Microsoft is working on the ARM transition. ARM has good control of mobile hardware. And Apple will be only selling ARM hardware (in the form of Apple Silicon) in another 12-18 months.
M1 and Apple Silicon are just part of the trend.
I just wish I could install Linux.... If MS and Apple just provide their locked down environments, it will never be more to me than a neat device and I would still crosscompile instead of binding myself to a manufacturer.
But moved to Mac (and OSX) about 8 years ago.
I don't get the "locked down" thing. On my current macs (a 2020 iMac and a 2015 MBP) I run Macports that lets me install pretty much every bit of userland software that I want. I also get the advantages of the MacOS gui environment and the availability of most "user" software.
Yes SIP and the new sandboxes lock down the MacOS part of the system, and things like VPNs (eg Wireguard) need to get a dev cert and distribution from Apple.
But the "lockdown" is very lightweight. There's nothing I can't do on this devices that I used to do on my Linux environments.
If I truly need a "native" Linux, then there are a number of VM and container environments also available.
I do some low level system developing and I doubt I would ever switch to MacOS for this. Higher level software? Maybe, but as I said, why give Apple any handle here and these sandboxes don't provide security for me. I will also not get a dev cert from anyone, that is just something that will never happen.
You can then debug anything, load unsigned kernel modules...
And has been for years. Unlike Apple they don’t have the ability (or the courage) to tell their partners to get on the train or get out of their way.
It’s not obvious they’ll ever be able to leave x86 behind.
Partially it's amazing they remained on top, and also partially that they never managed to cannibalize their own success (like Apple and later Microsoft have done).