Photoshop on ARM with Win8RT..?

[thatcomicsguy]

So I finally did a bunch of overdue reading on Win8.

"Windows8 RT" looks like a potential game-changer.

When reading through the Microsoft Win8 RT team blog, there appears to be a conscious effort around the lab to make it easy for software publishers to program for both x86 and ARM chipsets in the same development cycle.

That's a pretty big step toward seeing real productivity software released on those awesome ARM tablets with their 10+ hour battery lives.

It definitely looks as though there are going to be a lot of Win8 tablets out by the end of the year; everybody seems to be working on one with high expectations for public demand, and I suspect that this will spur software development. I can see a future where the 'good' software packages will run on both regular x86 AND the Tegra-driven Win8 ultrabooks and tablets.

In that kind of environment. . , it will only take a little bit of pushing for Adobe and others to release their next software iterations to be compatible with Win8 RT.

And then it seems to me that it would be just too obvious a step for some bright company to realize the value of making a serious art tablet with stylus input and a real screen size.

Hmm. But we'll have to see. Win8 RT might just turn out to be another "Windows CE".

Am I grasping or does this seem possible to anybody else?

[Seketh]

I think you got it right. Applications like Photoshop should eventually be ported to ARM. If it's going to be the same good old Photoshop, or a new Metro application, that I can't tell you.

Microsoft is bettting on unification. Although Windows RT won't run x86 apps, which is a pretty big deal, I'm sure devs are already working on porting their apps for ARM or developing a Metro version of those apps, so we'll eventually have the same apps on both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Basically, think of it this way: Apps were being developed for x86, then they started being developed to x86 and x64, and now they're going to be developed for x86, x64 and ARM. It's a little more complicated than that, since ARM is a completely different processor architecture, but I think that example holds.

Windows RT definitely won't be anything like Windows CE.

[thatcomicsguy]

Actually, I've been surprised by some of the battery life times of the newer machines running the latest x86 chips. I'm now wondering if it matters at all. 10 hours on an x86 tablet is pretty impressive.

Now it all comes down to stylus availability. The rest of this year could be very interesting. I'm hoping for at least one decent new art tablet to grace the scene. I wonder who will make it? (Still haven't heard back from Toshiba. I doubt I will.)

[Mitlov]

Actually, I've been surprised by some of the battery life times of the newer machines running the latest x86 chips. I'm now wondering if it matters at all. 10 hours on an x86 tablet is pretty impressive.

Now it all comes down to stylus availability. The rest of this year could be very interesting. I'm hoping for at least one decent new art tablet to grace the scene. I wonder who will make it? (Still haven't heard back from Toshiba. I doubt I will.)

A big issue is cost. Windows RT tablets will probably cost $500ish, inclusive of MS Office. Windows 8 tablets with x86 processors might cost 50-100% more, and that price is exclusive of MS Office (which generally sells for about $120).

If third-party software makers start embracing ARM, Intel will finally face the competition that AMD was never really able to provide on the x86 front, and its effective monopoly will be broken. And monopolies are bad for consumers, so that's a good thing.

[taoyue]

There is no provision for desktop applications in WinRT 8. The only exceptions are bundled with the operating system -- the system applets and the special stripped-down Office RT. You cannot install any desktop applications.

In WinRT 8, the only way to get cross-platform is Metro. That makes it substantially more difficult to port an application, as the user interface will have to be rewritten.

In addition, Photoshop would not be particularly easy to port to ARM, due to its use of x86 assembly. Granted, it's not like Photoshop hasn't been ported before -- from Motorola 68k to PowerPC and x86. And Microsoft has already ported Excel to ARM, even though Excel also has quite a bit of assembly.

It is true that WinRT represents a challenge to Intel, but the challenge will not fully materialize until non-bundled desktop applications are also enabled on ARM. Maybe in version 9 or 10.