Database Users

win8 on the xoom.

With the new video of Win8 out today, I'm wondering how soon it'll get to running on the xoom. It will be an interesting summer contemplating the quad core tablets and the releases of Android 4.0 and Win8. Maybe we'll have to wait for the xoom2.

did I miss something? I don't recall seeing that win8 will be made available for the xoom processor.

I think it is best to wait and see an actual working Windows 8 tablet first. By that time, this tablet will probably be retired.

keitht said:
I think it is best to wait and see an actual working Windows 8 tablet first. By that time, this tablet will probably be retired.
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Yep, thanks to everyone trying to make a tablet to beat the rest most likely by the end ofthe year the Xoom will be called "slow" and "outdated"
It looks like the end of the age of the laptop and the start of the age of tablets.

be interesting if you can install win8 on the xoom - but i don't think it'll happen anytime soon

Scheduled for tomorrow along with the release of android 4.0

"Tomorrow" is actually true. MS is supposed to demo at least the interface of Win8 on ARM at Computex a day after the D9 intro.
TI OMAP4, Nvid Kal-El, and QualComm SnapDrag will all run Win8. Dollars to donuts that once it shows up, there'll be a custom ROM for the Tegra 2. Cool new toys notwithstanding, I'll remind that by this time next year, the largest install base of ARM tablet will still be using Tegra 2. There is safety in numbers.

I'm interested myself
double1 said:
With the new video of Win8 out today, I'm wondering how soon it'll get to running on the xoom. It will be an interesting summer contemplating the quad core tablets and the releases of Android 4.0 and Win8. Maybe we'll have to wait for the xoom2.
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Windows 8 does support Nvidia's Tegra 2, so it's not far fetch to think xoom owners can replace Android with Win8.

Windows 8 won't be out for another 18 months or so. By then, many Xoom owners will have upgraded to a different device, so this will be irrelevant.

It'll be sooner than that. The tablet market is heating up and all the Win 8 hype puts tremendous pressure on MS to get a product out the door as soon as possible. The announcement that Win 8 would be coming out in 2012 pretty much killed every single Win 7 tablet project that was still in the works. Desktops won't be affected much but notebook sales could be hurt, particularly towards the end of the year.
Whether or not Win 8 requires Tegra 2 or Tegra 3 to run will dictate if it can be run on the Xoom. I expect that it will be able to handle Tegra 2 but it won't be pretty. Its also not clear how MS will implement Windows on ARM. While there will definitely be versions of Win 8 on ARM that can be found, it wouldn't be surprising for Win 8 to be offered only on authorized hardware and heavily locked down.

Well, it's not like Win7 tabs are exactly breaking any sales record at the moment. And if notebook sales are down, it's because of the iPad, not of the Win8 announcement.
I do think the biggest loser from the Win8 announcement has to be HP's WebOS foray, though. It's hardly a coincidence that the MS announcement was just days before the intro of the WebOS flagship, the TouchPad. MS co-opted all of HP's thunder.
People would buy iPads because it's the market leader, and has wide support and mindshare. People would buy Android tabs because of its momentum in smartphones. And of course, people will buy Win8 because it's Windows. But what's a good reason to buy into the WebOS? Consumers ask, where are the apps. Devs ask, where is the market. Chicken-and-egg.
I doubt Win8 will be locked to specific vendors. That may work for tablets, but not for the desktop, which are built from disparate components. Windows' strength is its HAL (hardware abstraction layer), allowing MS to have only one version for the thousands of different devices. Balkanizing it as Android is at the moment would be a SKU management nightmare.
Moreover, dumping HAL would mean forgoing the huge upgrade market. There needs to be a standalone version, at least for the x86.
So, would MS only offer locked-down versions on the ARM? That would cripple Win8's chances on the ARM side, as users won't stand for an 'open' Win8 for x86, and 'closed' for ARM.
It will be interesting to get more answers from MS. I suspect that they are still trying to figure some of this out themselves, among many other questions. How would devs deal with Win8? Would they need to ship separate binaries, or one fat binaries? Would Win8 ARM support existing x86 drivers? It's a big can of worms.

e.mote said:
"Tomorrow" is actually true. MS is supposed to demo at least the interface of Win8 on ARM at Computex a day after the D9 intro.
TI OMAP4, Nvid Kal-El, and QualComm SnapDrag will all run Win8. Dollars to donuts that once it shows up, there'll be a custom ROM for the Tegra 2. Cool new toys notwithstanding, I'll remind that by this time next year, the largest install base of ARM tablet will still be using Tegra 2. There is safety in numbers.
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Well said!

[Q] [question]Windows 8 on Iconia?

Today at Build Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would launch with ARM support. Does this mean someone could potentially port it for the Iconia to be used in those times when a Window based software is needed but neither PC nor VLC is unavailable?
Please save "why would you want to use Windows" comments. This is a mature developer website, send those comments to Engadget.

brady.wassam said:
Today at Build Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would launch with ARM support. Does this mean someone could potentially port it for the Iconia to be used in those times when a Window based software is needed but neither PC nor VLC is unavailable?
Please save "why would you want to use Windows" comments. This is a mature developer website, send those comments to Engadget.
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This being a "mature developer website" has a search function and q&a section. Both would lead you to this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259742
Anyway, only time will tell if win8 will be ported to the iconia (or any other android tablet). I haven't heard of wp7 being ported to an android phone, so I wouldn't bet on it. Still I can see the potential in it and would gladly try it (especially if it can be made as dual-boot).
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Downloaded and installed the "Developers Preview" of Win 8 last night. Remember this is a pre-beta release, and for certain it's in it's infancy relatively speaking. As of this moment in time, Android has a much smoother interface for touch. Win 8 still feels a bit sticky for lack of a better word. I installed it on my HP Touchsmart TM2 2150 US laptop (core i3 with 8Gb ram), so it's not exactly a slouch in terms of hardware. It's a total touch screen laptop that has a screen that folds down onto the keyboard to create a tablet. As of this moment, Win 7 has a much better touch screen experience, but I fully expect that to change as the builds mature.
There are very few apps that come with it (28 I believe), and no app store as of yet obviously.
I read last night that typical Windows apps will not run on the ARM version of Win 8, and that MS is going to do it's best to prevent side loading of apps on the ARM version to keep people purchasing apps, instead of loading them from a USB stick or SD card, but that is just rumor as of right now.
Long story short, you're not missing much yet.

tkolev said:
only time will tell if win8 will be ported to the iconia
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I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8:
http://youtu.be/_CNQVk7nok0

twisticles said:
I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8
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Some of us already have an a500. No need to bring up another piece of hardware. "Yeah your Honda s2000 can fit a Corvette engine, but why not get a Corvette instead"
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

I don't think Microsoft will be releasing a beta for ARM chips and we will see Windows 8 run on ARM only during retail. After that XDA will not port Windows 8 simply because it would be considered illegal.

twisticles said:
I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8:
http://youtu.be/_CNQVk7nok0
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The OP was asking about the ARM version of win8, so I seriously doubt that it is about the w500.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

I installed Windows 8 on my pc a few hours ago. It is very smooth! But my DVD burner doesn't work... Anyway, I would love to see it on the A500.

Here's a preview of Win 8 tablets. Acer's is running an AMD chip instead of a Tegra:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4811/windows-8-tablets-running-on-ti-qualcomm-nvidia-amd-intel-silicon

Windows 8
Windows 8 *might* just support ARM. Everyone on the net is talking about it but no one is really sure. But as for now if you want something similar to Windows 8 there's always WinCE7 :-D Cheers.

masands said:
I don't think Microsoft will be releasing a beta for ARM chips and we will see Windows 8 run on ARM only during retail. After that XDA will not port Windows 8 simply because it would be considered illegal.
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Look at HTC HD2, illegal?! I think no retail arm based version. No retail maybe dev can port. Maybe it is hard to port and that is the be ass.

emo-dudes said:
Windows 8 *might* just support ARM. Everyone on the net is talking about it but no one is really sure. But as for now if you want something similar to Windows 8 there's always WinCE7 :-D Cheers.
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There's no "might" about it. Microsoft confirmed ages ago that there WILL be an ARM version of Windows 8, and recently clarified that it will NOT run native x86 applications. It's conjectured that that .NET applications should run with either minimal changes, or straight off the bat.
It's also been demoed running on Tegra 3 hardware.

FloatingFatMan said:
There's no "might" about it. Microsoft confirmed ages ago that there WILL be an ARM version of Windows 8, and recently clarified that it will NOT run native x86 applications. It's conjectured that that .NET applications should run with either minimal changes, or straight off the bat.
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Pure .NET applications should run just fine as long as they're using the same .NET framework as W8 does, but Microsoft is encouraging devs to use HTML5 for anything simple enough. They're aiming for HTML5 support to be top-notch and W8 and to be all-encompassing.
And yes, I concur with FloatingFatMan: why do people even think an ARM W8 would be able to run x86 binaries? That's just plain stupid. ARM applications will run on ARM W8, x86 applications will run on x86 W8, that's that.

WereCatf said:
Pure .NET applications should run just fine as long as they're using the same .NET framework as W8 does, but Microsoft is encouraging devs to use HTML5 for anything simple enough. They're aiming for HTML5 support to be top-notch and W8 and to be all-encompassing.
And yes, I concur with FloatingFatMan: why do people even think an ARM W8 would be able to run x86 binaries? That's just plain stupid. ARM applications will run on ARM W8, x86 applications will run on x86 W8, that's that.
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There was some rumour that Ms would my providing some transcoding layers as part of the ARM kernel, much like Apple did with the first x86 versions of OSX, but that would be horrendously slow and open the ARM platform to x86 malware.
Pure .NET apps SHOULD run fine, unless MS ship the compact framework instead of the full one. As for HTML5... URGH! (I'm a C# programmer, and after being shafted by MS over first WPF and now Silverlight, they can blow HTML5 out their asses! )

FloatingFatMan said:
There was some rumour that Ms would my providing some transcoding layers as part of the ARM kernel
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I know there was such a rumour, but anyone with half a braincell should've realized that it was just wishful thinking from people who don't know what they're talking about.
ARM devices are first and foremost mobile devices so an emulation layer would eat horribly on the battery. Not to mention that I am not aware of a single ARM processor sporting any kind of hardware virtualization features or transcoding mechanisms, so the performance would be really poor, too.
And if Microsoft did make such an emulation layer it would be Microsoft that would get all the blame for horribly low battery-life and poor performance because people wouldn't understand the underlying problem. Microsoft saves themselves a lot bad PR just by avoiding the whole thing altogether.
Pure .NET apps SHOULD run fine, unless MS ship the compact framework instead of the full one. As for HTML5... URGH! (I'm a C# programmer, and after being shafted by MS over first WPF and now Silverlight, they can blow HTML5 out their asses! )
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They're already churning lawyers at full speed from their arses, there's no more capacity for HTML5 there, too.

Plans to Port Windows 8 to Kindle Fire?

First, I know it's a little early for this, since Win8 isn't even in beta yet.
However, I just got a Kindle Fire, and would absolutely love a Win8 port when and if it becomes possible. So I had a few questions for devs that might take up this project.
Is anyone already planning on giving this a shot?
Would this have any legality issues, since Win8 will in all likely hood require a product key, even on the ARM version?
Is it even theoretically possible, since the Kindle Fire normally runs Android?

short answer: no
long answer: the Fire runs on an ARM CPU, while Windows 8 that has been released is 100% x86. Unless Windows 8 for ARM is released to the public - which is looking increasingly unlikely - then there's absolutely no hope. Even if it is, Only the hypothetical beta would be free of charge, and would expire fairly quickly. You would not be able to run any existing x86 programs on W8ARM, and there are rumors (with some evidence) of hardware compatibility that would prohibit it being put on any existing devices. So, even if it could be hypothetically possible, its not worth the effort. and what would you, as a consumer, get out of it, other than a UI you think is cool?

mtmerrick said:
short answer: no
long answer: the Fire runs on an ARM CPU, while Windows 8 that has been released is 100% x86. Unless Windows 8 for ARM is released to the public - which is looking increasingly unlikely - then there's absolutely no hope. Even if it is, Only the hypothetical beta would be free of charge, and would expire fairly quickly. You would not be able to run any existing x86 programs on W8ARM, and there are rumors (with some evidence) of hardware compatibility that would prohibit it being put on any existing devices. So, even if it could be hypothetically possible, its not worth the effort. and what would you, as a consumer, get out of it, other than a UI you think is cool?
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The ability to run amd64 apps.
Sent from somewhere too far away from my computer

wtf is an AMD64app?
if you mean an x64 app, then um, no, you couldn't. x86 (x64 one name for 64 bit x86 processors) apps require an x86 processor. the kindle fire has an ARM processor. not even close to compatible, with one exception - most new metro apps will be cross compatible between windows 8 x86 and windows 8 ARM (and windows phone 8, if they decide to make it different form Window 8 ARM after all)

mtmerrick said:
wtf is an AMD64app?
if you mean an x64 app, then um, no, you couldn't. x86 (x64 one name for 64 bit x86 processors) apps require an x86 processor. the kindle fire has an ARM processor. not even close to compatible, with one exception - most new metro apps will be cross compatible between windows 8 x86 and windows 8 ARM (and windows phone 8, if they decide to make it different form Window 8 ARM after all)
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You=noob
A 64 bit processor can run in either amd64 or intel64. Microsoft claim that windows 8 will be one big system. They also say that they can get arm to run with amd64 (and intel64) apps fine but they are accused of being unable to do so with i386. I watched the video released by Microsoft about it. All 2 hours....
If you don't know something don't pretend you know about it before posting.
Sent from somewhere too far away from my computer

really, huh. Everything I've heard puts down the rumor that 32 bit arm chips, which don't even approach the power of an i3 (and 64 bit arm chips don't exist yet) will be able to run the high end emulation needed to make an x86 apps (expecially cpu intensive 64 bit apps like most of us use on windows) work..... but that's just what I know, off all the research I've done.
If windows has managed to do the impossible, well, that's great. No sarcasm, that's awesome. But I've read press releases saying it can't be done, straight from Microsoft.
And I'm no noob - been here far longer than you, and been a tech junkie for years.

mtmerrick said:
really, huh. Everything I've heard puts down the rumor that 32 bit arm chips, which don't even approach the power of an i3 (and 64 bit arm chips don't exist yet) will be able to run the high end emulation needed to make an x86 apps (expecially cpu intensive 64 bit apps like most of us use on windows) work..... but that's just what I know, off all the research I've done.
If windows has managed to do the impossible, well, that's great. No sarcasm, that's awesome. But I've read press releases saying it can't be done, straight from Microsoft.
And I'm no noob - been here far longer than you, and been a tech junkie for years.
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Go on wikipedia and search windows 8. Go to the compatibility section and read. Then I want an apology for being a [email protected]
Sent from somewhere too far away from my computer

Wikipedia said:
Windows 8 for ARM processors will not run software created for x86; software will have to be ported by its developers to create ARM executables from source code. [56][57]
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You self righteous troll.

mtmerrick said:
You self righteous troll.
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I'm sorry if I offended you but it's just my opinion fact.
And I'm sorry if your wrong. It wasn't my fault.
Sent from somewhere too far away from my computer

um, you proved yourself wrong - i was right, as i thought. You are acting self righteous, and your behavior is best described as trollish. And im not insulted -I'm laughing at your ignorance. In case you can't see quotes or something weird like that, lemme re-copypaste from Wikipedia
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Windows 8 for ARM processors will not run software created for x86; software will have to be ported by its developers to create ARM executables from source code. [56][57]

benjamingwynn said:
I'm sorry if I offended you but it's just my opinion fact.
And I'm sorry if your wrong. It wasn't my fault.
Sent from somewhere too far away from my computer
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1) You are an idiot, your attitude and language is discusting, i'm ashamed for you, and feel sorry for you family being related to such a duscusting little man.
2) There is no such thing as "Intel64", "AMD64" is just another name for x64 CPU's, this is because it was AMD that invented the 64bit insruction, even Intel chips use AMD's technology.
3) You have no right to be here if you are so retarded that you think an ARM CPU is compatible with either x86 or x64 based software.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk

wtf with the flameing people? no need to be argueing like morons to each like that. look there will be a version of windows that will work on ARM and the op is asking when that version will be released and portable to the fire. Got it????

AndroHero said:
1) You are an idiot, your attitude and language is discusting, i'm ashamed for you, and feel sorry for you family being related to such a duscusting little man.
2) There is no such thing as "Intel64", "AMD64" is just another name for x64 CPU's, this is because it was AMD that invented the 64bit insruction, even Intel chips use AMD's technology.
3) You have no right to be here if you are so retarded that you think an ARM CPU is compatible with either x86 or x64 based software.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk
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Sorry for getting you involved.....
Anyway. Back to ideas on porting. It would be difficult as the Kindle Fire is Android based and running on a EXT3/4 filesystem. You would also need a different bootloader - this all involves a lot of work.

i think we should be trying to focus on the hp touchpad and the kindle fire, also the nook tablet to try to port win 8 to them once the ARM verson is released.

benjamingwynn said:
Sorry for getting you involved.....
Anyway. Back to ideas on porting. It would be difficult as the Kindle Fire is Android based and running on a EXT3/4 filesystem. You would also need a different bootloader - this all involves a lot of work.
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Have you not listened to a single word in this thread? You can not port x86 Windows 8 to an ARM processor and expect x86 apps to run.

IF (and that's a big if) windows 8 ARM is released to the public, be it as a prerelase version or as a purchasable version, it'll be quite difficult to get it working on prexisting devices.
As i said before, there are roadblocks involved that may prohibit installing it at all. A W8 arm compatible 'BIOS' will be very difficult if not impossible to get working. It will be closed source, and quite possibly we will not be allowed to have it at all. Drivers will have to be rewritten, and windows 8 may still not be compatible with these drivers. plain old android (or whatever other ARM system) drivers will not work. There is also talk of Microsoft coding the OS as to not function with non-authorized hardware components (eg, will not work with some screens, cpus, ect) though i do not know how true this is.
Even if ARM is released to the public, and not available to OEMs only, don't expect to be able to do much to it - microsoft does not look kindly towards the modding community, and will be taking steps to hinder any changes we may need to make to the OS to get it to run.
The answer is, its unlikely at best.

mtmerrick said:
IF (and that's a big if) windows 8 ARM is released to the public, be it as a prerelase version or as a purchasable version, it'll be quite difficult to get it working on prexisting devices.
As i said before, there are roadblocks involved that may prohibit installing it at all. A W8 arm compatible 'BIOS' will be very difficult if not impossible to get working. It will be closed source, and quite possibly we will not be allowed to have it at all. Drivers will have to be rewritten, and windows 8 may still not be compatible with these drivers. plain old android (or whatever other ARM system) drivers will not work. There is also talk of Microsoft coding the OS as to not function with non-authorized hardware components (eg, will not work with some screens, cpus, ect) though i do not know how true this is.
Even if ARM is released to the public, and not available to OEMs only, don't expect to be able to do much to it - microsoft does not look kindly towards the modding community, and will be taking steps to hinder any changes we may need to make to the OS to get it to run.
The answer is, its unlikely at best.
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It will be released to buy. It's not open-source, because of this it is unlikely... but possible

benjamingwynn said:
It will be released to buy. It's not open-source, because of this it is unlikely... but possible
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If you dont have the source code then best wishes to you coding drivers for ARM windows 8.

johnston9234 said:
If you dont have the source code then best wishes to you coding drivers for ARM windows 8.
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I don't need to. I'm not doing it. I came here to help and most of you threw that back in my face. I'm not here to flame.
I thought I could share my experiences with Windows since 95 and help you find hope for your kindle. If you don't want it then it's your loss. I don't have a kindle fire but I thought I should try to help you out anyway.
I can't help you with your problems unless you let me. I CAN code in a variety of different languages including C+ +, meaning I could easily pick up a arm driver for a sister device and port it.
Thanks for letting me voice my opinion. If you didn't like it then go tell someone who gives two....

A few road blocks against w8 on the fire
1) Storage: Will it actually fit in 8gig? Hopefully the arm version will without all the old bloat
2) Drivers: you are not going to see any windows8 tablet comes out with the "old" OMAP4430, they are talking about windows 8 tablets being quad core with 2gig of ram or something?
3) Ram: 512meg of ram will make running w8, if you even can get it to run, painful
4) Closed source: porting binary only OS's is hard/near imposable without a comparable device with a native version (See HD2 having almost the same hardware as WP7 and android devices).
I wouldnt bet against a port, as this is XDA, but I would consider it highly improbable.
(Also theres legal issues, MS would come down like a hammer on anyone sharing a w8 rom!)

Win 8 on Asus Transformer TF101

Is There any port?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

no, and there most likely never will be.
read the freakin forum, its in at least 3 threads in W8 D&H, several more in general.
the answer is no. move along.

^And you'll stand behind that line of logic despite the fact that it's being developed for ARM architecture as well?

mtmerrick said:
no, it won't be.
W8ARM will not be available to consumers, only manufacturers, making liscences for ports almost, if not completely impossible to obtain. It will also require an encrypted bootloader and specific hardware, which the iPad 2/3 quite possibly won't meet up with. Even if those were able to be worked around, you'd need to create drivers for windows, and, as the idroid project as shown, creating new drivers for iOS devices is incredibly hard.
So no. give up all hope of W8ARM on existing Android/iOS/WebOS hardware now.
it MAY be possible to get W8ARM on a WP7/WP8 device, maybe even the HD2, seeing as they (should) have compatible drivers and since they're all Microsoft, there are theoretical loopholes for the licence. but that's still going to be difficult, and may never work properly.
TL;DR version - if you want Windows 8 ARM, buy a device that comes with it.
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bunch of other threads that all say the same thing. this is established fact.
W8ARM will not be available to consumers, only OEMs. Porting to non W8ARM hardware will be illegal because W8ARM licences will not be transferable across devices. Porting will also be impossible because you will need to have a highly encrypted and specially signed by microsoft bootloader Since W8ARM is closed source, creating HW drivers for existing hardware from scratch will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Even if you were somehow able to get a W8ARM ROM created and running, it would be all sorts of violations to use it, and it would be removed from XDA before Microsoft's legal team started suing.
So no, give up hope for W8 on existing ARM devices.

As stated in my past (kindle fire) thread
Your first challenge will be the legal one, Microsoft is well known for employing a never ending batch of bloodthirsty lawyers to sue the pants off of anyone who infringes on them. Of course this can be avoided if you simply post "instructions to install your own copy of windows 8 on the kindle fire".
Your next one will be Drivers, well these can be reverse engineered and built if you are skilled enough.
Followed by Storage. I would assume the ARM version of Windows would use around 4-6 GB of Space. Is 2 GB enough to store your music and 3rd party apps?
Next is the Processor, I would hope that Windows 8 tablets use a Quad Core (Tegra3 for example) rather then the Dual Core of the Fire. Not a deal breaker but OUCH.
RAM is not a concern here. The ARM Chipset is a bit more efficient, thats without saying that 2-4 GB would not hurt.
Finally, the bios will be the final hurdle. Windows 8 will require a secured uEFI (Locked/Encrypted bios). This is HARDWARE, you would need to open your kindle and solder one in (its not that easy). Microsoft has already openly stated that this will be a REQUIREMENT on the ARM Chipset and optional on x86/x64.
Here is my advice, WAIT about a year after Windows 8 comes out... Just like Android, the market will eventually get flooded with cheap (and I do not mean inexpensive) Windows 8 tablets. They should retail between $300-$1XXX. Its not $200 like the fire, but those MS License Fees can hurt.
Now, You may have noticed, I did not say it was impossible to RUN Windows 8 on the Kindle Fire, just not as the primary OS. If I was forced into it, I would run QEMU (There are Android Ports), Install Windows 8 in the VM and RDP into the VM. I will warn you it will be VERY Slow and most likely unusable.

moved to general

ASUS has no plans for Windows 10 Mobile on ZF2

https://www.reddit.com/r/zenfone2/comments/3lv999/good_newssort_of/cv9mn3a?context=3
Someone from Asus posted a thread on reddit regarding updates and I asked about Win10 and he said look to XDA for help.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/zf2-running-windows-7-using-kvm-t3153299

mogrith said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/zf2-running-windows-7-using-kvm-t3153299
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Those are VMs running full Windows versions. I'm specifically talking about Windows 10 Mobile.

xbbdc said:
Those are VMs running full Windows versions. I'm specifically talking about Windows 10 Mobile.
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Windows 10 Mobile seems largely pointless compared to Android without the ability to run "legacy" (desktop Win32, or even Win64) apps - I forget where I read this, but Windows 10 Mobile has been confirmed not to support the Windows desktop. Admittedly, that would only really be useful with a dock/external display and input devices anyway, but Metro apps generally suck.
On a more technical note, the reason ASUS is unlikely to even consider developing Windows 10 for the ZenFone 2 is twofold. Firstly, Intel apparently has no intention to develop non-Android drivers for their Moorefield Atom chips (the Z3500 series SoC in the ZenFone). They have never advertised Moorefield as being comptible with Windows. Additionally, they seem unwilling to admit they are to blame for the lack of open source drivers for the PowerVR graphics technology they licensed from ImgTec - this means they are also unlikely to develop a Windows driver for the PowerVR Rogue GPU in ZenFones. Secondly, UEFI firmware is a requirement for WIndows certification if I recall correctly - the ZenFone and presumably all Intel Android devices utilizing PowerVR GPUs use something called SFI, short for SImple Firmware Interface. Linux supports SFI, but I highly doubt Windows does.

DrGit said:
Windows 10 Mobile seems largely pointless compared to Android without the ability to run "legacy" (desktop Win32, or even Win64) apps - I forget where I read this, but Windows 10 Mobile has been confirmed not to support the Windows desktop. Admittedly, that would only really be useful with a dock/external display and input devices anyway, but Metro apps generally suck.
On a more technical note, the reason ASUS is unlikely to even consider developing Windows 10 for the ZenFone 2 is twofold. Firstly, Intel apparently has no intention to develop non-Android drivers for their Moorefield Atom chips (the Z3500 series SoC in the ZenFone). They have never advertised Moorefield as being comptible with Windows. Additionally, they seem unwilling to admit they are to blame for the lack of open source drivers for the PowerVR graphics technology they licensed from ImgTec - this means they are also unlikely to develop a Windows driver for the PowerVR Rogue GPU in ZenFones. Secondly, UEFI firmware is a requirement for WIndows certification if I recall correctly - the ZenFone and presumably all Intel Android devices utilizing PowerVR GPUs use something called SFI, short for SImple Firmware Interface. Linux supports SFI, but I highly doubt Windows does.
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I forgot about the drivers, but you are forgetting the power of Windows 10, which is supposed to run iOS and Android apps.

xbbdc said:
I forgot about the drivers, but you are forgetting the power of Windows 10, which is supposed to run iOS and Android apps.
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But the question at this point is how well will they run at initial release?

Windows 10 for phones is still targeted for ARM devices only. The ZenFone 2 is designed as an Android device. We will not support anything other than the official Android releases. And no, Windows 10 for phones will not run iOS apps, just Android.

thank god for that i already have to deal with windows on my pc wouldnt want it on my phone aswell hell no only on pc for one main reason direct x and leading os for game support

Tuanies said:
We will not support anything other than the official Android releases.
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This makes sense for ASUS' business interests, that I do not dispute - it's a little disappointing for XDA though, @Tuanies. You did seem interested in asking around about graphics drivers which would enable faster virtualization - was that successful? I ask because I got 64-bit Arch Linux (and Ubuntu) to boot natively on my ZenFone, and I've been meaning to get KDE Plasma Mobile into a usable state, but I'm stuck with a lot of closed drivers from Android which are 32-bit-only and unusable with libhybris. WiFi, unaccelerated graphics, multitouch input, battery status, and screen brightness controls are about the only things that do work - no sound, Bluetooth, calls/texts/data, or almost anything else works currently. Open source drivers from Intel would be amazing, but I might be able to get by with closed 64-bit libraries. Of course, no ETA for that from ASUS leads me to believe Intel isn't going to supply 64-bit Android binaries for their Moorefield chips. I haven't seen 64-bit Android on any other Atom Z35xx device yet, so I have a feeling it's not within the control of any OEM.
TL;DR, it would be great to know that Intel still actually supports their Moorefield Atom SoCs and is committed to 64-bit Android. I would ask them if I knew who to talk to, but alas I don't. @Tuanies, if you are able, please let us know if you can glean anything from Intel regarding 64-bit Android drivers or whether they are able to open up any other components. I'd greatly appreciate documentation for writing an oFono driver for the XMM7262 (LTE) and XMM2230 (2G GSM) modems, although like with the PowerVR drivers, I'm not holding my breath. Thanks!

I was not able to get PowerVR drivers for Moorefield, unfortunately . No updates on the 64-bit binaries either :-\.

Tuanies said:
Windows 10 for phones is still targeted for ARM devices only. The ZenFone 2 is designed as an Android device. We will not support anything other than the official Android releases. And no, Windows 10 for phones will not run iOS apps, just Android.
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Did something change about Windows 10 and iOS?

xbbdc said:
Did something change about Windows 10 and iOS?
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Microsoft has tools for Android & iOS developers to "easily" recompile their code for Windoze 10.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8511439/microsoft-windows-10-android-ios-apps-bridges
Basically, the developers need to recompile their existing code and make some minor changes to bring the apps to Windoze 10.

ycavan said:
Microsoft has tools for Android & iOS developers to "easily" recompile their code for Windoze 10.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8511439/microsoft-windows-10-android-ios-apps-bridges
Basically, the developers need to recompile their existing code and make some minor changes to bring the apps to Windoze 10.
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So that's a no, nothing's changed on what's already been announced. I'm pretty sure if developers don't do it themselves, someone will find a way to make them work.

I owned many different phones, tablets and in my opinion the Android OS is the best for phones. I would not mind installing Linux (mint) on my tablet tho

I still don't get why you'd want windows on this phone other than as a "just because you can" exercise. Windows isn't suddenly going to have better mobile apps than android, and the android apps that are probably/possibly going to run on windows obviously already run on your android phone which they were designed for. And if you are talking full windows, the screen is too small, the phone has only one USB port, and while improved over previous generations, the atom in our phone is still no match for a proper full power desktop or laptop CPU. Oh, and most people only have 16 or 32 GB on-board storage.

If I could dual boot Windows and Android, I'd have the best of both worlds... but the Windows thing's important so I can consolidate my needs into a single device.
So that I can plug in a USB host cable, USB hub, plug in a USB-to-VGA adapter & wireless mouse/keyboard combo, and have a full PC anywhere I go, with 4GB of RAM.
Plenty of cheap-o Windows tablets out there with soldered on 32GB of onboard storage. (I actually own the Microcenter one, and it works really, /really/ well, all things considered. Runs the Windows applications I need it to: http://www.microcenter.com/product/440932/TW802_Tablet_-_Black the Winbook TW02 )
And it's not about the apps. It's about having a Windows PC in my god dang pocket.
For me, and I suspect some other people, it's a lot more than a 'just because you can' exercise. All that shows is a lack of imagination.