Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft, Google and Qualcomm Working On Chrome For Windows On ARM (9to5google.com)
Microsoft and Google engineers appear to be working on a Chrome browser running on Windows on ARM. "9to5Google has spotted various commits by Microsoft engineers assisting with the development of Chrome for Windows 10 on ARM," reports The Verge. "The details follow claims by a Qualcomm executive last month that the chip maker was working on an ARM version of Chrome for Windows 10." From the report: A native ARM version of Chrome would make a lot of sense for Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Google. Chrome is one of the most popular desktop apps available on Windows 10, and without a native version for ARM it's difficult to take ARM-powered Windows 10 devices seriously for many. However, it was only last year that Microsoft pulled Google's Chrome installer from the Windows Store, because it violated store policies. Those policies restrict rival browsers to using Microsoft's own Edge rendering engine, specifically that "products that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform." Microsoft also blocked similar browser apps for Windows 8.
Unless Microsoft relaxes its rules then this native Chrome support for Windows on ARM won't be found in the Windows Store. Microsoft and Google's work could still help improve performance for Electron-based apps like Slack and Visual Studio Code which rely on parts of Chromium.
Unless Microsoft relaxes its rules then this native Chrome support for Windows on ARM won't be found in the Windows Store. Microsoft and Google's work could still help improve performance for Electron-based apps like Slack and Visual Studio Code which rely on parts of Chromium.
Why isn't that a case of "feed it to the right (cross) compiler toolchain and done"?
It's an application, not an OS. What? Have you learned nothing in the last fifty-odd years?
That would take about a week I'm guessing. It took my old core 2 duo about 26 hours to build Chromium on Linux last week.
>"[...]without a native version for ARM it's difficult to take ARM-powered Windows 10 devices seriously for many"
I would think it would be just as [if not more] difficult to take MS-Windows 10 ARM seriously without Firefox. And as far as I am aware, there is none, yet. Let's see just how serious Microsoft is about being "open"...
You can already get Chrome built for ARM64 on Linux, how hard is switching the Windows build to ARM64?
...is the 'original' Microsoft. Hafta keep waiting for its return, however, as snipe hunts can take longer than you'd think.
Memory protection, register use, and other application binary interface (ABI) aspects work differently in different operating systems for the same instruction set. Thus dynamic recompilation engines need to be tuned to each ABI, which in practice means each (instruction set, operating system) pair.
In addition, I suspect that ARM devices are more likely than x86-64 devices to ship in S Mode, which bans all browsers other than Edge and other EdgeHTML wrappers. Though Microsoft has since stopped enforcing a paywall for turning S Mode off, the situation could still prove confusing to users of ARM-powered PCs.
Why isn't that a case of "feed it to the right (cross) compiler toolchain and done"?
Chromium (and hence Google Chrome) includes a dynamic recompiler for JavaScript and WebAssembly code. If you have a dynamic recompiler that generates x86-64 code, recompiling it for AArch64 will generate a dynamic cross-compiler that still generates x86-64 code, which isn't quite as useful.
Microsoft is not *allowing* other browsers (not based on the "edge" engine).
I thought that was true only of Windows Store, and the big difference between Microsoft's strategies with Windows 10 on ARM and Windows RT (Windows 8 on ARM) was that Microsoft was allowing users to install applications from outside the Store.
Sure, better stick with those secure amd64 computers with speculative execution.
Time to leave, lin-sux. LOL. Losers.
Quotes from real /. users on APK Hosts File Engine
"Hosts Engine crashed my computer" -- 1010110111110110onezero0101, June 31 2016
"I tried to use hosts, but it turned out to be fake virus filled malware." -- StupidKendoll, April 31 2018
"I brought my dog over to APK's house and he fucked the literal shit out of it" -- AnotherSatisifiedCustomer, September 31 2005
Blocking browsers in their app store because they invest time and money making a good product instead of using Microsoft's crap edge engine is nothing short of disgusting behaviour from this crap Microsoft Indian ceo.
That boat has well and truly sailed.
It's been usable for quite a while too, so why would you use windows on a resource-constrained ARM system, when you can get far better performance (And have standards compatibility!) with the vastly advanced Open source software?
Can only think that people who think chrome on ARM is news are totally unaware.
Always felt pretty bad for MSFT's customers. Their store salespeople too. Walked past a 'Microsoft Store' in the CBD of a busy city once -- they looked so confused and lonely. Was a busy street, but they were all just lined up there idle. Kinda like an Apple store when no-one's around.
Well, I guess this is the result of all that money they pumped into the non-profitable xbox department - a whole new generation of kids who have a good impression of Microsoft, mostly just because of that, and they're blissfully unaware of how far ahead all of the competition really is, so they're unable to judge without a baseline or reference.
Chromium is not Chrome. Isthat really that difficult to understand?
Microsoft hasn't quite decided if they want to be Apple or Google yet, they got the store-only S versions and the open versions.
Windows 10 S used to be a separate SKU, with a $50 paywall to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. The structure has since changed to match Apple's on the Mac or Google's on Android: a PC can be put in or out of "S Mode", just as Gatekeeper on a Mac can be put in or out of "App Store only" mode or an Android phone can be put in or out of "Unknown sources off" mode.
I may not care that much to be part of the PC master race when the PS5/XB2 rolls around.
Let me know if PlayStation 5 and Xbox One's successor support community-built mods, whether for gameplay quality-of-life issues or for extending replay value. If popular shooters based on id Tech 2 (Quake and Half-Life) didn't have mod support, there wouldn't be a Team Fortress or Counter-Strike. Nor would there be DotA if Blizzard's Warcraft III weren't moddable. Console games expressly designed for moddability (LittleBigPlanet series, WarioWare DIY) tend to be few and far between.
for us nerds there's always Linux
Provided you can continue to find compatible hardware at a non-extortionate price. Some PCs continue to have serious compatibility problems (search the web for debian on asus t100ta for one example). PC manufacturers used to make low-cost Linux-compatible compact laptops but withdrew them in 2012 to pursue the higher-margin tablet market. Laptops sold for purpose, such as those by System76, tend to cost a lot more than the Windows laptops that one can find in Walmart or Best Buy, and a prospective buyer has no chance to try the screen, keyboard, and touchpad before buying one. It might become a bit easier once all new Chromebooks support Crostini (GNU in a container).
Chromium is just regular Chrome with more flavour, hence its name: Chrome-Yum.
#DeleteFacebook
Then should we blame Adobe? Its Flash Player and its CDM for HTML5 EME (that is, the digital restrictions management stuff) are the biggest differences that I'm aware of between Google Chrome and Chromium.
what's happening here. Call this a conspiracy theory, but I'm seeing too many patterns being matched over the last few years. Notice how all of these companies are now sharing data, working together, etc. Microsoft getting into open source and buying GitHib (huge red flag), all of them getting into bed with each other with consortiums, etc. This is all designed, methinks, to gather and share data on everyone in the world that uses technology. I don't see this being benign in any way shape or form.
Notice, now, that "we" don't "own" anything anymore. Everything is a service. How convenient for the corporations to track everyone. Your data is all on their servers, on their devices, their cost controls. Hell, we don't even own our mobile phones--we "rent" them from a carrier and still pay exorbitant prices to use the carrier's services. It's a captive treadmill and all you must do to play is choose your lord and pay him to exist in his fiefdom.
Switch to Linux or BSD, don't sign up for "free' services. You're the product, not the customer. Always pay if you're able. Some companies are benign. Fastmail being one of them. Been a real customer since 2002. Pay for your phones outright, make sure they are unlocked so you're not tied to a carrier. Don't store your data on someone else's servers. Pay for your own and do a colo or at the very least, pay for your own storage using something like a $5 plan on Digital Ocean. Block ads, beacons, tracking cookies, give false information, poison the revenue stream, use a proxy server. We are headed towards total control by government and corporations--that unholy marriage that some call fascism. It all looks benign from 30000 feet, but get into the weeds and you will see humanity is being herded towards total control.
Considering Chrome already supports ARM64 (on android), and already supports x86 and x64 windows, one would imagine that Windows ARM would almost work 'just out of the box'.
This Tom chap has been working on this for 2 months now! And it still doesn't look anything more than halfway done - it doesn't even compile yet!
I've no version 11.0++ & gweihir KNOWS u IMPERSONATE me https://it.slashdot.org/commen... c6gunner proves it https://linux.slashdot.org/com... he forgot to SUBMIT as AC & using his registered 'lusrname' instead (because he tried to mock me both BEFORE & after I FAIRLY challenged him to show he's done better work - he had ZERO).
& NO WAY I'd "cry" like you "ne'er-do-wells" on /. (TROLL /.ers, not all) OR post on hosts offtopic.
YOU HELPED ME https://science.slashdot.org/c... (& you quit trying to make me look bad trying to "tell lies" on hosts as "ME" IN YOUR IMPERSONATIONS of me e.g. https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... as regards Intel speculative execution attack? Hosts PREVENT 'EM)
APK
P.S.=> I KNOW the 2nd to last link above's KILLING YOU - YOU ACTUALLY HELPED ME getting me to see if hosts stop more than portsmash (& Meltdown + Spectre too) & "lo & behold" - hosts WORK on 'em - U LOSE (& U STOPPED TRYING IT in your impersonations of me) .... apk
The Surface RT is based on ARM, right? So...
You know where I'm headed with that. But no, I'm not holding my breath.