Technology

34830 readers

21 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.

Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.

Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

MinutePhrase@lemmy.ml

181

Windows CE, Microsoft’s stunted middle child, reaches end of support at 26 years (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.ml

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

They were doomed the moment they needed "app developers."

Nobody gives a shit about Windows. Nobody. Not one soul. It's only exciting when it betrays you. Windows persists entirely because it runs the software everyone already has. Hell, I'm in Linux, and I'm still running Windows software, right now.

Would running arbitrary desktop applications on a phone be ridiculous? Yep. But no more ridiculous than making desktop Windows work like a fucking tablet. And now a decade later, high-end phones outclass my laptop from that era. x86 was even an option! Android/x86 was A Thing for a hot minute, and Intel had that little SOC that'd fit in a Game Boy cartridge. Would it run well, or run Windows well, or run Windows programs well? Nope. But it'd do a battery-sucking job of running all the dumb shit people wanted to do with their magical pocket computers.

The ultimate irony is that ARM devices can run any old Windows program now. User-mode emulators like Box86 pair with translators like Wine to fake both the hardware and software of a Windows PC. Microsoft could've done that shit, themselves, and pushed some .NET phone where the backend doesn't matter. Like Android was fucking supposed to.