And I’m confident I don’t want to use an operating system that forces me to disclose my email address to use the damn computer.<p>I just bought a Microsoft branded laptop and to my horror it wouldn’t let me even create a local account without giving it an email. I gave it a fake one and now it pesters me every couple minutes to validate it.
Even if they were to match Apple Silicon pound-for-pound, they've been horrible stewards of the Windows OS in terms of nagware, bloat, and user hostile behavior (the default browser nonsense). If they actually made an operating system that respected their users, I'd be more inclined to take a serious look at these devices.
I’ve had issues on Windows 10 recently with windows updates not installing properly. After lots of research in their forums I found that I have to run scripts people have come up with to fix the issue, which just does not seem trustworthy or user friendly. I have just let these updates repeatedly fail because I am worried about messing up my installed OS somehow. On top of this drop in quality, I’ve seen more and more anti-competitive / dark pattern behavior with notifications and pop ups trying to push me towards Microsoft software and services. I feel like Microsoft is violating what a general purpose computer is supposed to be.<p>Are newer Windows versions any better about software quality or these dark patterns? Given that MacOS already is free of such nagging and is already great functionally (like on battery life and performance), I am not sure what motivation there is (other than price?) to take a chance on future Snapdragon Elite laptops.
Even so, the greatest issue is getting Windows developer community to actually care to provide ARM binaries, which has been the main pain point from previous Windows on ARM hardware attempts.<p>Managed languages will do just fine, their dependencies on native libraries, or typical compiled applications and libraries not so much.<p>Breaking compatibility on Windows has always ended up badly for Microsoft, as it goes against the culture they themselves created on the PC.<p>So it remains to be seen how much will keep running under emulation.
> Microsoft claims, in internal documents seen by The Verge, that these new Windows AI PCs will have “faster app emulation than Rosetta 2”<p>I'm deeply fascinated by this. Rosetta 2 is crazy impressive. If the Qualcomm/Windows works as well then a Windows ARM laptop could be genuinely interesting.
They are careful to promise better performance without mentioning battery life. And, separately, good battery life without mentioning performance. To me that creates the impression that they cannot do both. You’ll either have good perf but only for a few hours (then just get an AMD CPU), or good battery life but shitty perf (then just get a rockchip-based Chromebook)<p>The reason everyone is in love with Apple silicon chips is that you get amazing perf and still get twenty hours of battery life.
I’m excited about the Windows release bringing standardization and solid hardware in this area. Apple Silicon is locked down, so having a traditional bootloader (which Windows Boot is) on ARM will be great for linux adoption in this space — which is really what I see for these devices going forward.
From the Article: "Microsoft is so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than an M3 MacBook Air for CPU tasks, AI acceleration, and even app emulation."
It’s honestly meaningless until the entire Windows market moves over, which I doubt gaming will anytime soon.<p>Apples transition worked since they could force it. Developers targeting Mac users had to work on Arm optimized versions or be stuck working through Rosetta.<p>But if this doesn’t sell well enough for developers to care, why would you buy a device that only runs software through emulation.
It's great news to see competition to Macs. However, we need independent tests on it's efficiency. It doesn't matter if they're faster than Macs if they drain more battery. Also, at the end of the day, these chips will be inside Windows laptops. Windows OEM's ain't stealing Apple customers.