even if they do make it opt-in, this has already torpedoed public opinion of Windows on ARM, and by extension the market viability of ARM-based PCs. which sucks. I was looking forward to those tbh. ARM is cool! Linux on ARM is already pretty mature! I for one am a big fan of energy efficiency and high performance. hell, the NPUs on those chips are probably useful for something someone might actually want to do.
but if nobody buys them, The Suits will simply conclude that people don't want ARM PCs, not that people might not be interested in their other shiny new boondoggle. And we'll all be stuck with x86 lap-heaters for another ten years.
