Microsoft shoots down Windows 7 for ARM speculation

[Jos]

Earlier this year there was some speculation about whether or not Microsoft would support ARM-based processors in upcoming versions of its operating system. The move would potentially allow for always-on operation in netbooks and a significant boost battery life, all while giving ARM a shot at becoming more relevant in this Intel-dominated market. Sadly for them, however, Microsoft has no such plans for now.

According to Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president for original equipment manufacturers, Windows 7 will not run on netbooks powered by ARM chips. The decision isn’t too surprising either, given the company’s long-standing partnerships with Intel and AMD. Versions of Windows for ARM processors already exist in the form of Windows Mobile and CE for handhelds and embedded systems. But with netbooks and so-called smartbooks, moving Windows to a whole new architecture may not be such a good idea in the interim.

As Guggenheimer puts it, “if it looks like a PC and acts like a PC, people [will] want the features and benefits of a PC,” but such a move would imply numerous hardware and software compatibility issues to overcome first. Microsoft already has a lot riding on Windows 7 to worry about these issues. That doesn’t mean an ARM port is not feasible, or perhaps already in the works, it just doesn’t make sense at this point in time.

The decision does leave the door open for ARM-based netbooks running Android, Moblin and other non-Windows operating systems to gain some share in this segment. Companies have already shown several such devices at Computex this week; whether or not Microsoft should be worried is another question.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/34968-microsoft-shoots-down-windows-7-for-arm-speculation.html

 

[Wendig0]

I'm just wondering when they're going to figure out that the netbook needs a ROM based operating system to see its full potential? That would be nice.

 

[Guest]

MS cant produce windows 7 for arm without colliding into a problem where software people want that is written for x86 wont work on the arm system. It is stupid to even think windows 7 could be shoehorned onto an arm. MS would have to create an x86 emulator to run everyone else's software on the arm even if MS recompiled/rewrote everything to do with windows 7 for arm.

No.. windows 7 isnt ment for arm. They will likely roll out an extended edition of their windows mobile or create a new environment for these devices since not all mobile applications will be able to scale up to larger screens. This is the only thing that will make sense. This is a new platform and either MS doesnt want to play with this, or they are still thinking about what to do about it, or they already have something in the plans for when there is an actual market (read problem) for another operating system for arm processors.

Linux has a chance here, so does android, symbian, that open moto or whatever it's called might also fit in the arm notebook systems.

I for one would love to have an arm powered notebook. I use my cell phone as it is a lot, and have a number of widgets and applications that do different things that almost replace a laptop aside from having a screen that's too small to view most web pages in full.

 

[tengeta]

Windows + ARM = Terrible idea at the start. There is a reason Apple abandoned PPC...

Thats all I'm gonna say here.

 

[Zeromus]

ARM = RISC ISA + Thumb Opcodes
Stating the obvious, it's evident that ARM is one of the most supported mobile architectures along with the fact of it's highly aligned stupendous instruction set. My two primary architectures I love working with is ARM and MIPS. Both were implemented after x86, but to a developer it's ice cream to work with, I can see exactly why microsoft won't work with it. I'll just leave it to the article to tell the rest.