Windows 8: BFD — Big Forking Decision

This is why I think Google deciding to help Intel get into the mobile game was a poor strategic decision on Google's part. If Intel becomes a strong player in the mobile market, who do you think will benefit the most from it? Google? No. Microsoft. Because then they can get back to using x86 chips, while Google's doesn't gain much of anything, since competition in the ARM market was already strong enough, and Intel was far from "necessary".<p>Unless, Google's plan is to get Android on more x86 (older) machines, once the OS matures a bit more, and become a real OS choice for people using Windows today. But we'll see if that's their real plan, and if it is, how it will go.<p>Until then I still think Google's decision to help Intel take over the mobile market (if that's even possible at this point) will turn out to be a very bad decision for Android's future, as it will allow Windows a backdoor to get back on track. Google should realize that hurting Intel means hurting Microsoft.

Great review by Jean Louis Gassee. It will be interesting to see whether this forking risk is indeed temporal or risks growing into a real issue. Intel has slipped on maintaining a dominant position on the mobile chips platform. I think they're waking up to the issue: "What!!?? People actually use these silly tablet thingies as laptops substitutes? WHAT?" Not sure whether they can move quickly enough to respond.

Obviously it's a bitch to worry about whether your ARM device will run an old x86 app, but CLR/.NET apps should be fine, right?

Logically, if you are writing a new app and believe W8 will sell a lot (probable), the go with the Metro since that gets you both chipsets. The problem with that is that Microsoft has been a little erratic since .Net with what I should write to. It is almost like Java and what UI library I should use. I do think the app store, if it only shows stuff that will run on your machine, will mitigate a lot of the problems.