Apple has stated that they won't stand in the way of Microsoft porting Windows to M1 Macs[0], and indeed M-series Macs have the bits needed to boot alternative operating systems that M-series iDevices lack. Currently Microsoft only licenses Windows for ARM to device makers (and potentially has an exclusivity agreement with Qualcomm[1]) and has stated that they don't support Windows on M-series. The ball in is Microsoft's court on this one.
Currently Microsoft only licenses Windows for ARM to device makers
Apple is a device maker. I wonder if Apple could buy a license from Microsoft.
I'd like to see either Apple or Microsoft officially support Windows on the M-series machines. Not because I give fig one about Windows. But I'd like to see the chaos that follows.
The operating systems industry could use a bit of a shake up.
I would guess that this scenario is unlikely at best. Even if Apple expressed interest in purchasing a license, Microsoft would likely not sell one to them because their primary interest in licensing Windows is getting devices to ship with Windows preinstalled, and Apple is most certainly not ever going to do that.
> The operating systems industry could use a bit of a shake up.
There is no OS industry anymore. What's left is OS's that ship telemetry and ads to customers (both Apple and MS do this). Linux-based OS's made a lot of progress, but still they're not ready for mass adoption.
[0]: https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/20/windows-can-run-natively-m1-m... [1]: https://www.xda-developers.com/qualcomm-exclusivity-deal-mic...