Windows Arm PCs could be SO much better

What's going on with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite 'Mac mini killer' Dev Kit?

I take a look at the current Windows on Arm landscape, and discuss what I think Microsoft and Qualcomm should do to make Snapdragon X truly 'Elite' among Arm platforms.

Some of the videos and resources I mentioned:

"Paid promotion" disclaimer: I was not paid anything to make this video, but some of the equipment I show in the video (namely, the ADLINK workstation and Ampere Altra Max CPU) were provided over a year ago with no obligations attached. I still like to disclose when I show any equipment I didn't personally pay for, because that lets you, the viewer, adjust for any potential bias that may come through.

Contents:

00:00 - Where's the Snapdragon Dev Kit?
00:44 - Marketing vs reality
03:14 - Arm is amazing (on Linux)
04:08 - Gaming on Arm (on Linux)
05:31 - Should you buy an Arm HEDT instead?
06:23 - We need something better
07:39 - Maybe Linux is the answer?
08:21 - Dear Microsoft, Dear Qualcomm

[kerimgueney]

Holy crap. The fact that you could hook up a 4070 to an ARM CPU and actually run Doom is amazing. Linux is incredible.

[Vatharian]

> ARM doesn't have Windows device drivers
> people don't use it
> dev kits not available
> devs can't write drivers because no hardware
> ARM doesn't have Windows device drivers

Honestly, at this point, Qualcomm should hand out devkits for free. It should have been doing that for a YEAR already.

[lbgstzockt]

Aren't devkits supposed to come out before the main product launches? lol

[DJRobSunset]

It is insane, how snapdragon just can’t get dev kits out. They just set this up for disaster.

[jfolz]

Funny how the turns tabled. ARM drivers for Linux, but nothing for Windows.

[spicybaguette]

Microsoft should really follow its ex-CEO Steve Ballmer's advice: "Developers developers developers developers developers developers developers!"

[dinckelman]

Microsoft’s biggest competition are themselves. The industry moves on, and they are trying to latch onto anything that would make them money for the month

[zimbu_]

You're my favorite Ampere gaming influencer, Jeff.

[calicomorgan]

I put Linux Mint Cinnamon on my surface laptop 2 because, with NOTHING on it, it was struggling to run windows. It's like a dream laptop now. It's my first Linux home device and it's snappy as hell and everything just makes sense. I can't wait to try it on a newer machine one day.

[JoelKalich]

That Linux>Windows thumbnail hits hard this morning specifically...

[vidm]

5:18 It's actually perfectly on brand for portal 2 to have issues with cores ;)

[confusedbeard]

Tuxedo with TuxedoOS is working with Qualcomm and has their own Snapdragon Linux PC's coming, TuxedoOS will also work with current Snapdragon Elite X laptops so it's actually looking good.

[alliejr]

Most underrated the real genius of M1 which was seamless real-time Intel code translation with higher performance than the Intel hardware it was replacing. Somehow Microsoft has lost the script on compiler-level technology.

[gunayorbay]

I remember having absolutely no luck with Wacom drivers with WoA on the 2023 dev kit, and later found out it just works with linux. As long as there is a proper kernel that is.

[MegaKrustyman]

It's pretty wild when you stop to consider that you pay Microsoft for a license to install an OS that sells your personal info, search history etc.
They don't pay you for those rights, you pay them. Crazy.

[sandmanxo]

I can't say I really care about Windows on Arm. I've already decided to go full time on Linux on my next computer anyways. After Windows 10 support goes away I'll only use Windows for the one server I admin and my work laptop.

[argonthepanda]

I would absolutely love socketed ARM chips for consumer desktop space. It would be so fun to build an SFF HTPC or a server

[MarcoGPUtuber]

WIndows ARM PCs could be so much better, but Jeff's content has already reached perfection.

[metacob]

Windows is showing ads to paying customers.
That's the kind of thing that companies do when they have to tell shareholders how they are going to squeeze more money out of their customers every quarter.
Just a little preview of what's to come for Raspberry Pi...

[MarkDenovich]

Windows Arm on Mac running under Parallels has been fantastic (for the rare thing I need that’s Windows only).