I hope their 1000 soc fares better than their previous attempt(835soc was it I think).

Unless it is x86 compatible, there is no reason to push towards Windows. Windows is resource heavy. Wasteful. And absence of x86 programs makes it very low value. Running something like Phoenix OS on x86 low end chip, or directly linux shows how much faster things can be. So, ARM desktop experience is achievable w/o windows. +it would have full compatibility with android applications/games. Coming with direct Linux compatibility and android built in interpreter (running apps/store without standalone emulator) would make it attractive to much larger user group.

Fox2232:

Unless it is x86 compatible, there is no reason to push towards Windows. Windows is resource heavy. Wasteful. And absence of x86 programs makes it very low value. Running something like Phoenix OS on x86 low end chip, or directly linux shows how much faster things can be. So, ARM desktop experience is achievable w/o windows. +it would have full compatibility with android applications/games. Coming with direct Linux compatibility and android built in interpreter (running apps/store without standalone emulator) would make it attractive to much larger user group.

It's going to take years before it's fully useful, but, these are the foundations that might lead to relevance in the future. As I understand it, it's more about waiting for patents to expire than anything else. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/intel-fires-warning-shots-at-microsoft-claims-x86-emulation-is-a-patent-minefield/ The end-game is soc that can run both ARM and x86 code, at least well enough that the average consumer doesn't have to worry about compatibility.

Fox2232:

Unless it is x86 compatible, there is no reason to push towards Windows. Windows is resource heavy. Wasteful. And absence of x86 programs makes it very low value. Running something like Phoenix OS on x86 low end chip, or directly linux shows how much faster things can be.

Being ARM, obviously the CPU itself isn't binary compatible with x86. However, the current iteration of Windows 10 for ARM does have an x86 compatibility layer, and even works with games. From what I saw in benchmarks, it's slow, but usable. I'm not so sure about Windows, but Linux on ARM tends to be significantly less resource intensive than the x86 equivalent binaries. Assuming Windows binaries on ARM are also less RAM-hungry, I'm sure MS further reduced system resource consumption by ditching a lot of services that they assume ARM users can't/won't use. Regardless, Windows is still (IMO) too bloated for ARM, but my point is it's probably not as bad as you might think.

Coming with direct Linux compatibility and android built in interpreter (running apps/store without standalone emulator) would make it attractive to much larger user group.

These CPUs (specifically, the 835s) are theoretically Linux compatible and at least when it comes to Asus, you aren't restricted from installing a non-Windows OS. However, there is no official Linux support, so you might not be able to get far at the moment. I personally am keeping a tight eye for Linux compatibility on devices like the NovaGo, because it has everything I need. I don't use any closed-source applications on my current laptop, so it ought to be a smooth transition for me, if the drivers work properly. Even if I did, Linux has an x86 compatibility layer too, so I should be all set.

schmidtbag:

Being ARM, obviously the CPU itself isn't binary compatible with x86. However, the current iteration of Windows 10 for ARM does have an x86 compatibility layer, and even works with games. From what I saw in benchmarks, it's slow, but usable. I'm not so sure about Windows, but Linux on ARM tends to be significantly less resource intensive than the x86 equivalent binaries. Assuming Windows binaries on ARM are also less RAM-hungry, I'm sure MS further reduced system resource consumption by ditching a lot of services that they assume ARM users can't/won't use. Regardless, Windows is still (IMO) too bloated for ARM, but my point is it's probably not as bad as you might think.

I was running Phoenix OS, Linux, Windows triple boot on z5-8500x. (Before Atom committed suicide with my hefty assistance.) Playing Newest android games (UE4) on it was lovely experience. Linux was swift and worked as expected (Lightdm + xfce). But windows... , even with 4GB ram, It was full at times (even with OS memory compression in Win 10). Internal 64GB storage was probable cause of general slowness, as Windows likes to do a lot of unnecessary things with storage. And ~70/40MBps R/W is not exactly good for windows. Basically one needs much better HW for windows. And MS's habit of including adware/bloatware does not help. I have not seen Windows 10 ARM for tablet edition, so maybe they did cut some bloatware, and optimized.

schmidtbag:

These CPUs (specifically, the 835s) are theoretically Linux compatible and at least when it comes to Asus, you aren't restricted from installing a non-Windows OS. However, there is no official Linux support, so you might not be able to get far at the moment. I personally am keeping a tight eye for Linux compatibility on devices like the NovaGo, because it has everything I need. I don't use any closed-source applications on my current laptop, so it ought to be a smooth transition for me, if the drivers work properly. Even if I did, Linux has an x86 compatibility layer too, so I should be all set.

That NovaGo looks really nice. Me, personally, as I get new desktop into working order, I'll go back to calmly looking for 7~8 inch Android/Phoenix OS tablet with great gaming performance. While I enjoyed playing on 10'' Atom tablet, size was bit too much for my small hands 😀 And linux on gaming tablet would be just icing on the cake.

Fox2232:

I was running Phoenix OS, Linux, Windows triple boot on z5-8500x. ... But windows... , even with 4GB ram, It was full at times (even with OS memory compression in Win 10). Internal 64GB storage was probable cause of general slowness, as Windows likes to do a lot of unnecessary things with storage. And ~70/40MB R/W is not exactly good for windows.

I'm not familiar with this device, but depending on which version of Windows you were running, I believe you. However, the version of Windows built for the Snapdragon 835s appears to be very well optimized. Still far more bloated for my tastes but according to reviews I saw, it's actually pretty fast and responsive, at least if you're using ARM binaries.

Basically one needs much better HW for windows. And MS's habit of including adware/bloatware does not help.

I agree. I think Windows RT was a failure for this reason alone (even though it was still pretty bare compared to Windows 8). It's sad when the bare minimum requirements was a Tegra 2 (which at the time was one of the higher-performing ARM devices). Meanwhile, I've run Linux on an OMAP3 with LXDE perfectly smoothly, except for disk reads/writes to the boot SD card.

That NovaGo looks really nice. Me, personally, as I get new desktop into working order, I'll go back to calmly looking for 7~8 inch Android/Phoenix OS tablet with great gaming performance. While I enjoyed playing on 10'' Atom tablet, size was bit too much for my small hands 😀 And linux on gaming tablet would be just icing on the cake.

Yeah, if I have a portable device, I want it to be comfortably portable. That means I'm willing to make sacrifices in order for it to be light-weight, easy to carry, and have a decent battery life. My current laptop has a Haswell i3 and it still handles everything I throw at it no problem, and that's simply because if I need to process heavier workloads, I have several desktop computers that could handle them instead.

Could be use in embedded systems that needs to run Windows.