According to a recent announcement from Microsoft, Windows 11 is now compatible with Mac M1 and M2 chips. While unexpected, this is an important development for both Apple and Microsoft, with implications that could have a huge effect within the spheres of work, education, and entertainment.
Fundamentally, this level of compatibility illustrates a significant step forward for computer users, in what could hopefully illustrate a new norm.
The Importance of Compatibility
To understand why compatibility matters so much, consider what’s offered by industries that rely on compatibility as the backbone of their services. For example, online casino websites find success by offering an enormous range of games like slots, blackjack, live titles, and more. To maximize their potential audience, these games, and the bonus offers and special systems which support them, need to work on as many platforms as possible. By adopting HTML 5 as a foundation, games can be played over a huge range of devices like smartphones, PCs, and tablets. For players, this level of access provides convenience.
In the landscape of Mac and Windows systems, benefits from convenience would also apply, but the advantage would also extend to work systems. In the world of Mac and PC, Macs are often given the position of creative tools for image and video design. On the other hand, the flexibility of PCs and Microsoft’s Office Suite in most professional environments means they tend to be where the finishing touches to projects are applied.
A New Way Forward
With the ability to install both Mac and Windows operating systems onto the same platforms, teams and users could bypass the need to purchase multiple systems. This would offer advantages like lowers costs, less physical and storage space used up, and less shuffling around staff for different jobs. Though Windows won’t perform quite as well on Mac chips as on ones built for PC, the advantages would still be too great to ignore.
Operating from one central system would also cut down on the requirements of networked infrastructure. Rather than having to transfer projects from one machine to another to make adjustments, a user could simply boot the other operating system and commit changes as needed.
Early Days
As much potential as this cooperation between the two big computer operating systems makes, it’s still got a long way to go before it becomes the new normal. This first rollout doesn’t offer compatibility for 32-bit Arm apps from the Windows Store, for example, as only 64-bit applications will work properly.
While it’s possible emulators might address this issue, adding additional overhead on what is already less than a perfectly running system could be problematic.
At least for now, users on Mac and PC have a way to run both operating systems on a single computer without having to rely on hacky workarounds. In the future, this level of communication could reshape the way many industries do business, lowering costs and increasing operating efficiency. It might make some workers have to learn an ecosystem they’d rather not engage with, but for productivities sake, even this effort could pay off.