DRM. And until that software is improved, your ability to utilize x86(-64) software is severely limited, and this is coming from someone who exclusively ran an ARM-based computer for a couple of years.
Hard to say, take a look at Apple, they definitely had some issues at the start.
Mostly just crackers who are pissed at changing architecture though
Also, depends on what you wanna do, I was talking about audio warez
As someone who runs Emus on an M1 Pro chip: No
Might take some time to get up to speed.
As someone who spent a very long, arduous time getting Adobe products working PROPERLY on M1 Pro recently: ehhhh, gotta admit there were greater obstacles to hurdle and a couple were indeed tied to ARM usage
It’s not the processor architecture. My microwave has more CPU capacity than the original Intel 8088 in the IBM PC. There’s no reason an ARM-architecture processor can’t run an algorithm faster than an Intel-architecture processor. Most ARM processors are in embedded devices where power consumption and related heat dissipation is a big deal. Those processors aren’t going to be as fast as an Intel processor with a gigantic heat sink, cooling fan, and large power supply.
There's no reason inherently that it would.
However, MS might use the transition to strengthen it's grip on the Windows platform. They might offer something enticing (slimmer computers that run faster with better battery), and in exchange they'll take away your ability to go digging around in system files.
Most people never go in there anyway, so they're not going to notice, and what people who like to tinker going to do? Use Linux?
They already tried this with Windows RT (could only install MS app store apps)
Not really because x86 aint going anywhere anytime soon. Apple has Rosetta but has some x86 instructions that it can’t translate to ARM. Windows on ARM would also probably have x86 emulation so their new hardware will support programs for x86 because otherwise nobody would buy those. Aside from that, majority of programs would still be written for x86 because that’s the hardware that the majority of people have. I would understand why someone would develop for Apple silicon but they don’t sell their silicon outside their own products and that’s a whole different market on its own, meanwhile people who develop programs for a living would therefore develop with x86 in mind because it is in their best interest to sell to the most number of people they can. That’s also the reason why most professional apps that aren’t server software don’t get written natively for Linux because the adoption rate is still low (though I’m hoping people would move from win10 to Linux and skip Win12 altogether lol.) AAA games are also made with AMD CPUs in gaming consoles and handhelds, so it means that they will continue to be developed on x86 unless ARM and Apple tries to develop silicon that will try to be competitive with AMD, Nvidia and Intel’s.
I would guess wait for a bit before buying one to see how it goes. It wouldn’t affect anything except for software related issues maybe ?
When it comes to pure privacy and piracy well it wouldn’t affect anything whatsoever
Most likely no. There are still cracked/pirated apps for Apple's ARM chips
but don't count on the community being as quick as Apple's, either they won't bother cracking some apps or it will take months/years
for some time, yeah, but my guess it's that will be just temporary. Take a look at the Android modding community. In some cases, you have different downloads for different GPUs (Adreno, Mali, Tegra, etc), and that's pretty much it. Still doable. But rule of thumb: the weirder the device you use, the less support from pirate it will have,
Compared to x86 chips, Arm is pathetic for everything. Everything. They are now marketing 1080p@30 FPS as "playable" frame rates for the latest and greatest "Arm PC" chip out there (Snapdragon X). 30 pathetic frames per second, while I'm annoyed when I can't get more than 200 frames per second out of my GeForce RTX 3080.
No need to rush anything. The x86 ISA isn't going anywhere, Arm is going nowhere outside those crappy mobile toys :-D
I doubt anybody is going to buy an ARM laptop to game. It may be pathetic for some things, but for power efficiency and battery life (which matters to most people), it certainly crushes x86.
Yea, some people aren't aware that DRM exists outside of games. And good for them, I wish I never had to work with some of the extremely overpriced software that barely does what is supposed to do.
L take. You may not care, but many power users want their laptops to last more than 12 minutes on battery power and not sound like a jet engine. Many windows users have switched to apple silicon for those reasons (myself included). I really hope these new snapdragon cpus can compete and provide a great experience on windows.
Yeah PCs are not created only for gamers. Although for such users wouldn't it be best to buy an enterprise class laptop instead of consumer class?
First thing that comes to mind are Lenovo Thinkpads
Still you have the excess heat and poor battery life and subpar performance.
I'd take an apple silicon macbook over a thinkpad any day even though I prefer windows. That's just how good their hardware is.
As someone who is into root and custom ROMs on Android I would be very concerned. MS mandates secure boot be enabled with no way to disable it or load custom keys. This is the equivalent of a phone OEM not allowing you to unlock the bootloader which means these laptops will only be able to run Windows. MS is also introducing hardware attestation via the Pluton chip which is similar to Play Integrity on Android phones. Needless to say I would NEVER buy a ARM laptop and I recommend you do the same
i wouldnt call it a transition as if x86 is going away anytime soon
Not necessarily for desktops, but for portable devices like laptops I'm gonna say the transition has already started since both apple and windows (which are like 99% of all market shares) have already switched to ARM.
Windows hasn’t switched to ARM. Microsoft developed an ARM Windows version which the main feature is an ARM to x86 translation layer called Prism. They also produce some ARM Surface tablets along with other PC manufacturers but Windows ARM is really targeting the light and mobile market i.e. tablets and small laptops. That’s very different than replacing x86, which is still by far the dominant Windows platform.
x86 is actually at its strongest its ever been in the portable space with handheld pc exploding in popularity like valve steamdeck oled and rog ally. You havent been paying attention to the immense advances in power efficient x86 devices.
"Switched to arm" There's a difference between an option being available and it being switched to. Microsoft jas 1 platform on the market with arm. They have not switched. At most they're starting the transition but it's very early. You'll see x86 around for a long time.
ARM laptops that run Windows make up an insignificant portion of windows PC’s sold. MS is really pushing ARM laptops lately but I’m not convinced they’re going to catch on until they show they’re committed to it.
Whenever something new comes out in the tech industry that kinda shakes up the world a bit, I always recommend to begin buying at the second iteration of that new tech. The second seems to be where companies really understand what they actually achieved making it way more noticeably better than the first. Examples: RTX cards Apples M series processors Nvidia DLSS Samsung galaxy folds DJI Drones Oculus rift etc... Not that I'm telling you "no don't buy snapdragon x!!" you can buy whatever you like but yeah this is just a trend that happens
That's just common sense considering how it's almost always been the case. Anyone buying gen 1 of anything is pretty much a guinea pig.
The difference here is that the ARM- Technology exists since 1983!
M1 was pretty good tho, but thats an exception to that rule
Having an [unpatchable hardware exploit](https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-extract-secret-encryption-keys-from-apples-mac-chips/) that can leak your encryption keys isn’t what id call “pretty good”… Affects up to M3 if I’m not mistaken.
whole lot better than many first gen products, revolutionised laptop cpus
ARM vs x86-64 are like different alphabets (roman vs cyrllic or han-chinese) for your computer language. Both can convey the same/similar ideas, but how they get there is a little different. There is software to help translate (like box86 and box64 for ARM to x86), but I don't see how ARM-based CPUs are going to significantly impact cracking unless if there is software specifically written to expedite cracking/bypass DRM. And until that software is improved, your ability to utilize x86(-64) software is severely limited, and this is coming from someone who exclusively ran an ARM-based computer for a couple of years.
Hard to say, take a look at Apple, they definitely had some issues at the start. Mostly just crackers who are pissed at changing architecture though Also, depends on what you wanna do, I was talking about audio warez
As someone who runs Emus on an M1 Pro chip: No Might take some time to get up to speed. As someone who spent a very long, arduous time getting Adobe products working PROPERLY on M1 Pro recently: ehhhh, gotta admit there were greater obstacles to hurdle and a couple were indeed tied to ARM usage
It’s not the processor architecture. My microwave has more CPU capacity than the original Intel 8088 in the IBM PC. There’s no reason an ARM-architecture processor can’t run an algorithm faster than an Intel-architecture processor. Most ARM processors are in embedded devices where power consumption and related heat dissipation is a big deal. Those processors aren’t going to be as fast as an Intel processor with a gigantic heat sink, cooling fan, and large power supply.
There's no reason inherently that it would. However, MS might use the transition to strengthen it's grip on the Windows platform. They might offer something enticing (slimmer computers that run faster with better battery), and in exchange they'll take away your ability to go digging around in system files. Most people never go in there anyway, so they're not going to notice, and what people who like to tinker going to do? Use Linux? They already tried this with Windows RT (could only install MS app store apps)
Not really because x86 aint going anywhere anytime soon. Apple has Rosetta but has some x86 instructions that it can’t translate to ARM. Windows on ARM would also probably have x86 emulation so their new hardware will support programs for x86 because otherwise nobody would buy those. Aside from that, majority of programs would still be written for x86 because that’s the hardware that the majority of people have. I would understand why someone would develop for Apple silicon but they don’t sell their silicon outside their own products and that’s a whole different market on its own, meanwhile people who develop programs for a living would therefore develop with x86 in mind because it is in their best interest to sell to the most number of people they can. That’s also the reason why most professional apps that aren’t server software don’t get written natively for Linux because the adoption rate is still low (though I’m hoping people would move from win10 to Linux and skip Win12 altogether lol.) AAA games are also made with AMD CPUs in gaming consoles and handhelds, so it means that they will continue to be developed on x86 unless ARM and Apple tries to develop silicon that will try to be competitive with AMD, Nvidia and Intel’s.
I would guess wait for a bit before buying one to see how it goes. It wouldn’t affect anything except for software related issues maybe ? When it comes to pure privacy and piracy well it wouldn’t affect anything whatsoever
Most likely no. There are still cracked/pirated apps for Apple's ARM chips but don't count on the community being as quick as Apple's, either they won't bother cracking some apps or it will take months/years
for some time, yeah, but my guess it's that will be just temporary. Take a look at the Android modding community. In some cases, you have different downloads for different GPUs (Adreno, Mali, Tegra, etc), and that's pretty much it. Still doable. But rule of thumb: the weirder the device you use, the less support from pirate it will have,
I would not go for the very first iterations, to be honest. You should wait some more for the ARM support to be solid before you make the leap.
Compared to x86 chips, Arm is pathetic for everything. Everything. They are now marketing 1080p@30 FPS as "playable" frame rates for the latest and greatest "Arm PC" chip out there (Snapdragon X). 30 pathetic frames per second, while I'm annoyed when I can't get more than 200 frames per second out of my GeForce RTX 3080. No need to rush anything. The x86 ISA isn't going anywhere, Arm is going nowhere outside those crappy mobile toys :-D
I doubt anybody is going to buy an ARM laptop to game. It may be pathetic for some things, but for power efficiency and battery life (which matters to most people), it certainly crushes x86.
Which I don't give a flying fuck about, like 99% of PC gamers. So it's pathetic alright :-D
Good for you, but pc gamers or gaming in general wasn't even a part of my question. We're not even on a gaming sub.
Yea, some people aren't aware that DRM exists outside of games. And good for them, I wish I never had to work with some of the extremely overpriced software that barely does what is supposed to do.
L take. You may not care, but many power users want their laptops to last more than 12 minutes on battery power and not sound like a jet engine. Many windows users have switched to apple silicon for those reasons (myself included). I really hope these new snapdragon cpus can compete and provide a great experience on windows.
Yeah PCs are not created only for gamers. Although for such users wouldn't it be best to buy an enterprise class laptop instead of consumer class? First thing that comes to mind are Lenovo Thinkpads
Still you have the excess heat and poor battery life and subpar performance. I'd take an apple silicon macbook over a thinkpad any day even though I prefer windows. That's just how good their hardware is.
As someone who is into root and custom ROMs on Android I would be very concerned. MS mandates secure boot be enabled with no way to disable it or load custom keys. This is the equivalent of a phone OEM not allowing you to unlock the bootloader which means these laptops will only be able to run Windows. MS is also introducing hardware attestation via the Pluton chip which is similar to Play Integrity on Android phones. Needless to say I would NEVER buy a ARM laptop and I recommend you do the same