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Comment by zamadatix | Hacker News Reader

It'll probably be as much of a second class citizen elsewhere (the real problem is the hardware hasn't as good as Apple Silicon laptops but has been in the same price class at the bottom) but it's good they chase everywhere rather than just one use case.

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In the case of Linux, that issue is solely because of non-upstreamed drivers. With that, it can be a first class citizen just like any other processor.

It's second class on Windows because it doesn't support game DRM and generally performs worse for the price than an x86 laptop. About the thing it really has going for it is better battery life. Using Linux doesn't really change either of those problems, though it does get you away from the mess that is Windows 11.

1st party native software support is high and 3rd party native software support is higher than Linux. Both have feature complete userspace emulation layers for the 3rd party part (largely game focused) Windows doesn't need Proton for that. Both can run open source apps natively.

10y old laptops are still powerful enough for my usage. So a bit more battery life wouldn't hurt me if performance of an arm system provides at least as much in term of performance.

I am pretty sure 99% of the population is in the same situation.

The situation was 99% of Windows laptops sold ended up being the much cheaper x86 ones or similarly priced ones with more performance.

It's like phones where people say everyone will buy out any phone with more battery life and then the standard type phone is always actually what sells. Consumers will gladly pick more battery all else equal, but that's not what the snapdragon laptops have been.

Not that Apple gave consumers much choice, but when they switched over it was truly all else equal or better and it sold like hot cakes, despite many popular still needing emulation for the first year they still ran better than they would have natively in the other option anyways. Qualcomm doesn't get that nearly as easily because they are competing against the latest off all current x86 options, not a subset of older Intel options.

I'm hoping that changes with the newer Elites though. At least the performance seems to be getting there, if not the price yet.

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