I know it’s maybe a bit early for this. Just being curious.
While the macOS version is now a universal download suitable for Intel and Apple Silicon macs, I can see the Windows version is available as a 32- or 64-bit download.
Any thoughts from the developers about a future port so it runs natively on devices like the Surface Pro X?
Also, anyone with an ARM device willing to try the 32-bit version under emulation?
Good job, L&L.
I have been running the 64bit version of Scrivener on my Surface Pro X using the insider builds. I am not a heavy or experienced user of Scrivener, but so far I have had only one issue. In general I have had very few issues with any x64 software under the Windows preview versions.
In my view ARM64 is the next phase of consumer computing, perhaps computing in general so I would like to see a Window ARM build of scrivener. Even VLC now has an ARM version for Windows.
My one issue is that the insider previews update weekly and it breaks my Scrivener licensing so I have been avoiding using Scrivener on my Surface Pro X as I don’t want my license blacklisted and I don’t want to run out of trial days. A real shame because the Surface Pro X is a fantastic choice for portable use.
I am considering reverting back to the original ARM stable build to overcome this issue but I have a few 64bit only programs i use and it would also require a complete reinstall.
I patiently wait for LL to release an ARM Windows version and for Microsoft to release a stable Windows on ARM with x64 support.
Keep in mind that Scrivener for Windows isn’t just a Windows native application, but is built on top of the Qt development framework. For there to be a Scrivener 3 for Windows on ARM64, the Qt platform first has to support it.
Scrivener 3.0.0.0 and 3.0.1.0 seem to be built on top of Qt 15.5, which according to the documentation I found here does not appear to support ARM64, only x86 (Intel/AMD 32-bit) and x86_64 (Intel/AMD 64-bit). Qt 6.1 appears to have even dropped 32-bit support.
I would be very surprised if ARM64 support was added to an older version of Qt, so once ARM64 is a supported platform for Qt (probably in a 6.x branch, i would imagine) L&L would then need to update Scrivener 3 to work with the new version of Qt before they could even begin to work towards ARM64 compilation. Most of the work would be done at that point, to be fair, if the various frameworks have done their work, but there will always be bugs and gaps to work around.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying there are more dependencies that would have to be met before Scrivener 3 on Windows 10 for ARM64 will be a viable option, and the bulk of that work is out of L&L’s hands.
First off, hello, I’m new here. It’s great to be here!
Second, and the actual point. I recently upgraded my laptop from an aging Surfacebook to a new, sleek, Snapdragon X Elite based Galaxy Book, and I’ve been using Scrivener on it for a few months. The program itself actually works fine, to be clear. It’s running under emulation but performance is good and I’ve never had anything not work.
However. There is a very, very, very noticeable impact on battery life when running Scrivener. Without Scrivener or other x86 apps running in emulation, multi-day battery life. With it, gone in about six hours.
So I make the call for a Windows ARM native version, to improve battery life on Snapdragon based computers.
I regularly run the Windows version under Parallels and Win ARM (Insider) on a MacBook Pro 14" and have not found any battery life issues despite the multiple layers involved.
As for a native Win ARM version, check the previous comments. Beyond that, none of us has any idea what L&L have in store for the Win version. Typically the first we would hear would be if a beta is released.
A macbook pro is not a Snapdragon X Elite system. Prism emulation isn’t as mature as Rosetta emulation, nor, as far as I understand, is the hardware quite as well designed as Mac Silicon for emulation.
Plus Apple Silicon is still more battery efficient than the X Elite hardware anyways so.
But yes, I’ve read the previous post’s and I understand the difficulty involved. However, I also wanted to show that there is still call for a native ARM version for Windows, and why it would be desired. Regardless of the difficulty, it’s never going to happen if no one asks for it.
Thankfully, no!
But running Parallels, Win ARM64, Prism (as far as I’m aware, Rosetta doesn’t come into play on that combo) Scrivener 3 Win on a macBook, that one HUGE performance/battery management advantage if true.
We in fact did discuss this again recently, but the challenge isn’t so much the code base, but the dependencies we use for various features. The activation system, PDF viewer, the code that takes imported web pages and encapsulates them into MHT, the conversion engine that allows for import and export of DOC, DOCX and ODT, and a few other things as I recall.
It would in short be potentially even more work than it would take to make a Linux version, given the replacements that would have to be researched and integrated. Not a lot but a fair amount when you consider that the Windows version isn’t even finished.