Windows 8 on ARM (WOA)
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 7:20AM | Print Article After months of the unknown, Microsoft have finally revealed the secrets of Windows 8 on ARM or "WOA" as it will now be called. In a lengthy blog post on the Building Windows 8 Blog, Steven Sinofsky has detailed almost all the major features of WOA, including software compatibility (including Office 15), traditional desktop support and the release date.
The post also included a video (shown below), which not only shows WOA, but also our first true glimpse of the Windows Consumer Preview and Office 15!
So here are the highlights:
- WOA will offer full Metro compatibility.
- WOA will support the traditional desktop, including full support for USB peripherals, etc.
- WOA will support Internet Explorer 10, including hardware acceleration.
- Office 15 (only Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) will be included with WOA.
- WOA supports the Windows Marketplace.
- WOA has full graphics hardware acceleration.
- WOA will be available on the same day at Windows 8 for Intel.
There you have it! Windows 8 on ARM is "the complete Windows experience". I think this is more then most people had hoped for, especially the day one release date, full access to the traditional Windows desktop and Office 15. The main question left unanswered for me is how well ARM performs compared against its Intel counterpart? However I don't expect to find out until we get our hands on the Consumer Preview later this month.
Overall this is fantastic news and aligns to my vision of the future for the Enterprise. Could ARM become the dominant architecture for Windows 8? Will it enable us to move to a one device to rule them all (mobile and desktop). Only time will tell.
Matt (LifeinTECH)
After my initial excitement, it would appear that Windows 8 on ARM may not be the "the complete Windows experience" after all.
Based on new information from Microsoft it has been revealed that only Office 15 and a few other core Microsoft applications will be allowed to run on the ARM traditional desktop, leaving developers forced to write Metro apps (for true Intel and ARM compatibility) or specifically for Windows 8 on Intel if they want access to the traditional desktop.
Only time will tell if this spilt strategy will work and if Microsoft will be willing to bend the rules for certain major developers (I’m thinking Adobe PhotoShop).