It seems the Linux and Android Switch ports may eventually be getting some rather unexpected competition. Bingxing Wang, also known as imbushuo, has shown on his Twitter account some pictures of what looks like Windows 10 ARM running on his console. For those out of the loop, the full Windows 10 operating system has been officially ported to ARM some time ago initially thanks to a deal with Qualcomm and has since been able to run on a good number of ARM devices, including the popular SBC Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+. This version of Windows has been received with mixed feelings, primarily because most applications have been written to run on x86 in mind and they need an emulation layer to run on ARM, thus severely impacting pefrormance. Simply put: if you think this port will allow you to play the latest and greatest Windows games on your Switch, then that's not going to happen.

Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/imbushuo/status/1102111298077130752​

Switching the focus back to our console, the port seems in very early stages. Progress is being made rather quickly, as not even a day ago all one could see is an EFI shell, however the OS is not able to reach past the initial boot process due to memory-related issues. The port runs on bare metal and uses an EDK II implementation (TianoCore) for the Tegra X1 SoC, which borrows a lot of code from a similiar project (Lumia950XLPkg, an effort to bring a full Windows 10 ARM installation for Lumia 950/950 XL phones). For the curious or more skeptical readers, the developer is already known for similiar projects, primarily dealing with Lumia phones, and has already uploaded a very early version of his work on GitHub (you can find a link in the sources below).

What do you think? Will this project go far? Will it be useful? Are you interested in running other OSes on your Switch and, if so, will you consider using it over the other ports?

UPDATE: The Switch is now reportedly able to boot Windows 10 (with limited device support). Bingxing Wang has uploaded a video of the console getting to the installation dialog, which can be seen below.

​

Source

 

[EmBlaze]

Something a lot of people don't know: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/apps-on-arm-x86-emulation

But personally, I'd be a bit more excited for Chrome OS (Project Croissant). And for the many that don't know, Android and Linux programs are officially supported.

 

[Deleted User]

Something a lot of people don't know: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/apps-on-arm-x86-emulation

But personally, I'd be a bit more excited for Chrome OS (Project Croissant). And for the many that don't know, Android and Linux programs are officially supported.

Well, if it is so then a part of the OS would be usefull for not demanding apps (no games or emulators). Now i can use Microsoft Office 365 on the go on the nintendo switch. But hornestly, Windows is not really neccessary for the switch. But anyways it is cool that the switch can run soo many Operating Systems (like mentoried in my shitpost ehh i mean... my post earlier). Chrome OS with Android and Linux compatibility? Well, Chrome OS was for me always an useless system (because the apps were all in HTML5 and you would need a constant internet connection). Maybe i could try it out (on the switch maybe? Forgot to mention this in my shitpost).

 

[Idontknowwhattoputhere]

I highly doubt this early port of Windows 10 for the Switch is for the end user either.

Nor is the port of android

 

[orangpelupa]

isnt that no longer correct? nowadays Chrome OS can run apps offline right?

Well, Chrome OS was for me always an useless system (because the apps were all in HTML5 and you would need a constant internet connection).

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

anyway, Windows on ARM would be pretty neat on switch due to its included dock.

no longer i would need to bring my windows tablet to work. i can simply bring my switch and left the dock at workplace. Both to have fun, and do some lighter work.

 

[RattletraPM]

UPDATE: The Switch is now reportedly able to boot Windows 10 (with limited device support). Bingxing Wang has uploaded a video of the console getting to the installation dialog:

​

(The OP has also been updated with the new info)

 

[Convey12]

I'm interesting to see where this ends up

 

[Smashkid15]

My Body Is Ready!

 

[Imancol]

While this is cool. Windows ARM is utterly useless...

Well, you can run .NET apps on ARM, so you can actually do quite a lot on Windows ARM, as long as they don't need any native libraries (or said native libraries are open source so you can recompile them)
It's not at all comparable to full blown PC Windows though. And the touchscreen experience on Windows is still not great, you really need a keyboard at minimum if you want to use it seriously. And obviously you can forget about running games, but it may be good for some things, you could probably run full fat Office on it, and use it for web browsing and video watching, but I think almost anything you can do on Windows ARM could be done better on Android which is more tailored to touchscreen devices.

Android is almost perfect ... only if I could fix the problem of the touch screen with the ghost touches, and some games have a poor performance despite its power, of course not done for that hehe ...

Windows 10 ARM on Nintendo Switch could be much more profitable than Android, because although the architecture is different and does not support most applications / games x86, it would work very well for a type of Pocket Windows where you can use native office applications, or even Edition or architecture, since it has .Net support as you mention, although it would be great to adapt the screen as if it were a Digital Tablet. The switch panel itself is designed to be blindly sensitive, perfect for design.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Windows 10 ARM on Nintendo Switch could be much more profitable than Android, because although the architecture is different and does not support most applications / games x86, it would work very well for a type of Pocket Windows where you can use native office applications, or even Edition or architecture, since it has .Net support as you mention, although it would be great to adapt the screen as if it were a Digital Tablet. The switch panel itself is designed to be blindly sensitive, perfect for design.

Except that's not what this is, Windows 10 ARM does support x86 applications, via emulation. This is NOT Windows RT, which was the stripped down, ARM only version of Windows with virtually 0 support.

The problem here is that the ARM->x86 emulation is awful on Windows 10 ARM. A relatively high end Snapdragon 835 (which is like the Snapdragon equivalent of the Tegra X1's CPU cores) was benchmarked to be weaker than an entry level mobile Celeron when emulating any x86 application, which makes it effectively worthless as a Windows tablet for everyday use. The native ARM programs that are also available on Windows 10 ARM are also very few and far between, and in most cases aren't powerful enough to be useful as even an "occasional device" for drawing or web browsing and such.

This is especially true when you also have to keep in mind that you'd still need native GPU drivers for the Maxwell based GPU, which don't exist for Windows 10 ARM.

 

[DinohScene]

Heh.

Thought I'd never see that happen.

 

[Imancol]

Except that's not what this is, Windows 10 ARM does support x86 applications, via emulation. This is NOT Windows RT, which was the stripped down, ARM only version of Windows with virtually 0 support.

The problem here is that the ARM->x86 emulation is awful on Windows 10 ARM. A relatively high end Snapdragon 835 (which is like the Snapdragon equivalent of the Tegra X1's CPU cores) was benchmarked to be weaker than an entry level mobile Celeron when emulating any x86 application, which makes it effectively worthless as a Windows tablet for everyday use. The native ARM programs that are also available on Windows 10 ARM are also very few and far between, and in most cases aren't powerful enough to be useful as even an "occasional device" for drawing or web browsing and such.

This is especially true when you also have to keep in mind that you'd still need native GPU drivers for the Maxwell based GPU, which don't exist for Windows 10 ARM.

What about the UWP applications?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So we have horizon, linux (and laka), android and windows. Cool.

Only Hackintosh would be missing

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

What about the UWP applications?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Only Hackintosh would be missing

So long as the UWP was built for ARM, it'll work, but again those are few and far between and the performance still isn't great.

This is more a proof of concept type thing, not an actual, usable OS like Android or Linux.

 

[Imancol]

So long as the UWP was built for ARM, it'll work, but again those are few and far between and the performance still isn't great.

This is more a proof of concept type thing, not an actual, usable OS like Android or Linux.

Believe me there are ... being a Universal or Multiplatform compilation such as HTML5. In fact, I wonder how WebGL games will run.

When there is, if I did, a stable version of this, I will try to compile my games in that version.

 

[wiewiec]

As M$ try use Arm Soc on their Surface line I think it could be great for future low power Windows products, but only after market fill with proper apps for this technology. Good that they try to make it to use Arm - little late, but still great.

 

[Imancol]

For those who said that Windows 10 ARM does not run perfect for games. You can see this demo of a device with the same performance as Nintendo Switch.



https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/19/...dows-10-on-arm-apps-games-limitations-support

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

 

[Kordru]

switch is for games son
i already have windows on PC
stop
please

they're breaking reality itself, they really need to stop