Windows on arm?

SewerGator20201 · October 1, 2020

Hi perhaps this may not be the most appropriate forum for such a question ,but how useable is windows on an ARM machine in the context of surface like a surface X? Does the emulator really cause any major issues ? Is the basic stuff like chrome , discord , office etcetera avaible as well?

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask ,but I've been trying to find a definite answer ,but most reviews appear to be focusing on either the device itself or go back months. Currently I have an old-ish macbook that I would like to siwtch from.

Radium_Angel · October 1, 2020

9 minutes ago, SewerGator20201 said:

Currently I have an old-ish macbook that I would like to siwtch from.

If you want a daily driver for very simple things, then have fun, but WinARM isn't there anything complex.

SewerGator20201 · October 1, 2020

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

If you want a daily driver for very simple things, then have fun, but WinARM isn't there anything complex.

How complex are we talking? Generally speaking I tend to only really use chrome for things like netflix , gdocs etc , reddit , discord and sometimes minecraft

Radium_Angel · October 1, 2020

4 minutes ago, SewerGator20201 said:

How complex are we talking? Generally speaking I tend to only really use chrome for things like netflix , gdocs etc , reddit , discord and sometimes minecraft

Web browsing is fine (for the most part) and MS is working on an x64 compat layer for WinARM, but I don't think it's ready yet...

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/30/1646249/windows-on-arm-is-about-to-get-lots-of-apps-thanks-to-new-x64-emulation

GoodBytes · October 2, 2020

10 hours ago, SewerGator20201 said:

Hi perhaps this may not be the most appropriate forum for such a question ,but how useable is windows on an ARM machine in the context of surface like a surface X? Does the emulator really cause any major issues ? Is the basic stuff like chrome , discord , office etcetera avaible as well?

Windows 10 on ARM feature x86 translation layer. That is 32-bit app support. Microsoft has been actively working on x86-64 translation layer. Microsoft targets a PREVIEW of it in November. So at best (if no big issues are found), you can expect it to be released in early 2021 update of Windows 10, if you don't want to jump in into the Insider Program. From what I got, x86 translation layer was partially made all the way back with the Surface RT (was updated, completed and polished). x86-64 needed to be done from scratch.

For the best experience of applications, you have to get native ARM64 applications.

The following big applications are now compiled for ARM64 or are coming:

New Edge (Chromium based one)
Chrome (in the works, no ETA)
Firefox
VLC
Visual Studio Code (extensions needs to be updated as well, so you need to check with what you use)
NodeJS (in the works... but nothing official yet)
Microsoft Teams (in the works)
Netflix app (Twitter, Crunchyroll, Drawboard PDF, OneNote, Microsoft To Do, Skype, etc.)
Minecraft for Windows 10 (the one from the Windows Store)
Windows Terminal
and all Native Windows 10 apps (of course)
Dolphin Emulator (not official. Direct3D 12 only)

Office isn't compiled for ARM64. I have no info when it will be released or even if it is in the works. But I don't think it will have trouble running... I mean, I am not reading anyone complaining. But I have no personal experience on Office or Surface Pro X, beside using it at the store way back when the Pro X was released.

From my reading, the translation is fine for simple applications. Most Surface Pro X users seems to opt for PWA versions of missing apps when possible, for a faster experience. Example: Spotify (although, in this case, you don't have access in the highest bitrate quality).

As for Discord, the desktop app is just a web wrapper... so might as well use the website version. I see that people are requesting for a PWA version of the app. But nothing has been done so far.

If you want no compromised, consider the normal Surface Pro with Intel CPU.

Although the Surface Pro 7, is now... a year old. I would not buy it now, but rather wait for the Pro 8. I mean, the price didn't go lower, from what I can see.

If you are looking at the Surface Pro X, wait for information on the new SQ2 chip that it sports. We do know it has better GPU and battery life, but no idea on performance. Anything that is faster will help the translation layer performance (and we don't know if x86-64 translator layer will have worse performance than the x86 one).

Personally, I have the Surface Pro 3 and had the Pro 2 before that. It's due to be replaced, but I have my desktop to replace first (its 11 years old).