[MBCook]

Also they’re in very different positions.

Apple made perfectly good choices but history did not come out in their favor. So they had to keep switching and 3rd parties had to follow (if they wanted to stay on the Mac).

Microsoft ended up on what became the dominant CPU that just happened to continue to rocket up in performance for decades. So although Windows is capable of running on other processors, it was never much of a market and most of the software never came along.

[Clamchop]

I wouldn't say it just happened to be. There's been an orgy of synergies mostly but far from exclusively with Windows that put or has kept x86 at a crossroads of cost, performance, platform openness, and compatibility across vendors and iterations.

I have a hard time imagining what it would look like if MS put all of their weight into an arch transition, but I have a hunch it would come with the most ridiculous compatibility layer we've seen so far.

[MBCook]

You’re right. Intel had the money to push the performance on their chips because of all the sales to DOS/Windows users. Still neither company knew which platform was going to be dominant when they started.

We don’t know if Motorola could have done what Intel did given similar resources. Maybe they could have.

I fear MS will continue to struggle with ARM. The problem with Microsoft is they just don’t control enough big applications. There are just way too many little programs out there that people depend on.

Each time Apple moved the performance difference was enough to cover the cost. Plus it was clear you HAD to switch if you wanted to stick with the Mac.

PC users aren’t going to lose Intel, it will still be a choice. No one can beat Intel’s best on desktop. Unless they can convince Nvidia and AMD to come along with native drivers games will suck. Anything else that doesn’t move will depend on a very high speed emulation layer.

Unless battery life can win the day, it’s gonna be a tough fight. And you know Intel is not going to go down easy.

[Clamchop]

> Stil neither company knew which platform was going to be dominant when they started.

I figure they usually weren't thinking about it that way yet. A lot of what came later was unprecedented.

> There are just vway too many little programs out there that people depend on.

Hence the outrageous compatibility layer. I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to make a try at driver compatibility.