[Hanlon's Razor] This is such a contrived performance drop scenario that I find it hard to believe it was done with the purpose you're inferring.
I'd interpret this as Nvidia not caring that much about Linux desktops/laptops once again (as opposed to Windows desktops/laptops), rather than anything to do with local vs cloud.
Even that argument is weak - the DGX Spark is Linux, and the RTX Spark is practically the same exact chip.
Sorry to remind people of HN, but most of the consumer market still runs Windows. This was a joint project to have a consumer-level Windows-on-ARM machine, likely requiring lots of development efforts from both NVIDIA and Microsoft.
So, for these specific laptops, they put 100% of their attention for it to be on Windows for launch to capture as much market mindshare as they can. Local AI, Graphics and creative work, and some gaming.
I doubt Microsoft would have been happy about NVIDIA having Linux on their laptop right at launch.
Market Share by OS for consumer laptops & desktops:
• Windows: 76.65%
• OS X / macOS (Combined): ~15.67% (OS X at 9.86% + macOS at 5.81% due to user-agent reporting quirks)
• Linux: 5.63%
• Chrome OS: 2.04%