So I've got a laptop that can't upgrade to W11, meaning MS is making it pretty obsolete in 11 months.
I could get an apple product, but I'm finding they make you pay a LOT for hard drive space- and I have 512 right now, trending higher as we accumulate pictures. So I'd like to get 1T.
Anyway, I'm also looking at the ARM chips for Windows, as I see them use a lot less power, don't use the cooler much, and have a lot of potential. But, unlike iOS, Windows is proving a tough chunk of software to simplify down to a simpler chip- at least that's the news I've heard up until now.
For the computer experts out there, have you heard different? Would getting one be ok if all I do is web search, watch the U of Tubes, some basic Word and Excel sheets? There are some pretty good deals out there for 14" Snapdragon powered laptops right now.
It's not a matter of simplification, it's a matter of compilation/emulation. The CPU architecture is different (not really simpler or inferior, just different, actually superior in efficiency) so any pre-compiled software (that is, almost all of it) meant for Windows on the usual x86 architecture won't run. Scripted or JIT-compiled stuff would be fine, but that's not much of the software available. Recompiling the software is often not an option because so much of the software for windows is closed-source and often legacy software. So the only solution is emulation (edit: which is built into Windows-on-ARM and runs transparently, to be clear) which requires a ton of extra processing power to be expended. Even with the option of recompiling on Linux where most everything is FLOSS, people often find running desktop software on ARM CPUs to be a PITA because the need for recompilation may not stop at the software you want - you may need to recompile a bunch of supporting software and libraries too.
Long story short, it may be OK for doing basic office work like you want, just don't complain if you try to install something else and it starts assaulting the CPU or simply doesn't work.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
i've been kind of considering the ARM chips simpler because of the reduced instructions that it's designed to run. That's why I think that way.
And Apple got it right pretty quickly with the M1 chip, but Windows is so historically X86, it's super hard to separate it. Which is why I'm asking multiple opinions if it's getting there or not.
In reply to alfadriver :
If you just want to do Office stuff and web browsing it will work fine, the trouble may come when you try to make use of the cross-architecture emulation by installing or running x86-based software. Apple would theoretically have just as much trouble, the difference is they've switched architectures many times before and haven't shied away from breaking backwards compatibility so much, so it's not their users' first rodeo.
I can tell you that the difference between the Apple M1 and the old Intel chips is astounding in terms of battery use and temperature. I basically don't think about the battery level in the M1 at all, when the computer tells me it's at 10% I know I have a few hours before I have to plug in.
External hard drive space is not a difficult thing to obtain, especially if you're just doing bulk storage. That's my plan if I find myself running out, so I didn't pony up for an expensive massive internal SSD.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I have two external drives already- which may steer me toward the deal I'm seeing at best buy. At the same time, though, phones are really ramping up picture size, so we will close on the max capacity really quickly. So....
