If Windows 10 is coming to Windows phone 8 devices, and some of those are 512mb ram devices, then wouldn't Windows 10 for PC have support for older computers?
Windows 10 theory
- Thread starter someone2639
- Start date
Laura Knotek
Retired Moderator
several potatos
New member
Well, define "older". Honestly, I think Microsoft may purposefully block *really* old devices simply to stop people from installing W10 and then freaking out when Crysis doesn't run at 4k.
Bobvfr
New member
I wonder if I can find my old Amstrad 1520 with 520k of ram that I upgraded to 640k and replaced one of the 5 1/4 floppies with a 1.2m 3 1/2 drive and finally put a 20m hard drive in, I am sure I can stuff a new OS on it if a try hard enough :wink:
Bob
Bob
gwinegarden
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Toan Le
New member
As long as your PC meets the hardware requirement of the OS (2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, etc as I remember), then it is supported. Unlike phones, whose OS availability also depend on OEMs (I think).
But, theoretically, if Windows 10 mobile can run on 512 Mb phones, then it could possibly run on 512 Mb computers (release)
The CPU and memory may meet the specs, but the bigger issue will be drivers for the other hardware.
That is the biggest challenge for MS since it started. Having an OS that can work with multiple types of hardware from multiple manufacturers.
That is why new OS releases from MS seem so painful and disorganized sometimes. It isn't the OS that has the problem. A lot of times it is the hardware makers not getting their drivers right to talk to the OS.
That is why Apple has systems that "just work". They control both the hardware and software, so they can control things better within their eco system.
I am NOT an Apple fan, actually pointing out that MS has many more variables to contend with.
That is the biggest challenge for MS since it started. Having an OS that can work with multiple types of hardware from multiple manufacturers.
That is why new OS releases from MS seem so painful and disorganized sometimes. It isn't the OS that has the problem. A lot of times it is the hardware makers not getting their drivers right to talk to the OS.
That is why Apple has systems that "just work". They control both the hardware and software, so they can control things better within their eco system.
I am NOT an Apple fan, actually pointing out that MS has many more variables to contend with.
Bobvfr
New member
a5cent
New member
This is exactly the kind of confusion that I expected...
Many people, even here on these boards, including some developers, believe this is all the same OS when they are actually two. The Windows desktop and mobile OSes will no doubt have much in common (WinRT API and runtime and the kernel) but there will remain huge differences as well.
W104M (Windows 10 for mobile) lacks everything related to the desktop, enterprise, virtualization, disk management, and a gazillion other things.
The W10 technical preview is nothing like what will end up running on phones and tablets. From a users point of view however, they will access the same app store and both will run the same universal apps. I guess it's those similarities that justify using the same name for both.
Because these two OSes won't be the same (W104M will be about 1/10th the size of its bigger brother), it's simply not possible to draw conclusions about one by knowing something about the other.
Desktop W10's minimal requirements will likely be identical to W8.1's:
1GB for 32bit versions, 2GB for 64bit versions of Windows.
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I knew something like that would surface. Due to display and multitasking, it would need 1 GB of ram.
a5cent
New member
That too, but mostly because desktop W10 is over 9 times larger and includes two decades worth of Windows functions and features that phones and tablets simply have no use for.
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No, not even theoretically. Windows 10 on Pc supports desktop applications, and desktop itself, and there are limitations for 512MB PCs.
EssThree
New member
a5cent
New member
Ehm..... you've got this backward.
Universal apps for W10-arm and W10-x86 can be 100% identical, meaning the entire source code base and the binary distributable too, as it will often be just CPU independent IL code.
Moreover, W10-arm and W10-x86 are not functionally identical. One is a very small subset of the other, which IMHO is anything but "the same". You might as well say the numbers 123 and 2 are the same, because they both include the number 2.
It's the same OS as far as the consumer is concerned, it is Windows 10, that is all. We could argue this all day, not gonna.
a5cent
New member
It's the same OS as far as the consumer is concerned, it is Windows 10, that is all. We could argue this all day, not gonna.
Since were on a tech site, I don't think adopting the most benign and dumbed down view of the OS makes a lot of sense.
IMHO even the biggest technophobe would want to know whether a tablet can run desktop software or not, so I'd also disagree that it's safe for consumers to completely ignore the differences.
Pretending both OSes are one and the same has already proven to be more confusing than helpful, particularly to the tech interested layman. You need only look at the questions people ask about W10 on this site. Most of the misunderstandings and false expectations can be traced directly back to MS using one name for two OSes, for which this thread is a good example.
By pretending we're getting the same OS on all devices, we're just making it much harder on ourselves. Six months from now, we'll be telling people in the "Ask a Question" forum how stupid they were, for not having done their research. They should have known that not all W10 devices can run desktop software, or that not all W10 tablets will support feature X like on your W10 laptop! Stupid, stupid, stupid! That will be met with cries about how they did do their research but were deceived by WPC members who insisted the OS on all W10 devices is identical.
:grincry:
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a5cent
New member
If insults is all you have left, then that is unlikely to convince many. There's got to be a more mature way to disagree, right?
I'll respond to any worthwhile rebuttal, but lets not make it personal.
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