Hi eM Client team,
I have just bought a new Surface Pro 11th Edition with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite SoC running Windows on Arm (WoA).
Most of my main productivity applications, e.g, Microsoft Office and Affinity Suite v2, are already available in Arm native versions.
When can I expect an eM Client for WoA?
Best wishes,
Thomas
eM Client already runs on ARM based devices. Please see this post where I described our reasons for using a single release for all: emClient 64 bit for extra native security features access - #14 by Gary
Hi Gary,
I do of course understand that you offer a 32-bit installer only “to simplify distribution”.
On WoA, though, this means that eM Client is running in emulaltion mode, which clearly has performance constraints compared to native.
Others handle this with a two-pronged approach. At Mozilla for example, users are presented with a “best guess” installer on the download page, but can also download other installers (including native Windows ARM64/AARch64) if they would like to.
So, regardless of your distribution, I would still like to have a native Windows on Arm version. I understand that this market is still niche, but the Copilot-Plus-PC marketing machine will surely change this to a certain extent.
Best wishes,
Thomas
I guess you didn’t read the other post:
“There is no visible performance penalty of running the application as 32-bit because the dominant operations are not CPU bound. They are mostly constrained by the disk and network throughput performance. Also, the reliance on the .NET platform allows us to use even recent CPU extensions in the 32-bit mode without resorting to supporting the lowest common denominator when it comes to CPU models.”
Of course I have read the other post. Let me reply with a quote from Microsoft:
While having your app run under emulation on Arm devices is a great place to start, your app will benefit from native performance gains and the unique qualities of Arm-powered devices if you rebuild to add Arm support to your app.
(How emulation works on Arm | Microsoft Learn)
I hope that you might change your mind over time about this and will enjoy eM Client in emulated mode for the time being.
Have a great Sunday!
Given the June 2024 release of the latest ARM processors, with more to come in 2025, are you planning an ARM version?
And eM Client would cut a fine figure at Windows ARM software | ‎Home (ver.lt) for sure.
I do not want to rub it in, but I too would like a native version of eM Client. After all, it is because of the lackluster New Outlook forced experience on ARM devices that I am switching over to you guys.
I agree with @Gary I don’t think it really would be much faster creating a native arm version.
Eg: I have an Arm CPU based Mac M1 8GB Ram and run eM Client on the Mac side (Sonoma) & eM Client in Parallells (Win 11) and both r really quick.
Unless there is a massive advantage, the cost for a developer to do that probably is not worth it. The CPUs & GPUs are getting so quick now anyway where even virtual boxes run amazingly quick.
Then why do so many companies, big and small, offer native ARM versions of their apps? I simply want all of my daily drivers (and eM Client is one of them) to be native. And that is why I brought up the question.
If the effort for eM Client is to costly, then please be honest and state that clearly. Everybody will understand.
They must find the effort worth the benefits, or do it for marketing purposes. In the case of eM Client, they decided the benefits didn’t outweigh the cost as explained by Gary. So it looks like at this point if your goal is to have all your OS applications ARM native only, then eM Client won’t meet that requirement unfortunately.
I personally stopped worrying about 32bit vs 64bit and non-native vs native if the application met my needs. Of course if there was a huge benefit, like in the case of needing a 64-bit version so it could support more then 4GB of memory (like software for graphics or video editing), then yes of course it would be highly expected and needed. Even today I run a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows applications without much concern. I don’t think an email client is software that has a requirement of needing to be 64-bit or native for most functions, so it doesn’t concern me how it is delivered as long as it meets my expectations in how it performs.
At this point your best option would be to add it to SleekPlan (https://emclient.sleekplan.app) and if enough people vote for this because they find it a necessity, eM Client might consider an ARM native version.
Been there, done that: Offer a native Windows on Arm (WoA) version | Improvement | eM Client. Thank your for the tip.