Microsoft brings more Arm64 support and an updated expiry date to Dev Channel Windows Microsoft has demonstrated that it really does care about Windows on Arm with a new Dev Channel build for Windows that brings native Arm64 support to its camera app as a low-impact start. However, more useful in build 25182 is support for the state of the privacy shutter on supported hardware. A terse message awaits those with …
YET
They have clearly seen what Apple has done with the M1/M2 series and will IMHO, hold back as long as possible from supporting Windows on any ARM based system until they or the likes of Dell/HP/ASIS etc has hardware with at least an equivalent performance as an M1 based Mac. Even then, I would not put it past MS to put something in their full W11 for Arm, that stops it from running on an M1/M2 based Mac but that would probably lead to an almighty antitrust lawsuit.
They will catch up eventually.
Microsoft reportedly granted Qualcomm exclusive rights for official support of their ARM CPUs in exchange for Qualcomm supplying funding and support for the Windows port to ARM.
Not sure when this deal expires, but that's the reason Microsoft doesn't sell licenses for Windows/ARM and thus you can't legally run it in a Mac VM. The only legal way to run it is to buy hardware using a Qualcomm ARM CPU.
Because they tried and failed to make Windows/ARM a thing once already and probably had little appetite for trying again. Meanwhile Qualcomm hoped to expand their ARM SoC market beyond Android phones and knows Windows support is necessary for mass market success.
So they tell Microsoft "we'll pay for it if we get x years of exclusive support" and Microsoft figures "
well if it isn't really costing us anything why not?"
you can't legally run it [Windows 11 ARM] in a Mac VM
For something that is not legal, the functional insider preview certainly is well advertised, used as a selling point and deliberately enabled in an automated process within Parallels. So if there was no understanding in place Parallels would be in too risky a position to continue like that.
Why would they prevent Windows from running on Mac? They're not in direct competition at this point and they'd be cutting themselves off from a ready-made market.
I would expect Apple to do something to specifically restrict performance of anything that isn't MacOS on their M-chip Macs (including Linux) before I'd expect MS to piss away a couple of million easy sales. Apple's already made it hard to port Linux to their in-house ARM platform despite broad Linux support for ARM.
Apple's already made it hard to port Linux to their in-house ARM platform despite broad Linux support for ARM
Citation needed.
The people actually doing the M1 Linux port say the exact opposite, that Apple has not anything to deliberately make things harder and in some ways have taken steps to make things easier. Apple doesn't provide any documentation, but the hardware does not put up any roadblocks and in certain ways (like support for multiboot) is better than x86 PCs. They basically have everything major working now except full GPU acceleration.
Just because it doesn't work the same way as existing ARM stuff - which is pretty much ALL embedded devices like smartphones and routers - does not mean they are doing it wrong. Using uBoot instead of EFI would be stupid, but it sounds like that's what you'd prefer if you want it lumped in with existing ARM support in Linux.
It is far enough along that Linus bought himself a Macbook and noted in the email where he announced the Linux 5.19 release that he'd prepared the release and written the email on that Mac running Asahi Linux. He said he expects to get a lot more involved in ARM64 development now that he has proper hardware to run it on.
Some further info from the Asahi Linux blog: https://asahilinux.org/2021/10/progress-report-september-2021/
However, Apple is unique in putting emphasis in keeping hardware interfaces compatible across SoC generations – the UART hardware in the M1 dates back to the original iPhone! This means we are in a unique position to be able to try writing drivers that will not only work for the M1, but may work –unchanged– on future chips as well. This is a very exciting opportunity in the ARM64 world. We won’t know until Apple releases the M1X/M2, but if we succeed in making enough drivers forwards-compatible to boot Linux on newer chips, that will make things like booting older distro installers possible on newer hardware. That is something people take for granted on x86, but it’s usually impossible in the embedded world – and we hope we can change that on these machines.
When the M2 Macs came out they got it working very quickly, because of the above.
Just because it doesn't work the same way as existing ARM stuff - which is pretty much ALL embedded devices like smartphones and routers - does not mean they are doing it wrong.
This.
Apple have been booting OSX on ARM hardware since the first iPhone. Why would they spend development resources and time to change the way this works just because a different standard has emerged in the meantime. They don't wish to run Linux on their hardware so it would be wasted effort.
This isn't the same as activly trying to prevent Linux running.
If you want to get Linux up and running in a VM on an M1, they'll even tell you how.
(Hey, if you really want to complain about Apple not doing Linux right on ARM, then berate them for not using RISCOS as the bootloader. ;) )
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