The problem isn't so much the processor architecture, it's the platform.

You need hardware that's available, that you can get up and running on, and will be around for a while.

For desktop and laptops thats mostly x86.
There are some Arm laptops, they're not as powerful as PC laptops yet but they are improving rapidly. The first gen Windows 10 laptops used tablet processors but the next get will have proper laptop processors.

Arm has now announced a high end processor (the snappily titled Neoverse N1) but that's really for servers so I don't expect you'll see them in laptops, but who knows.

However, computing isn't just about desktops or laptops these days. There's computers of one sort of another in all sorts of form factors for all sorts of prices.

There's lots of little machines around these days like the Android TV boxes which are probably rather more powerful than your G5s by now.

Then there's the Raspberry Pi, they've sold 25 MILLION of those things! I think they'll be around for a while and they're really cheap.


There's platforms available for x86 and Arm so it really comes down to what is desired, do you just want new faster machines for the existing user base or do you want to grow the user base. I expect Raspberry Pi would be a better choice for growing the user base as you'l have lots of young people happy to experiment.