So I've got a laptop that can't upgrade to W11, meaning MS is making it pretty obsolete in 11 months.
I could get an apple product, but I'm finding they make you pay a LOT for hard drive space- and I have 512 right now, trending higher as we accumulate pictures. So I'd like to get 1T.
Anyway, I'm also looking at the ARM chips for Windows, as I see them use a lot less power, don't use the cooler much, and have a lot of potential. But, unlike iOS, Windows is proving a tough chunk of software to simplify down to a simpler chip- at least that's the news I've heard up until now.
For the computer experts out there, have you heard different? Would getting one be ok if all I do is web search, watch the U of Tubes, some basic Word and Excel sheets? There are some pretty good deals out there for 14" Snapdragon powered laptops right now.
It's not a matter of simplification, it's a matter of compilation/emulation. The CPU architecture is different (not really simpler or inferior, just different, actually superior in efficiency) so any pre-compiled software (that is, almost all of it) meant for Windows on the usual x86 architecture won't run. Scripted or JIT-compiled stuff would be fine, but that's not much of the software available. Recompiling the software is often not an option because so much of the software for windows is closed-source and often legacy software. So the only solution is emulation (edit: which is built into Windows-on-ARM and runs transparently, to be clear) which requires a ton of extra processing power to be expended. Even with the option of recompiling on Linux where most everything is FLOSS, people often find running desktop software on ARM CPUs to be a PITA because the need for recompilation may not stop at the software you want - you may need to recompile a bunch of supporting software and libraries too.
Long story short, it may be OK for doing basic office work like you want, just don't complain if you try to install something else and it starts assaulting the CPU or simply doesn't work.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
i've been kind of considering the ARM chips simpler because of the reduced instructions that it's designed to run. That's why I think that way.
And Apple got it right pretty quickly with the M1 chip, but Windows is so historically X86, it's super hard to separate it. Which is why I'm asking multiple opinions if it's getting there or not.
In reply to alfadriver :
If you just want to do Office stuff and web browsing it will work fine, the trouble may come when you try to make use of the cross-architecture emulation by installing or running x86-based software. Apple would theoretically have just as much trouble, the difference is they've switched architectures many times before and haven't shied away from breaking backwards compatibility so much, so it's not their users' first rodeo.
I can tell you that the difference between the Apple M1 and the old Intel chips is astounding in terms of battery use and temperature. I basically don't think about the battery level in the M1 at all, when the computer tells me it's at 10% I know I have a few hours before I have to plug in.
External hard drive space is not a difficult thing to obtain, especially if you're just doing bulk storage. That's my plan if I find myself running out, so I didn't pony up for an expensive massive internal SSD.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I have two external drives already- which may steer me toward the deal I'm seeing at best buy. At the same time, though, phones are really ramping up picture size, so we will close on the max capacity really quickly. So....
Honestly? Maybe give a linux distro a try first. I found two possible contenders, but I don't know much about them:
Pinebook
DietPi - which is meant to work on Raspberri Pi PCs.
The problem isn't so much that Windows is tied to x86 - keep in mind that current versions of Windows are decended from Windows NT, which came in (IIRC) three processor flavours. So the OS itself is the smaller issue.
The real issue is that software vendors apparently can't be bothered to also build their applications for ARM and not only for x86/x64. Like MacOS, ARM Windows does seem to have a compatibiliy/translation layer that allows it to execute x86 code on ARM, but from what I've heard so far, the performance isn't that great compared to Rosetta in MacOS. Plus of course in MacOS, most developers very quickly started producing ARM versions of their software.
I've been using Windows since Windows 3.11 including writing a fair amount of software for it, am writing this on a triple boot (Linux/Windows 11/Windows 10) machine, and am currently seriously thinking about buying an ARM MacBook Air to replace my personal beater/travel laptop as I get increasingly frustrated with Windows 11. It used to be that it was the manufacturers of the hardware that dumped all the garbageware on the machines, now we don't have to worry about that much anymore as MS is doing it for them.
I keep the Windows machine around mostly for the odd gaming session as that's something that macOS still isn't that great at, but otherwise I try to use either Linux, *BSD or macOS.
My main Mac doesn't have enough storage for my needs but that was easily taken care off by a couple of external Thunderbolt NVMe enclosures.
GIRTHQUAKE said:
Honestly? Maybe give a linux distro a try first. I found two possible contenders, but I don't know much about them:
Pinebook
DietPi - which is meant to work on Raspberri Pi PCs.
Yeah for this kind of basic work, Linux will do fine even for someone who's totally new to it. Most of my computers run Linux, I only use Windows for gaming. Then you don't have to worry about the Win10 support deadline or any other planned obsolescence, and if you really want to experiment with ARM you'll have a lot more options on Linux. I run Linux Mint on most of my desktops, if I want something more lightweight without the bells and whistles I run Debian.
So I went shopping, and the sales person thought there may be an update next year, so I made the jump and now have an ARM laptop.
i know I said what I mostly do, but there are some times where having windows makes life easy, so I'm sticking with it. Who knows if MS will update me out too soon or not- I got quite a few years out of the previous computer.
I might update the old computer to a new system, but I doubt it. I have multiple machines I could have done it on over the years and have never pulled the trigger on it.
Would a Chromebook do your stuff?
I have been using one for several years. Browses fine, work alike documents & spreadsheets. Learning curve, pretty gentle.
In reply to Geoffrey :
No. While most of the stuff I do is searching and documents, there's the occasional thing I need that can only be done on a PC.
A friend bought a new high end Surface with the ARM chip. Had to return it, because it wouldn't do a lot of stuff he needed it for, including using a VPN for work. He is not a power user... just fyi.
