A lot of talk in the tech world lately is focused on Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS being released for ARM platforms (with some restrictions). This, combined with the HTML5 Metro interface people either love or hate, are among the largest changes to Microsoft’s Windows line of operating systems in history, and with it comes an interesting fact for developers looking to have apps available for both Windows 8 on Intel and Windows 8 on ARM: .NET’s CIL virtual machine.
.NET CIL
If Microsoft does not port the .NET runtime to Windows 8 on ARM, allowing apps compiled from C#/VB/C++ to CIL to execute on either supported hardware platform, then they are either shooting themselves in the foot with their competitors’ weapon, or else trying to shift their developers’ focus to HTML5 Metro apps with Windows Phone compatibility as opposed to driving them away altogether.
