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Comment by dpark

3 hours ago

> an ARM device that had the battery life of Apple Silicon, yet was a real computer that wasn't locked down, ensured/promoted ARM compatibility with their ecosystem

Isn’t that what this is? (Or is supposed to be?)

9 comments

dpark

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quitspamming  3 hours ago

> (Or is supposed to be?)

I would be happy to eat my words "later this year" (per their timeline) but past Surface interactions lead me to believe it will be more of the same as in the past. Bad performance, bad battery life, bad build quality, bad compatibility.

For the sake of competition and options, I really hope to be proven wrong... I just wouldn't bet on it.

  • dpark  3 hours ago

    > bad compatibility

    I’m curious what this means. Bad compatibility with Windows software? Or bad compatibility with Linux?

    • steveBK123  2 hours ago

      In some ways.. since Microsoft is known for maintaining backwards compatibility whereas Apple is not, I think 3rd party devs are just not incentivized to care about Windows ARM compatibility.

      Further, it doesn't seem like Microsoft made x86 emulation as seamless or performant as Apple did during the various MacOS CPU architecture changes.

      Every use case I've looked at has been a minefield of app incompatibility and poor performance under x86 emulation.

      For music production for example - https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/windows-on-arm...

    • quitspamming  2 hours ago

      I was referring mainly to Windows software, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign were major pain points on the Windows side. Sure though, add Linux compatibility to the list of things that were an issue too.

  • bigyabai  3 hours ago

    Sounds like you aren't familiar with Nvidia's dedication to low-power ARM SOCs. Ever heard of the Nintendo Switch before? The Tegra inside that is a 15w TDP gaming SOC. And it supports CUDA (somehow).

    • hackyhacky  3 hours ago

      > Sounds like you aren't familiar with Nvidia's dedication to low-power ARM SOCs. Ever heard of the Nintendo Switch before? The Tegra inside that is a 15w TDP gaming SOC. And it supports CUDA (somehow).

      I think that GP comment is not intending to throw shade at ARM SOCs (many of which are quite nice, including those from Apple an Qualcomm), but specifically the Microsoft products built on them.

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