They might have
but didn't find anybody running it.
Fear not, you unlucky owners of Windows RT tablets: Microsoft hasn't abandoned you yet. Not entirely, anyway. According to Microsoft spokesman Gabe Aul, Windows RT, the feature-limited version of Windows 8 for ARM-powered fondleslabs, will in fact be getting another significant update soon. That's the good news. The bad news …
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> Windows RT will be remembered mainly as one of Microsoft's biggest missteps
It seems that it did achieve one major aim of WoA (Windows on ARM) and that was to kill off WebOS. With WoA Microsoft could threaten _all_ discounts to HP if they were 'disloyal' and made ARM tablets running some other OS.
The Start Screen is rightfully reviled .... on **DESKTOP** systems. on the RT powered **TABLET** devices on the other hand it is a VERY good fit. What makes no sense on the tablets is the Windows Desktop environment.
On my Surface I never use the desktop unless forced to by the absence of a modern/metro UI in the app I am using.
On my desktop 8.1 system I never even see the Start Screen (using Classic Shell for my Start Menu replacement/restoration).
MS should have been more aggressive in differentiating between the two devices, rather than the FrankenUI they came up with.
As for the rampant, faux pity in this article, as an owner of a 1st gen Surface RT I don't much care what people think of it who have never owned one. It is by the far the most versatile and productive tablet of any that I have owned (various 'droids and iPads) made all the better by a battery life that is the envy of all the others.
The criticisms leveled at the platform and the devices in this article come from only one place: ignorance.
With Windows 8.0 RT, it was a pain to try to switch to the desktop. Charms, Search, D E S K (not yet) T (amazingly, still not yet...) O (ah, there it is!)...
With Windows 8.1 RT, you simply touch the funny Windows hot button. Like this: Desktop, Start Screen, Desktop, Start Screen, Desktop, Start Screen, ...
I see you get it too. If only they had done that in the first place. I really like my Surface 2. It's the best made tablet I've had and I've cone through a few. Had it since a couple of months after launch and it seems almost like new. Unlike other tablets and other windows installations the major plus it has is that it has never slowed down due to the gathering of app junk or windows cruft. Shame to see them go, really.
Windows Phone 7.8 to let WP7 users 'get the experience' of Windows Phone 8.
Windows 8.1 RT Update 3 to let WinRT users 'get the experience' of Windows 10.
WP 7.8 burnt bridges and goodwill between MIcrosoft and users, OEMs. It was one of the main reasons why Windows phones never really gained any meaningful market share.
I wonder what will happen this time?
MS will probably give you 'Quartana', a quarter (ed. none) of the features of Cortana.
Erh - well actually, a Cortana Icon that you can press again and again and it plays back one of 4 random different recorded digital samples again and again of Cortana's voice, like one of those Cry Real Tears Dolls, where you pulled a string to hear her voice.
Surface RT will have the familiar touchy feely sound of Cortana, you can add your own tears for effect.
Considering that the Raspberry Pi 2 and the Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c, both of which have Arm 7 based processors are listed as Windows 10 IOT dev boards, it shouldn't be that hard for MS to get Win 10 Desktop running on the Arm based hardware. The core OS is already being compiled against Arm.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn914597(v=vs.85).aspx
Qualcomm also announced Win 10 Mobile will run on it's Snapdragon 210 reference designs for phones, which no doubt will also be Arm cores.
I suspect that the Windows 10 Desktop on Arm isn't a priority for MS and with Intel Atom tablets becoming so common they're targeting Win 10 IOT and Mobile at Arm, with Win 10 Desktop for Tablets and PCs. I doubt the RT machines will ever see Win 10 and MS would prefer they end up fading away, rather than porting the remaining parts of Win 10 Desktop to Arm at the moment.