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There's No Windows for Arm Macs Yet Because Microsoft Has Secret Exclusivity Deal With Qualcomm

There are ways to get a "production" version of Windows 11 ARM Pro and Windows 11 ARM Home (so not the Insider Previews) and that can be Activated with a purchased Windows 11 Pro or Home license activation key.

Is it legal as per the EULA? Guess not if Qualcomm hardware is the only approved configuration. But it will be a licensed and activated installation from Microsoft's product validation side.
 
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Reactions: Mike Boreham, bobcomer, Mr.PT and 2 others
I don’t see why they would sell a stand-alone copy of Windows on Arm. There are no powerful arm cpu available on the market. Only SoC those are available to device manufacturers. Stand-alone copy is meant for custom building pc. Now only Intel and AMD provide that kind of products to consumer.
 
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C.clavin said:
Amazing the newest version of macOS runs on Apple Silicon AND Intel right now and Windows 11 only on Qualcomm chips. How the opened / closed platforms have changed!
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Windows 11 also runs on x86 chips. So macOS is Apple Silicon and Intel. Windows is (apparently)Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD. So don't forget the 99% of chips that run Windows 10 in your analysis...
 
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Freeangel1 said:
If Nvidia buys ARM it could get worse for Windows ARM on a Mac.

APPLE should have bought ARM.

Still think they should have bought Adobe. fine tuned the software and made some programs Mac only.
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Apple would never have been allowed to buy ARM. It’s possible, even likely, that regulators will block the sale to Nvidia for much the same reason. However even if it does go through Nvidia’s takeover of ARM wouldn’t affect Apple or Windows on ARM on Apple much at all.
 
andrewxgx said:
nope
might be a reason, but its not the reason
MS has become data collection company lately, and worst than google on it. why do you think win11 doesnt work without a MS account? they don't want you to use some apps as secondary OS on a mac. now money made that way. they want you to use this as your primary OS, collect data, sell ads and so on.
Click to expand...
Microsoft is a software and services company.

msft-revenue-q4-01.png
 
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cnnyy20p said:
I don’t see why they would sell a stand-alone copy of Windows on Arm. There are no powerful arm cpu available on the market. Only SoC those are available to device manufacturers. Stand-alone copy is meant for custom building pc. Now only Intel and AMD provide that kind of products to consumer.
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Stand alone copies are also used for virtualization and loading on devices that didn’t originally ship with WoA.
 
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I've considered getting Parallels. But since only ARM-optimized apps run natively in the ARM version of Windows, that means that any other x86 app (such as the majority of games) would be running in a Windows emulation mode while in Parallels' emulation mode. I suspect that wouldn't make for too fantastic of an experience.
 
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Even in this deal expires, I don’t think it means Windows on M1 is imminent.
Microsoft is focused mainly on “connected devices” with WoA, not on advanced users who dual boot or use VMs. And having Apple’s laptops be the flagship device for WoA… I can’t imagine that’s something Microsoft wants.

If, and this is a big if, WoA gains serious traction for powerful workloads, I expect Microsoft will treat it like regular Windows and sell individual licenses. Then you’ll be able to run it on ASi legally, in a VM. But that’s a few years away.

Bootcamp support is coming never.
 
Wonder if Justice Department is probably knocking on Microsoft’s door right now to answer some few question.

Potential that there will be another anti-trust suite filed against Microsoft and Qualcomm soon.

Another reason Apple wants to move modem in house as soon as possible.

Either way, Snapdragon is no match for Mx series chips Apple is making. And as soon as Apple starts making M2 series chips for iMacs, iMac Pros, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, Qualcomm will fall further behind.
 
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joelypolly said:
Not a surprise given the behavior of Qualcomm in the past
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Yeah, like Apple is less sketchy when dealing with exclusivity.

dguisinger said:
.... why would Microsoft hitch their wagon to a company that hasn't delivered great performance. I wonder how old this agreement is, I wonder if it predates Windows RT
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I don't know who is to blame, whether Microsoft or Qualcomm, but I tested ARM Windows over the Summer on a Surface tablet and it was a nightmare, frustratingly slow even for basic tasks.
 
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andrewxgx said:
MS has become data collection company lately, and worst than google on it. why do you think win11 doesnt work without a MS account?
Click to expand...

While I agree with you on their data collection practices, Windows 11 can and does work fine without a MS account, you just need to look up how to do it. Yes, home edition too, I'm doing it just fine.
 
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Reactions: bernuli, mikeschr and Argoduck
Freeangel1 said:
If Nvidia buys ARM it could get worse for Windows ARM on a Mac.

APPLE should have bought ARM.

Still think they should have bought Adobe. fine tuned the software and made some programs Mac only
Click to expand...

Competition regulators would have a had a problem with Apple acquiring ARM. (especially Apple, because Apple has a big chunk of the arm market AND they habit of turning things off/cancelling contracts as soon as they acquire a company).
 
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