Windows 8 and ARMBooks

NixiePixel asked on Twitter "are you excited about Windows 8?" My answer is no. Well not yet. 

My answer has nothing to do with Windows 8. It has to do more with hardware. I am typing this on one of my two laptops, this one being a circa 2007 HP Compaq 6510b. Running Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 1, it has a state of the art operating system and enough power to meet my needs. When I feel like something new, I download a different Linux distribution or try a different desktop environment, and it feels like I have a brand new toy.

Still, last year I got a 13-inch MacBook Air. I am not a big fan of Mac OSX, but I can easily go from one OS to the other. What made the MBA compelling? It is half the weight and has almost three time the battery life of the HP Compaq 6510b. It boots in 13 seconds and shuts down in 5 seconds. 

Windows 8 promises to bring quick boot, quick wake and quick shutdown... plus a whole bunch of other features to the Windows world. But that is not enough to make me think of upgrading to a new operating system, much less buying a new laptop.  

Bring the 13-inch machine down to 2.5 pounds (without a Sony Vaio Z price) and  bring the battery life up to 12-15 hours or more, and I think I would get interested. 

In that sense, I am a bit excited about Window 8 to the extent that it supports ARM. A passively cooled ultralight ARM notebook, or ARMBook, should be able to bring about a lighter laptop with more endurance than anything in the market today.

Now that excites me.