comparison of vmware workstation player 12 and 12.5

Next Question, if you can run Windows ARM as VM on a M1 Mac, will it be possible some day to install Windows ARM NATIVELY to a Apple Silicon Mac, a la bootcamp? I think all that would be needed is a special bootloader to trick Windows ARM into thinking it is a Surface Pro or something.

There was no competition before, so Qualcomm and Microsoft had no pressure to push Windows ARM or the Surface Pro, it just had to be good enough. Ironically, because the M1 is so fast, according to some reviews, Windows ARM runs faster as a VM on a M1 Mac than it does on a Surface Pro natively.

I wonder if VMware has a skunk works project going on to do the same I'm sure VMWare is watching how the Parallels experiment goes and whether consumers take to it. Even still the, it's actually quite amazing that it can be done, that a 32/64-bit Intel Windows app can run under emulation on a ARM version of Windows built for Qualcomm's ARM chip, running as a Virtual Machine on a Apple Mac with a Apple designed ARM processor. Lingering application issues, emulation of Intel, problems running older 32-bit Intel apps (under emulation). It's a proof of concept, the bigger issue is, will running the ARM version Windows satisfy people who want to run Windows on a Apple Silicon Mac, because Windows ARM still has it's own issues even on official Windows hardware like the Surface Pro. I've tried it, it works, for the most part, still a lot of work to do, but interesting. So, Parallels is showing off a Technical Preview of Parallels that can run the ARM version of Windows on Apple Silicon apps.

Comparison of vmware workstation player 12 and 12.5