I know how and why RISC is a better design (I wrote an x86 C compiler before, ugh), but how come there is still no one else making great RISC PCs/Workstations that are relatively affordable and don’t suck? I personally would kill to get a decent RISC PC from a non-BigTech Company that comes with a Manual for Users and Programmers and has all of its chips documented and I can just install/compile any OS I want, or even write my own.
Some chinese companies could easily kill the proprietary tight-lipped bullshit companies that way. And I really hope someone does at some point. I really don’t want to enter a future where we have technically excellent RISC Computers, but they’re all locked down and everything is so proprietary that you can only run Verified™ software on them, and the only online documentation you can find just tells you to not eat the batteries and don’t shove the power plug up your ass, etc.
I’d say that Wintel is less true today than ever. Most stuff can be done via just a Web Browser these days.
People just use/put up with Windows because that’s what comes pre-loaded on most PCs that you can buy.
I bet that you could give a RISC-based PC w/ a Linux distro that has a familiar Desktop to the average user and they wouldn’t really have a problem as long as they can just use a Browser and MS Teams/Slack/Discord/whatever they need for work and recreation.
Gaming is a different issue, though last I checked x86 Emulators for RISCs are getting better and better and even Valve seems to support those.