https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-ponders-transition-to-64-bit-only-x86s-architecture This is an x86 thing, not a Windows thing. What does this mean for the future of the TAKP client, if future x86 PC's won't be able to run 32-bit apps, anymore? And since I know some people will chime in to stop updating Windows, that is why I mentioned that it is an x86 thing, and not a Windows thing. It is CPU level, not OS level. Will you have to retain an older PC to continue running TAKP? I also wonder how this will affect the emulation scene, more broadly. The article states that they will be pruning support for features dating all the way back to the 8086/8088 era. Will you still be able to run DOSBox, and other vintage PC emulators, to run earlier versions of DOS and Windows, and the games that run under them?
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-X86-S-64-bit-Only Under this proposal, those wanting to run legacy 32-bit operating systems would have to rely on virtualization. To further clarify, 32-bit x86 user-space software would continue to work on modern 64-bit operating systems with X86-S.
Not specifically pertaining to this project, but the dropping of 16 bit support sucks though. I guess emulation software will have to adjust if they haven't already. You are typically running those ancient games in Dosbox or Scummvm or some other interpreter anyway due to OS incompatibilities. Plus, there's no mention if AMD would follow suite.