Youâ  re seemingly somewhat unfamiliar with and quite possibly too young to remember some of the previous architectural and platform transitions within the computing industry, and the most recent of which involved Microsoft Windows was x86-32 to x86-64 (and not to Windows on Itanium, as had been widely marketed just after Y2K) and Linux and BSD and OS X and other ports from x86-32 to x86-64, was closer to a speed bump than to a serious architectural platform transition. 

The attempted transition from Intel x86-32 to Intel Itanium was a much bigger speed bump, with Itanium better in some ways and much worse in others, but that Intel transition got â  SledgeHammerâ  d.â   

Prior to the x86-64 port, the previous industry transition was around 1995 and was a huge mess, with all manner of uproar, and ports and compatibility projects all over the industry. Windows NT on x86-32 replaced a whole lot that was common back then, while NT compatibility with mainstream Windows 9x including 95 was still dicy. As that shift happened, many platforms and processors and architectures then common disappeared, and that NT transition took most of a decade for many apps and many sites, even those already on Windows 95. Longer for those on other platforms.

The server transition to Linux and (more slowly) Linux adding AArch64 support has been underway for a while in the background, but thatâ  s not been as obvious to end-users, nor to many developers, nor particularly to those developers targeting Windows and Azure. Big data centers are very fond of better power efficiency, and Intel has been having some issues there.

As for your Docker dependencies, Docker started adding Arm a while back, and more recently with Apple silicon and Docker for Mac. Where that all goes?

With the Apple silicon transition, Apple is making a huge bet that processors and particularly SoCs based on AArch64 are a better choice, and for various reasons. This is not the first architectural transition Apple has made. The PPC to Intel transition was because PPC wasnâ  t on the right trend, while porting OS X to x86-32 added the ability to also boot Windows and which gave some comfort to those then first considering or purchasing Apple Mac. If OS X did not work out back then, purchasers could migrate (back) to Windows.

Apple is well aware that AArch64 processors do not support x86-64. 

Apple is betting (big) that thee Apple customer market can and will shift away from Intel x86-64 here, too. 

Developers havenâ  t been the biggest part of any client computer market for many years. Even back to VAX-11 and PDP-11 days, and well before. (Writing this as a developer, too.)

The interesting detail for you and your Linux x86-64 or Windows WSL requirements here is whether your dependencies commit to and shift to AArch64. Microsoft been dabbling in AArch64 for some years, but havenâ  t really invested. Linux most definitely runs on AArch64, and mainline. With Rust being added. Inferring from what little is available, it appears Microsoft too is interested in shifting, but there seem constraints (agreements, contracts, development schedules, etc) that we donâ  t know about. 

As for porting apps and dependencies and platforms, Windows has been available on a variety of other platforms beyond x86-32 and x86-64, including Alpha, Itanium, MIPS, PowerPC, an incomplete i860 port, and quite possibly some others I donâ  t recall or donâ  t know about. The MICA project that became Windows NT targeted PRISM processors. Linux is available on pretty much everything past my refrigerator.

Rephrased, youâ  re not telling us anything we donâ  t already know, and certainly not anything that Apple doesnâ  t know, and your needs and preferences here seemingly do not currently align with Apple silicon processors. Your preferences here might possibly change, pending availability of or alternatives to your dependencies for AArch64 and M1-related processors, or changes to hosting your Linux or Windows WSL x86-64 guests on hardware hosted elsewhere and whether on Azure or otherwise, and not directly hosted on your client.

Will this Apple silicon transition work? I still have a DVD copy of Windows XP 64-bit edition for Itanium IA-64. Ports donâ  t always work out. And even the transitions that do work are usually rocky. Watch what Microsoft does here.