Re: x86 emulation on ARM
QEMU runs fine on a Raspberry Pi. Legacy software was intended for machines far slower than we have now, so will be perfectly acceptable running via emulation on a fast ARM.
I am sure Microsoft are not going in this direction out of choice. Intel cannot compete on price with Intel. They can just about make a low power chip, but if they sold it at a competitive price it would use fab time that could more profitably be spent on high margin server chips. This excludes Microsoft from the low end of the market until competition from ARM server chips reduces Intel's margins to the point where they can make phone chips. That is going to be a long wait with plenty of risk while children are learning that a Pi is sufficient for office software at 20% the price, no noisy fan and enough extra desk space for a toaster and a kettle.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
