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Microsoft Cloud Windows

Microsoft Puts PCs in the Cloud With Windows 365 (theverge.com) 190

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Microsoft is putting Windows in the cloud. Windows 365 is a new service that will let businesses access Cloud PCs from anywhere, streaming a version of Windows 10 or Windows 11 in a web browser. From a report: While virtualization and remote access to PCs has existed for more than a decade, Microsoft is betting on Windows 365 to offer Cloud PCs to businesses just as they shift toward a mix of office and remote work. Windows 365 will work on any modern web browser or through Microsoft's Remote Desktop app, allowing users to access their Cloud PC from a variety of devices.

"Windows 365 provides an instant-on boot experience," according to Wangui McKelvey, a general manager for Microsoft 365. This instant access lets workers stream their Windows session with all of their same apps, tools, data, and settings across Macs, iPads, Linux machines, and Android devices. "You can pick up right where you left off,âbecause the state of your Cloud PC remains the same, even when you switch devices," explains McKelvey.
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Microsoft Puts PCs in the Cloud With Windows 365 More

Microsoft Puts PCs in the Cloud With Windows 365

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  • I like my computer thanks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:22AM (#61581699)

    And I don't really want it in the cloud

    • Re: I like my computer thanks (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:28AM (#61581711) Homepage Journal

      And it only works if you have real broadband with decent reliability.

      But hackers would love this.

      Also, what happens with your data if there's a disagreement between you and the provider?

      • pay our higher bill or lose your data! (Score:4, Informative)

        by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:31AM (#61581727)

        pay our higher bill or lose your data!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )
          But just like Netflix and Comcast, they'll just raise it a few cents every few months until you realize it went up 20% in just a couple years!
          • This will surely be aimed at businesses first. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) has been around for decades from the likes of VMware Horizon and Citrix Xen Desktop. The data in those solutions usually runs in a public or private cloud, and it is typically the responsibility of the IT felt to back it up. There are plenty of security and availability benefits that come with this infrastructure. Mainly related to policies that can be implemented, firewalls that can be erected, and always on hardware. Also,

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by e3m4n ( 947977 )
              you just reminded me of a funny story from around 2010. Think back when companies were lucky to have 10x10 metro-e links. Most often you saw bonded t-1 or some form of weak (by todays standards) asynchronous broadband. So this one company had an IT guy using RemoteDesktop to connect to his windows 2003 server. However he left his screensaver as that 3d rendered pipes screensaver. Back then I guess they didnt think about removing backgrounds and that sort of thing. So the company called into support that th

      • Hackers would love this!

        Double the PCs, double the attack surfaces!

      • Have you ever tried Windows Remote Desktop? It's super-fast even over slow connections. I've used it over dial-up connections and it's fine. Almost everything is sent in a vector format. This is exciting enough that I'm going to look into pricing before I ever buy more hardware.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )
      its just Cirtrix revisited all over again (like what I did there?). This time I guess its HTML5 based. Expect marketing to sell this as some solution to the growing Ransomware problem, not that MS shit is any more secure than anything else. Human stupidity is always the weakest link and hosting some idiots PC does not magically upgrade their critical thinking skills and prevent them for falling for phishing scams. Just because its hosted at MS does not mean an intruder cannot still use your credentials to g

      • Expect marketing to sell this as some solution to the growing Ransomware problem, not that MS shit is any more secure than anything else.

        Indeed. Heard of any recent break-ins into the Microsoft cloud?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )
          if the microsoft cloud has Betsy Shoemakers PC, the administrative assistant to the CEO for Acme, Inc. And Betsy just got an alarming email from HR < HR@theirDomain @someRealDomainInChina.com > with a link to login and she gives up her password, being hosted at MS wont make fuck-all of a difference. They can still log right on in as Betsy and wreak havoc.

      • My biggest concern is internet outages, which do happen from time to time. Some bloke digs a hole and knocks the internet out and you can't work for a day or two.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )
          If that happens to me right now I am still in a similar situation. I at least have the option of using my cell phone as a mobile hot spot and re-connecting that way. Its primarily why I still use screen when in an SSH session. Even if I get dropped the processes are still active and I can just resume the screen.

        • I live on a large island and a boat anchor could cut the net.
          Including telephony and mobile internet. If they are lucky there's still an old copper cable working.

    • And I don't really want it in the cloud

      No worries buddy. This isn't for you. You don't need to like and want every product in the world. If you did we'd be really concerned for you.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Smidge204 ( 605297 )

        > No worries buddy. This isn't for you. You don't need to like and want every product in the world. If you did we'd be really concerned for you.

        Flash forward to 2026, Windows version 13 is being rolled out as an aggressive, mandatory auto-update with all previous versions scheduled to be remotely disabled by end of Q3 (except for Enterprise customers willing to pay a premium). There will also be no hardware support from CPU vendors or driver support from other third party hardware for older Windows versi

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )

          A dystopian world of not being able to choose operating systems if you don't like Windows and having to take out a mortgage to use it is perpetually 5 years away, and has been every single time a new version of Windows comes out.

          Yawn.

    • Then you'll love this new feature, because you sound like the type of person that wouldn't want Windows to ever touch your hardware. This is like an easy subscription-based VM-in-a-browser that you can use to run any windows programs that aren't compatible with the OS you actually trust and run locally, right?

      • Not really, because the things I run locally have latency issues (audio programs). I would like to be able to run linux (right) and have the option to run windows, but I'd imagine that windows 365 is subscription based. I'm a sunk cost person

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      And I don't really want it in the cloud

      Most of them already are, anyway
      How many Windows machines are already running off the Microsoft account (they are difficult to bypass at setup for a regular user) and Office 365?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Subm ( 79417 )

      If we don't reach the year of Linux on the desktop, it's not for Microsoft not trying.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:23AM (#61581703)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Now people can pay twice for using windows :)

      I believe what you mean to say is "now people can pay constantly for using windows."

      Subscription PCs in the cloud. Microsoft's wildest fantasies of a constant guaranteed stream of revenue from users that may or may not be using their PC every day is almost a reality. And IT Managers with a screaming desire to jump on the next trend will push this so hard it'll make any legitimately intelligent IT person cry in their sleep.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Solandri ( 704621 )
      Well, there is an efficiency gain here. People don't use their computers all the time. So by having it on the cloud, you can share hardware with other people. And since not everyone uses their computers at the same time, 1000 users could be comfortable sharing the hardware for (say) 200 simultaneous users. Representing a 5-fold decrease in the amount of computer hardware required to provide the same services (basically, each user only needs to "buy" 1/5th of a computer)..

      Of course the company is suppose

      • Your own computer's requirements shrink to something well less than $400; all you need is a web browser.

      • The problem with these shared resources is that they rarely offer burst capabilities.

        It would be great if this put 1
        20 users on a 48 core machine and then since most processing is very bursty allowed any one user to use up to like 12 cores for a second or two.

        Instead all of these subscription services tend to force you to shut down. Start a new VM on a faster machine. Do the big compute task. Save. Shut down. Start back up on a slow cheap VM.

        They should charge by the core * wall time actually used. Then it

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
        well yes in theorry, the problem is most people work at aproamatly the same time of day so the resources can't rely be shared, and if you thin Buisnesses in the EU want ther vdi hosts and data in the US, well I'be got news for you not that many will, never mind regulatory limitations efficient will it be to run rdp half way across the globe because the us dc is lightly loaded for most of the European working day?

  • Great! (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:33AM (#61581733)

    So we can work as usual with our Linux computer but when somebody wants something done in 'Word' we just pay for 1 hour of MS use, so 0.002$?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )
      I guess, but you could already do that with 365 without having to do it on a hosted PC. Their office suite was already available as a web application for use from linux and chromeOS.

      • I guess, but you could already do that with 365 without having to do it on a hosted PC. Their office suite was already available as a web application for use from linux and chromeOS.

        and a shadow of the desktop versions in some cases.

        • 99% of office users don't use and don't know how to use the advanced features in the office applications. Those who do will simply use the desktop applications. It doesn't matter.

          • "99% of office users don't use and don't know how to use the advanced features in the office applications. "

            99.99% of users use Excel to make a shopping list because they think that's what it's for.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )
          yea, but if we are being honest, the things that MS Office suite proper does, that LibreOffice does-not do, are used by less than 1% of the population and likely declining by the day. Mail-merge used to get cited a lot as a function missing from free-ish alternatives. But how many administrative assistants spend their entire day printing envelopes and business letters these days? Quite often there is already some service like kinkos or ups store, willing to do all that shit for a fee, likely cheaper than ty

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lazarus ( 2879 )

      You can do that already with Microsoft 365. Well, except they don't sell it by the hour.

      • "You can do that already with Microsoft 365. Well, except they don't sell it by the hour."

        And as I know MS, they'll ask you to pay by the year AND by the hour.

    • The service does not appear to be oriented toward intermittent use. It seems more likely that you'd pay a minimum of, say, $20 / month, then you could use it when you want (per TFA, "Windows 365 will only be available for businesses when it launches on August 2nd, with a per-user monthly subscription cost. Microsoft is not detailing exact pricing details until the service launches next month, but Windows 365 is designed for one-person businesses all the way up to enterprises with thousands of employees.").

      • The service does not appear to be oriented toward intermittent use. It seems more likely that you'd pay a minimum of, say, $20 / month, then you could use it when you want (per TFA, "Windows 365 will only be available for businesses when it launches on August 2nd, with a per-user monthly subscription cost. Microsoft is not detailing exact pricing details until the service launches next month, but Windows 365 is designed for one-person businesses all the way up to enterprises with thousands of employees.").

        No doubt MS will sell it to anyone who wants to be a business user. I'm interested to see what it costs and how well it works as it would, if the perfromance (network and VM) were fast enough to run PowerBI. If it lets me do that on an M1 Mac and iPad Pro and the price is right I can see this being a worthwhile option.

  • Here we go (Score:5, Funny)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:34AM (#61581737)

    This generation has discovered dumb terminals. Serial terminals, X terminals, Sunray terminals, thin clients...

    • This generation has discovered dumb terminals. Serial terminals, X terminals, Sunray terminals, thin clients...

      VT100 is dead, long live VT100

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      Can you imagine the insanity when they rediscover NAS? "It's like having the cloud IN YOUR HOUSE!"

    • Precisely none of which ran in a web browser. But keep overlooking the actual relevant parts of this product and pretending that if you take away the browser "this generation" hasn't had a completely continuity of those products since inception if it makes you feel all superior.

      • It's the same exact concept. You're using a less powerful remote machine (the browser) to access a more powerful server.

    • Ready your popcorn for the great text editor flame wars. "Notepad suxx. WordPad is leet"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )

      This generation has discovered dumb terminals. Serial terminals, X terminals, Sunray terminals, thin clients...

      Yes because Citrix hasn't been a thing for the past 20 odd years already.

  • If it means less hoops to jump through to get into a customer environment, I'm okay with it. I don't need a 7th piece of VPN software on my computer because yet another customer used some obscure provider with outdated software that corporate IT really doesn't want me to install

  • single CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage at the low-end
    If that is there base then the pricing may not be that good for any thing good.
    eight CPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage MAX?

    What about GPU things?

    • So the low-end cant even run Windows properly and the high end is just enough to use Chrome.
  • There have been services like horizon cloud, citrix cloud, amazon workspaces, and many others. Microsoft is just delivering there own version now. Its not meant for home users exactly, businesses like virtual desktops for multiple reasons
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Are you forgetting Windows S?

        That's the thin client enterprise solution that Microsoft already sell as a Chrome OS competitor.

      • It's all lovely until the router dies or the service changes.

        The people still running their custom application on 32 bit windows XP because it works and it's local are succeeding in avoiding the treadmill update and recoding costs imposed by OS vendors.

  • 1) what took them so long? I mean, really. Is Windows really that poorly architected that it took Microsoft so long to break the display from the core?

    2) sorry, but I want my own PC.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • They already are solving for 2), "chip shortage"

        Low end chip shortage. You can buy all the cloud server oriented Xeons you want.

    • Probably. While Windows has been working on architecture for power users like sysadmins to be more command line focused, it has slowly trickled to consumer versions. Personally I do not relish the security nightmare that could be untangled here. I can only imagine future headlines where millions of consumers have their cloud PCs compromised not only exposing their information but their files.

  • Xbox Cloud will now be renamed Xbox 365 (Score:3)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:54AM (#61581835)
    “Five” better than their previous “360”.

  • Connectivity will be ubiquitous and the data storage / processing power will be decentralised. If anything, only the networking part / display logic and such need to be present in mobile devices.

    The discussion will be about the same as with books / e-books, but with computing.

    Decentralisation will even out some of the privacy / data ownership concerns (as long as the keys to the data are owned by the user.). Nobody owns the data except you, and you'd only give some rights to the devices you use to access th

  • Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:58AM (#61581855)

    We're back to the mainframe era my generation despised so much, when all we had was local terminals and central servers with unaccountable BOFHs running the show, treating the users like shit and charging a pretty penny for services we have no control over.

    Boy were we glad when the personal computer broke that stranglehold. Yet 50 years later, we're right back to where we started. Un-fucking-believable. History repeats itself.

    Sigh...

    • We're back to the mainframe era

      No we're not. The mainframe and the cloud are two different things with very different applications.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by nagora ( 177841 )

        We're back to the mainframe era

        No we're not. The mainframe and the cloud are two different things with very different applications.

        Not really, if you allow for the improvement in performance.

    • Oh absolutely it was wonderful. Ever hear of the Ransomware wars of the 1960's? Me neither, that's how effective they were. Technology has gone downhill since with the proliferation of the *-wares across personal computers. Apparently the past was better.

      • Because at the time the systems were so few and diverse that it wasn't feasible. And how would you deliver the ransomware? On a punched card?

  • I would never use this for my home environment. But honestly, I'm fairly confident that a lot of businesses that are heavy into the Microsoft universe and Office 365 will pay close attention as this develops and improves. I wouldn't be surprised if we adopt this for some of our highly mobile enterprise sales teams.

  • My other computer... (Score:5, Informative)

    by rickb928 ( 945187 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:02PM (#61581885) Homepage Journal

    Is in the cloud.

    On my living room bookshelf.

    Playing Ubuntu, not Windows.

    The cloud is just someone else's computer. Features are the only differentiators. You can commute to work in a GT40 except in the desert, it's just a car, and the cloud is just a computer, maybe bigger and/or faster than you might bother to have at home, but you didn't buy a GT40 to run the 101 Pima during the week, did you?

    Next step for me is to go all Kubernetes or whatever on a few Raspis and buy a battery or two. Woot. Cloud up dude, roll yer own.

  • Not much to add except the people who buy this will be represented well with their aptly named DUMB TERMINALS.

    • IBM still makes mainframes and they are wonderfully alien compared to anything else. Modern machines will still run binaries natively that were compiled 50 years ago.

  • This could make sense for regulated businesses that have a lot of remote workers. It allows the IT to better control the environment.

  • Should I have kept my Teletype model 33ASR, just in case? Or the ADM3A VDT I used to use? Because apparently the rent-seeking company known as Microsoft wants to return to the days of the mainframe computer.

    No thanks, I'll stick with my desktop and laptop computers running Ubuntu. 'The Cloud' is becoming even more of a gigantic troll-meme.
    Screw you, Miscreant-o-soft.

  • Microsoft just discovered Citrix

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )

      Microsoft just discovered Citrix

      More like Microsoft just shot Citrix. Whether it was in the ass or in the face is yet to be seen though.

  • Board meeting. (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:27PM (#61581979)

    We want to sell our thin client solution, but people just don't want thin clients.
    Well don't call it a Thin Client, call it a cloud service and they will jump right on it.

  • Just like a chromebook, only you pay a monthly fee. cool

  • Of course, this is a double-edged sword, but for a lot of businesses, this solves the WFH issue by having a VDI. It doesn't matter what the person's endpoint is, it is essentially doing a terminal function, while all the sensitive company data is stored someplace else. This could be a key way to protect against ransomware, but let people still access stuff from remote.

    It isn't for everyone, but the ability to just throw data somewhere else and not worry about someone's ransomware on a BYOD system jumping

  • They trademarked the name years ago! I was beginning to think they gave up on the idea... the modern "dumb" terminals have returned!

  • The only reason to use Microsoft's legacy OS is gaming.
    But gaming's going to suck on this.

  • Windows 365 will work on any modern web browser

    When they say "modern web browser" they mean anything not older than 15 minutes.

    Windows 365 provides an instant-on boot experience,"

    Considering how slow Window 10 is to respond to logging in, there is no way a web version will be "instant-on boot". Especially when you consider the slow internet speeds in most of the country.

    • They mean Chromium-based monoculture with any workarounds for Safari on iPadOS.

      That covers 90% of the market.

      (That is if they even bother to test on Firefox - it's Mozilla's uphill battle to be Chrome compatible)

  • Why would you buy it, then use it whenever and as long as you want*, when you could rent it, and help maximize M$ ROI?

    * Like the hardware that hasn't had software updates in many years, but is still useful. Say... like MRIs that use software on XP, and nothing newer. Yes, this is the case, it's being used at the NIH.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Microsoft is a bit late to the party on this one. The Shells.com website has been offering both Linux distributions and Windows running on a remote VPS and accessible through a web browser for about a year now. I've tried it and it's pretty solid. Personally I usually like to run things locally, but sometimes you want an always-on machine. Or a machine you can test stuff on and trash after use. This is useful for those types of situations.

  • To access a computer in the cloud, you need a computer, but we should put that in the cloud as well?

    I think a fair number of people buy a PC because they want a device with a web browser, big screen, and a keyboard/mouse. It doesn't necessarily have to be the latest version of Windows either. Those sorts of low performance users would be ideal as customers of a remote computer streaming service. Except they obviously already have a computer and it is probably sufficient for their needs. Especially as more a

  • ...if we don't HAVE a physical PC -from our phones? And how will that be an improvement on running Offices directly on Android?
    Will cloud Windows allow the installation of non-Edge browsers or non-Office office suites and apps that we have to configure Windows firewall to run be allowed at all?

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