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The headline here feels pretty excessive. “There’s no quick fix”? There’s also no immediate problem.

Countless PCs are sold every year incapable of playing top games. Gamers are spec-heads for this reason and they’ll know not to get an Arm machine.

When was the last year you could buy a new PC incapable of running Fortnite?
Fortnight doesn't run on Linux yet, so "every year" seems about right. ;)
Since the inception of Fortnite? Windows 10 on ARM launched in 2017/2018. It couldn't do x64 software then either and I'm guessing really low end Intel machines in 2017 couldn't play Fortnite either.
ARM is not a PC.
So these AI PCs the article is talking about also aren't PCs? They run on ARM.

You could buy ARM PCs in 2018 too, like the Asus NovaGo.

Bigger picture: I don't understand why MSFT would want to compete in what's ultimate a low-margin, commodity business that many others have exited. Are these loss-leaders not of sufficient quality, availability, or to their liking and so they need to have a choice available to push the software stack?
They need (or are desperate depending on your milage) to find a way to get AI onto Windows 11 to justify their huge investment in AI. A PC with a dedicated "AI-chip" is one of these ways. It is also a requirement if they want to compete against Apple when it comes to running local on-device models and workloads.
Presumably the goal is to entire what is a low margin market today and convert it into a high margin market. Microsoft has the option of simply limiting the number of Microsoft Windows licenses sold to prevent their competitors from selling more units.
I hope they do. I'm tired of seeing that windows malware preloaded onto all the non-apple laptops.
In other words, i dont think deliberately induced scarcity in windows would increase demand for windows, if anything we will breathe a collective sigh of relief and move on.
> I don't understand why MSFT would want to compete in what's ultimate a low-margin, commodity business

I was in a Walmart today, for the first time in years since I don’t live near one… Based on shelf space taken up, I’d estimate that 1/3 or more of the computers that Walmart sells are Chromebooks.

So yeah, this is probably trying to find some differentiation that stops the entire low-end market from being taken away from them. Because if that happens then things get really hard for them.

Kernel anticheat is software non portability as a service.

There are a ton of games from the 90s and early 2000s they no longer run on modern windows. It would be helpful if there was a culture of open sourcing game code allowing for recompilation to modern architectures.

Did anyone use new ARM based devices in the enterprise environment? We have around 5 devices so far, and a part of cloud printing issue, our users love them. Great battery and performance for office tasks.

Any one else had a chance to play with them?