I will be honest with you; I was not, personally, paying attention to Windows 8 let alone Windows on ARM. I often like to push the newest and obscure releases of Windows falling prey to both Windows XP 64-bit as well as the not-nearly-as-bad-as-people-make-it-out-to-be Windows Vista; Windows 7 seems to suit my needs and I do not expect to push past it any time soon unless something shows me otherwise. If you, on the other hand, were awaiting Windows on ARM to be stable — which frankly I thought it already happened, but apparently not — and on their way to developers? Not now.
Intel’s starting to drop bricks?
Brooke Crothers of CNET reports Windows 8 for ARM processors has reached a stable build and is expected to be in the hands of developers in February. Despite the seemingly late deployment, one source did not expect Windows 8 on ARM to be released later than the x86 version; that source also admitted to not being given information from Microsoft to support that assertion. I am skeptical of that source, to say the least, but I keep an open mind.
As for legacy applications, Microsoft Office has not been seen running on ARM devices. Intuitively, if Office were to be fully operational on ARM then Microsoft would likely have shown it off by now. Whether or not intuition holds true is yet to be seen, though CNET heard from a source of a source that Office is “running fine” on ARM.
Despite Microsoft’s demonstrations of Windows 8, there is little information circulating about Windows 8 on ARM. Even at CES, there was little that was shown to sate the questions asked about the new platform. Perhaps once it is in the hands of developers we might discover more concrete information?
There’s no need to push past
There’s no need to push past unless you are on a Bulldozer, and a rabid AMD fanboy. 8120 + 6950 CF. 🙂
I’m still not sure that
I’m still not sure that windows on arm is gona be a good thing. The main reason people keep going windows is legacy software compatibility. From the hints microsoft keeps leaking, it seems that windows for arm is going to be a completely different os, using the “Metro” gui that every body seems to hate anyways. IF they were saying “Windows 8 let’s you run x86 software on ARM,” that would be exciting for those of us always looking for small footprint, low power, silent machiens. However all this seems to be is “Hey, we are making a new tablet os to compeet in a already overcrowded market”
Still loving Win 7. No
Still loving Win 7. No interested in this new mobile-style interface. Maybe Win 8 offers some file system improvements that might be compelling. Still do not understand the allure of apple when I can have a great os, win 7, that does not need bootcamp, on anything I choose to build