Having heard the arguments from both sides, seen the evidence presented, I also believe that Windows on ARM or Pi would not be illegal.Legality: ...This is how WoR is legal - we simply leave it to you to license the OS if you want to, but it is not legally required to do so.
Let's face it, no one actually knows whether ti's illegal, not even the lawyers. We won't until it goes to court.
It seems to me those saying it would be illegal, citing licensing, cost, potential slowness of X86 and X64 emulation, or other negative speculation, are mostly trying to discourage and dissuade people from running Windows.
I'd say cost and x86 emulation speeds are important.
Cost because a retail license (or a low volume OEM one) is high when compared to the cost of the hardware. If MS bring the retail license cost down for Pi that's going to impact retail licenses on x86 too. And/or sales of x86 hardware.
Then there'll be the "but why to I have to pay extra for Windows on Pi when I don't when I buy a PC?" crowd.
About the only way I can see it working (assuming a full license is required and MS will support Pi) would be for RPL to negotiate the same sort of licensing deal the likes of Dell and Lenovo have then launch a second Pi500 desktop kit with a Windows SD card rather than a Linux one.
Emulation performance matters because many applications are x86 only and closed source. If it's poor we'll just see more complaints on here (and elsewhere).
Ultimately it comes down to Microsoft and they don't appear to have had any complaints about what WoR are doing. At worse I would anticipate you would get a stroppy "cease and desist" letter from their lawyers which, if you choose to comply with, would likely be the end of it.
Yep. It is down to MS. I'd imagine they don't much care because the volumes are tiny. But if the millions of Pi users were to start running unlicensed copies that would change.
FWIW, I have tried WoR in the past. I couldn't get it to create the correct image let alone boot at that time and since then WoR seem to be actively recommending other SBCs and no longer supporting Pi.
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Sat Feb 22, 2025 7:15 pm