One of the problems with Arm-based Windows laptops has been a lack of app support, but there’s big news this week as Google Chrome has unexpectedly debuted its first Windows on Arm build.
↫ Ben Schoon at 9To5Google
Now you can ruin your battery life on Windows on ARM too! We truly live in blessed times.
People will install it anyway because it can sync with the Chrome they already have on their phones.
All the talk about browsers that are supposedly going to dethrone Chrome is a lot like the talk about tablets that would supposedly dethrone the iPad, while anyone with a smidgen of knowledge of the market knows users flock to the iPad because only iOS has the tablet-optimized apps users want (which is crucial since tablets are essentially content consumption devices). Similarly, users go to Chrome because that’s where they have all their bookmarks, history, and passwords.
Personally, I prefer to keep my phone and desktop/laptop separate (because I don’t want my porn bookmarks to show up as suggestions on buses and restaurants and the like), but most people want their phone and desktop/laptop browsers to sync. BTW I use Brave on Android (Firefox for Android is a bit slow last time I tried it and Chrome for Android doesn’t take extensions) and I use Firefox on desktop/laptop, but I understand I am an outlier.
Chromium worked pretty fine on Windows ARM when I occasionally used such machines.
Hehe i want neither Chrome nor Windows on ARM. It offers nothing for me that i can not get from better sources.
Just because you don’t want it doesn’t mean someone else won’t. Diversity in OSes is a good thing, as it stops platform stagnation and “chicken and egg” dependencies. More choice is always good.
Sure, you might want to use Linux and Firefox, but others might want to use Windows and Chrome. There’s even crazier people who will want RISCOS and NetSurf. People need to have choice for a platform to truly flourish, and having a platform dominated by Linux is no better than the web being dominated by IE6
I am one of those that want Haiku or AmigaOS.