With DaaS Windows Coming, Say Goodbye To Your PC As You Know It (computerworld.com) 597
Ostracus shares a report from Computerworld, written by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Microsoft is getting ready to replace Windows 10 with the Microsoft Managed Desktop. This will be a "desktop-as-a-service" (DaaS) offering. Instead of owning Windows, you'll "rent" it by the month. Microsoft Managed Desktop is a new take. It avoids the latency problem of the older Windows DaaS offerings by keeping the bulk of the operating system on your PC. But you'll no longer be in charge of your Windows PC. Instead, it will be automatically provisioned and patched for you by Microsoft. Maybe you'll be OK with that.
Microsoft has been getting away from the old-style desktop model for years now. Just look at Office. Microsoft would much rather have you rent Office via Office 365 than buy Microsoft Office and use it for years. Microsoft Managed Desktop is the first move to replacing "your" desktop with a rented desktop. By 2021, I expect the Managed Desktop to be to traditional Windows what Office 365 is to Office today: the wave of the future. Or maybe tsunami, depending on your perspective. I'm not happy with this development. I'm old enough to remember the PC revolution. We went from depending on mainframes and Unix boxes for computing power to having the real power on our desktops. It was liberating. Now Microsoft, which helped lead that revolution, is trying to return us to that old, centralized control model.
Microsoft has been getting away from the old-style desktop model for years now. Just look at Office. Microsoft would much rather have you rent Office via Office 365 than buy Microsoft Office and use it for years. Microsoft Managed Desktop is the first move to replacing "your" desktop with a rented desktop. By 2021, I expect the Managed Desktop to be to traditional Windows what Office 365 is to Office today: the wave of the future. Or maybe tsunami, depending on your perspective. I'm not happy with this development. I'm old enough to remember the PC revolution. We went from depending on mainframes and Unix boxes for computing power to having the real power on our desktops. It was liberating. Now Microsoft, which helped lead that revolution, is trying to return us to that old, centralized control model.
Way to make money? Force customers to pay monthly (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems to me that Microsoft managers don't have a reasonable vision of the eventual results of their recent ideas for the future.
If Microsoft tries to charge a monthly fee for an operating system, eventually 1) Nations will all gather together and try to buy Windows from Microsoft. That would be cheaper than paying monthly. Or, 2) Nations will gather together and contribute to ReactOS [reactos.org], a free operating system that runs Windows programs.
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. [networkworld.com] "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (August 4, 2015)
We no longer have a usable Windows operating system. We can't go to customers and tell them their computers are not secure from outside access.
Because of the Windows 10 spyware, customers have been delaying buying new equipment.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems to me that Microsoft managers don't have a reasonable vision of the eventual results of their recent ideas for the future.
They aren't targeting corporate users they are targeting the mass market idiot consumer, because pioneering by the videogame industry through mmo's, and apple and other phone companies building walled garden appstores for their phones, and steam doing the same thing. They will get it all in the end because the average citizen is tech a illiterate moron.
Software companies can sit in their office and "release" the software via the net, and keep part of it on servers in their offices. Before high speed internet penetration was everywhere, the only way they could get paid was by shipping you the entire software physically or they wouldn't get paid.
The internet allows tech companies to force policies on ignorant consumers because the literate consumer base cannot hold them accountable. You'd need physical proximity to the business for your anger and discontent to effect company policy. The free market is dead and has long since been so, the internet removed any last bit of consumer power consumers had. Welcome to the silicon valley dictatorship driven by idiot half of the consumer buying public.
George carlin said it well about humanity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Interesting)
They aren't targeting corporate users they are targeting the mass market idiot consumer,
Unfortunately a lot of people will get roped in because idiots who aren't targeted for this will happily ride along.
I participate in a system that is intended to provide emergency communications via radio, with something that looks like email. I say "looks like" because it isn't, and doesn't obey many of the RFC for email. This system is based on ... Windows. It only runs on Windows 7 now because they haven't figured out how to break it like they broke it on Windows XP. Windows 10 is the preferred platform.
The people in charge of this platform are die-hard zealots for Windows, including every patch and update as soon as it comes out. If you mention that you have disabled Win 10 updates you will be set upon as if you are a bear raiding their honey hive. You will be branded as an outlaw who is setting them up for bots and attacks and personal assaults, even if you are a computer professional who knows how to defend a system against such things without needing Microsoft controlling your devices.
There are REPEATED stories of how Win 10 updates break this system for users, many of whom are providing the gateways between radio and the network. Some of them are unattended, distant sites that can become critical communications resources in a disaster or emergency, and yet it's ok if they crash and burn because Microsoft issued a patch that changes how the sound system works (just one example of failure).
Once Desktop As A Service becomes standard, these folks will leap upon it and cling to it like it's a liferaft and they're drowning rats. It won't matter if they've given complete control of their system on a large scale to a company that does not care if their updates break it, and break it in a way that it cannot recover without significant time and effort on the part of the users. ("Reinstall windows, then reinstall the software ..." is a common "fix". Or just "uninstall and then delete the root directory that contains the software, then reinstall from scratch" is the most common "fix". The fact that the software installs in the root directory of the boot disk isn't an issue for them ... the computer is theirs once you install their software. It has no other use. Oh, "install teamviewer and I'll remote in and fix it for you" is the standard op for minor fixes.)
There are some open-source helpers to this system. You can run a gateway on linux. There's not much to a gateway, after all. It's just a pipeline to the visual basic code now running in the AWS cloud. When you know that the INTERNET side of the "email" system was written entirely in VB you'll understand how Microsoft-locked it is.
They'll be right on board with DaaS. And anyone who wants to participate in that emergency services system will get dragged into the mud with them.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Interesting)
There will be lawsuits by the hundreds, if not thousands, when your "managed desktop" causes downtime in excess of the EULA, or if, in your case, an emergency cannot be managed properly because the damned computer went down for an update, and one or more people die as a result.
I imagine emergency services will be told to buy redundant systems so that computer "A" can update while computer "B" maintains services - or something along those lines.
If Microsoft want control of your desktop, they can damn well pay for the consequences.
I will run Win 7 as a guest under Debian until the heat death of the universe. If I'm ever required to run software that will only run under Windows Managed Desktop, it too will run in a VM. I'm learning a lot about iptables these days.
Re: Way to make money? Force customers to pay mont (Score:4, Insightful)
None of the Xaas offerings have this kind of liability. Best case is maximum damages of that month's service costs times two... which comes to you as a credit against future invoices.
The sales people will all say they take on certain liabilities and all that sounds so great for the people listening but when you look at the contract details... the only benefit you have is that you can cancel the service and stop paying almost whenever you want. All true liabilities stay with you.
And isn't DaaS = DEVICE as a service? Not desktop. Couldn't they say WaaS or MSaaS? I think it's a marketing thing to ride HPs coattails.
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Geez, it's in the first line of the article:
"Microsoft is getting ready to replace Windows 10 with the Microsoft Managed Desktop. This will be a "desktop-as-a-service" (DaaS) offering."
And it'll be up to a court to decide liability. Nothing in a EULA or even arbitration clauses can remove your right to sue. If someone else assumes the decision-making power over the uptime of your emergency services comms gateway (e.g. the PC mentioned above), they can assume the responsibilites, too.
Judge: "Let me make sure
Re: Way to make money? Force customers to pay mont (Score:3)
They will just write the eula in their favor so they get a free out of jail card.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Interesting)
The mass market no longer buy PCs. They are content consumers they buy Apple and Android. They use smart TVs, smart phones, smart tablets because they are dumb and just want their computer to do simple things for them. The power PC user will absolutely tell M$ to go fuck itself, what is that Hitler one, on yeah with a pineapple pointy end first.
So M$ is basically driving down a one way street with a brick wall at the end and accelerating. They watched their mobile phone crap die because people hated what they were doing and thumb in bum, mind in neutral, they just keep going straight down that path. They simply can not be told and are not listening to what a pack of cunts they truly are.
So now the shift will occur, obviously Android is killing it on content consumption devices and Apple is doing is doing better in spite of themselves with selling you privacy, rather than selling your privacy. SteamOS (steam was kind of dopey no distributing FOSS on steam to promote steamOS) and Linux winning everywhere except the desktop. Playstation of course well they're a bit slow and are sort of going nowhere.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:4, Insightful)
I see, so a consumer who doesn't need a computer to do whizzy things, just email and web surfing is somehow dumb for not getting a PC with rocket engines and fighting the OS for the sheer thrill of not being labeled dumb by...errr...you.
rtb61 (opens new computer store, first Potential Customer comes in): Hi ya, want to buy a computer.
PC: Well, I don't know, I just need a device to do simple things, a bit of email, and I like to see videos of cute kittens.
rtb61: You want this BambleWeenie 4000, it has AI to predict your wants and needs, an Intel MultiStroke Engine of Power, 500 JigaGobs of RAM, just enough to run the latest Microsoft Software.
PC: I don't know, I just want something simple to use.
rtb61: Errr....you one of those dumb users who doesn't know what a machine like this can offer you?
PC: Not until I walked in here....
rtb61: Hey...where ya going? Come back!!! I, G-d-of-Thunder-Computation, command you to come back.
PC: (at door) Yeah, well, have fun with your BambleWeenie, I'll go find a store that will sell me what I want.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Insightful)
What keeps Linux from becoming a gaming platform isn't even anymore software support. With Unity and UE4, it's never been easier for small studios to develop for Linux in parallel, even if their primary market is Windows.
The actual problem today is drivers for consumer hardware periphery. You have a programmable mouse? Consider yourself lucky if you get it to work as a two-button mouse, let alone actually find a way to program those extra buttons. Flight sticks? Steering wheels? Head tracking device? Programmable keyboards? If there is a driver (I'm not even hoping for a configuration tool at this point anymore) so they at least work in their minimum configuration, it's haphazardly slapped together, woefully out of date and at best in a state of "existing" to be able to tack "Linux support" onto the box. Last update approximately at first shipping date.
This is what keeps Linux gaming down these days. Certainly not software support. Log into your Steam account on Linux and be amazed just how many games you own that would run smoothly in Linux.
If you could control them...
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Also gaming mouse/keyboards etc work out of the box for me, on linux. So yea think your a bit behind the times on plug and pray. It really is mostly plug and play. Including bluetooth stuff, game controllers, etc.
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With Unity and UE4, it's never been easier for small studios to develop for Linux in parallel, even if their primary market is Windows.
Sure indie developers support Linux, especially since the PS4 is BSD so they can share much of the codebase. But the problem is the non-indie devs. Bioware? Bethesda? Blizzard? Square-Enix?
Flight sticks?
They work. I've tested an HOTAS with the Linux version of War Thunder and while I don't have the hardware for TrackIR on Linux, it is possible to do headtracking on Linux.
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I'm thinking the opposite. Are there actually any people who use web-based apps for serious day to day work? Which kind of applications? I can't think of a single work-related application type for which the available desktop choices don't outperform any web-based choices by a large margin. For many types of applications such as image, movie, and audio editing there are not even any serious web-based competitors yet, for other types of applications they are abysmal or vendor-lock you in for no reason.
To me t
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Insightful)
I’m not a typical user, but I’m willing to put up with a walled garden on my iPad. I don’t think of it as a general purpose computer as much as an internet and email tablet. That won’t fly on my desktop, though. And I’m sure as hell not paying Microsoft a monthly fee just to be able to use my computer. That’s straying into the land of batshit crazy to me. I’ve not been a huge Linux evangelist (because I’ve had my share of problems with it that the typical windows user would be completely at sea with), but I’d be happy to recommend it to my friends in lieu of them having to pay $10 a month or whatever to MS.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Insightful)
You wouldn't stand for a walled garden on the iPad either, if you had to pay for it monthly.
I think the rent-is-the-only-option approach and the walled garden approach are fairly orthogonal. The comments about Joe Idiot consumer not caring are wrong too. People hate recurring fees, especially when they've gotten used to not having them.. Just ask any online news source.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Informative)
I have two current consoles and I pay no monthly fee...
I also don't even look at a game if there is a monthly fee associated with it.
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Insightful)
corporate users are already "renting" windows AND office, per seat and per month or year, via volume license agreements. this "new" and "innovative" approach is to get the small businesses and home users on the same page...
apparently, we're still not buying new computers (with new windows licenses) often enough.. add that to the decrease in the market due to mobile.. microsoft is starting to strangle its dwindling customer base, to squeeze out every penny they can, just like cable and satellite tv providers have been doing since the netflix generation took off.
the writing has been on the wall for a decade. microsoft toyed with a subscription-based windows 7 in a couple small markets back then. combine with secure boot (where microsoft holds the keys) to lock people out of their hardware.. the push towards "apps" and subscription office.. on top of forced updates... and boom. you have subscription windows going to be forced on everybody.
they did not lie. windows 10 IS "the last windows you'll ever buy" --- because the next one will be rented, not purchased.
fuck microsoft. long live linux and bsd.
Re: linux works with secure boot and antitrust law (Score:5, Insightful)
When I have to run Chinese software so I can actually be free in my own computer, the transfer to Bizarro-World is complete.
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Extending that model, your apps will come only from the languishing Microsoft Store, where they'll make a commission on it. As the Surface becomes popular (as yet another Chromebook) you'll be tempted into convenience. Like Google/Android and Apple/iOS, Microsoft is trying to know you without selling you a phone. They lost that battle.
They're also hurting from the loss of Wintel, and looking at juicy new ARM CPUs to undercut the vicious cost of Intel/AMD CPUs, believing that competing devices based on ARM a
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Insightful)
"Rent-seeking-seeking behaviour", abbreviated "aaS".
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Governments are already on Enterprise and are probably paying monthly now. This is to finally force that on the end consumer.
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Switch to Android. Making a desktop version of Android would not be hard for Google.
Cool. A desktop computer with a few "phone" processes that you can't get rid of, just like I can't get rid of them on my tablet. And a "location manager" that runs 24/7.
No, I don't think Android will be the choice of people who flee Windows. I think I'll dig out my old CP/M disks ...
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Cool. A desktop computer with a few "phone" processes that you can't get rid of, just like I can't get rid of them on my tablet. And a "location manager" that runs 24/7.
Ah, I see you've used the Microsoft Surface hardware too!
Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:5, Informative)
That would be ChromeOS, which already has window dragging support coyly tucked away in developer options. [howtogeek.com] Also now runs Android apps and full Linux distros (in a vm in a container, how's that for paranoia).
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Re:Way to make money? Force customers to pay month (Score:4, Insightful)
If Microsoft tries to charge a monthly fee for an operating system, eventually 1) Nations will all gather together and try to buy Windows from Microsoft. That would be cheaper than paying monthly. Or, 2) Nations will gather together and contribute to ReactOS, a free operating system that runs Windows programs.
And now back to reality: people will continue to bitch and moan about Windows and Microsoft, but take no meaningful action to help themselves. Then they will be shocked, SHOCKED, when Microsoft continues its predatory monopoly abuses unabated.
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There is another alternative: Big app developers will realize MS mistake and start investing in native Linux versions (Ubuntu or Fedora seem to have the biggest corporate backup).
I have 2 Windows 10 PCs because: laptop with i7-7700HQ where intel "forbids" IGP drivers (I think I go into windows 2 times/month); the other is a tablet where Ubuntu is inconsistent (1st standby is good, 2nd does not turn on the backlight).
Gaming? Win7, ever since Win10 update disrupted my iRacing practice (aug 2016 ????). Might s
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:5, Informative)
> Linux has VERY poor documentation
Not just Linux but a lot of GPL software does as well in my experience. :-(((
Proof: How many man pages actually have examples.
This is one area the *BSDs do better. (Security too, but that's a separate discussion.)
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:4, Interesting)
> Proof: How many (LINUX) man pages actually have examples
FTFY
--I'll back you up on that. But there are only so many resources out there that the average distro has to provide man-hours. They rely on end-users for bugreports, so maybe the best way to add an example to a manpage would be to submit a bugreport to upstream and let it trickle down. Any takers or better suggestions?
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:4, Insightful)
Proof: How many man pages actually have examples.
This is a problem for people who learned to copy-paste from StackOverflow instead of learning to read documentation.
Of course, it's also a problem of programmers not knowing how to create a proper interface.
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a problem for people who learned to copy-paste from StackOverflow instead of learning to read documentation.
True, but - a lot of "modern" solutions are basically built to work like that. I'm doing some hobby stuff in a Javascript framework right now (not my choice, the only tool available for this job) and doing copy-paste is literally the only way to get things working because there are so many virtually identical ways to get to the same goal and none of them are explained anywhere or make an intuitive sense that the fastest and only reliable way to get it working is to go through teh stackoverflow solutions until you find the one that works for your particular combination of patchwork bullshit.
Entire generations of coders grow up being copy-paste people not because they are lazy, but because their ecosystem supports this as the most viable way.
.. and you've spent 20 years learning Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a long tail of specialty distributions that hardly anyone uses, and then there are four or five options that people use. Here they are with a rough popularity score:
91 Ubuntu
18 Debian 18
6 Red Hat 6 (higher if CentOs is included)
7 Mint
3 Suse
1 Manjaro
You see the top four is what almost everyone uses.
Most of the others are based on one of these anyway, so if you learn about Debian-like Linux systems, you just 80 different distros. Plus they are all Linux, of course. Often I don't know or care which distro I'm using at the moment. A paper towel is a paper towel is a paper towel, regardless of brand. In many ways, Linux is Linux, regardless of distro.
You've spent perhaps 20 years learning Windows, then re-learning it differently every three years when Microsoft redoes it. If you learn Linux in a week, that's about a thousand times faster than you learned Windows.
For the first few years I used Linux, I frequently referenced a Unix book from the early 1980s. Everything in the book still worked the same 20 years later. I have scripts my mom wrote 30 years ago which still run fine on my Linux machine today. No need to forget what you knew and learn completely different every few years like you do with Windows.
Re:.. and you've spent 20 years learning Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
You are lucky - 50 years ago my mum wrote IBM IBJOB scripts - definitely not Linux compatible. Today at 93, she is a Mac user.
Luckily, at least some the Unix I learned in the 1970's is still useable on Linux - while I also learned over 10 years ago not to have anything to do with Windows.
None of my family uses Windows (although many of the younger ones use Apple - and some can even use the command line on Apple - with help from great granny if needed).
I suspect the writing is on the wall for MS. Most of the world's population either does not have "always on Internet" or can't afford it. For them Linux is the obvious answer if MS do this. It is already better localised.
She is awesome, and Google Docs etc (Score:5, Informative)
> you must have a pretty awesome mom if she wrote linux shell scripts...
She is awesome, thanks. She wrote them for Unix, all the same utilities and most of the same conventions are on Linux.
> I wish there were some stuff to make the transition from Windows hell to Linux easier
Are you the type who enjoys fiddling with the registry? For most people, the switch is transparent. Chrome and Firefox still look and work exactly the same. Facebook is no different, Google Docs is exactly the same.
If you enjoy fiddling with the OS itself, Linux is very different and much easier. It's all about combining simple parts that are reused all over the place. One such simple thing is "everything is a file". Reading or searching your hard drive sectors works exactly the same as reading and searching a text file, because the bare drive is a file. Each partition is a file. A network connection is a file, an email is a file, even your keyboard is a file, which can be read like any other file (though slowly, unless you're a very fast typist). To search ANYTHING you can use the "grep" command. That'll search your drive sectors, it'll search your email, it'll search whatever because grep searches files, and everything is a file. That makes it much easier to learn because for example there is one tool that searches everything. There is another tool called "sort", which sorts - anything. You don't have to learn how to sort different kinds of things with different programs.
That's why the uproar about systemd - it's not a simple, small tool that can be used with other simple, small tools to build whatever you want, to whatever level of complexity you want. Like Microsoft Office, systemd is a big, complex thing with a lot to learn about it. Very not *nix style.
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285 is really stretching it. This is a list of "all" Linux distros, that covers everything from x86 to Arm and even Risc and PowerPc processors as well as BSD distros. Most of the distros are just repackaged versions of two or three main distros with not much more than a new theme added. Very little is different after you pass the first few.
The fact is that Windows has suffered for years without any competition. The fact that they can make a turd sandwich and you'd eat it is why the OS has not gotten n
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:4, Insightful)
If I may ask, who does tech support for Windows?
Re:We don't have a usable desktop operating system (Score:5, Funny)
If I may ask, who does tech support for Windows?
The guy who keeps phoning me from India to tell me I have a windows problem?
Where is Open source software to rescue us? (Score:2)
Microsoft has been getting away from the old-style desktop model for years now. Just look at Office. Microsoft would much rather have you rent Office via Office 365 than buy Microsoft Office and use it for years...
Open source software zealots have been hoping for an "opening" for years. I guess this will be it.
Question is: Do they have anything that comes close to what Microsoft has created over the decades? I doubt!!
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Open source software zealots have been hoping for an "opening" for years. I guess this will be it. Question is: Do they have anything that comes close to what Microsoft has created over the decades? I doubt!!
This would be like the fourth opening or something because WinME was a facepalm, so was Vista, Win8 and Win10. At no point did the YotLD happen and I except Gnome/KDE to be too busy with their own turf war this time too. The question for me is whether Apple or Google will throw a monkey wrench in Microsoft's plans by making a real effort at conquering the desktop. In Apple's case I think that'd mean an Apple ARM chip + iOS in a laptop form factor and in Google's case an Android-like assault on the desktop w
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The question for me is whether Apple or Google will throw a monkey wrench in Microsoft's plans by making a real effort at conquering the desktop.
Apple won't: they're too busy removing the USB port. Google might: but it will still be a managed system, probably a step backwards instead of forwards.
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Re:Where is Open source software to rescue us? (Score:5, Interesting)
The problems you are listing are Windows problems and not Linux problems. It's like you are complaining that your Ford parts don't fit on your new GM.
The MS Office argument is B/S. Very few need MS Office because very few need Macros but keep telling yourself that.
Printer/Scanner/fax is faster on Linux than Mac or Windows but I guess it's what you buy or how long you keep your stuff. I have a scanner that is 20 years old and still works on Linux but there is no support on Windows.
What I see is people making choices and then complaining why their choices suck but don't want to even try a different solution. Windows sucks because of the items you listed. On Mac, Linux *BSD's or even Windows you don't have these issues if you choose OSS. It's the decisions you make. 30 years I've had no issues running business and personal stuff without being dependent on MS or Apple.
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It might be not so bad... (Score:3, Funny)
Who knows, I might be Ok with a lobotomy too, after it's all over. But it's the strapping me down to that operating table that is completely another matter altogether.
They cant be serious. They would have to remove quite a few more IQ points to get even the lobotomized version of me to go along with this.
Machines with any other OS preinstalled (Score:2)
Better be coming too, or every OEM will go down with this ship.
ChromeBooks? (Score:2)
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Almost - you don't need to pay for the privilege for running ChromeOS.
You can pay for a terabyte of storage instead of 15G space or to manage your systems, but you get a lot for $0 per month.
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Keeping Google from abandoning Crostini (Score:3)
Additionally, Crostini promises to open it further even without switching the operating system into an unlocked mode
Let me know when the supermajority of new Chromebook models support Crostini. Right now it appears to be limited to select high-end Chromebooks. I don't want to see it stay limited to the high end because if it does, it's more likely to become one of those things that Google abandons three years later for lack of use, like Google Reader and Chrome apps in Chrome for Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux.
Plus (Score:2)
By then 100% of devices will no longer have a regular headphone jack so that will be great too. Who could ever have imagined a future so bright?
My prediction: (Score:3, Interesting)
For the first time ever, Microsoft employees will be forced to actually eat their own dogfood. They will realize finally that their software is completely unmanageable. They will revolt or quit in droves. It will be an unmitigated P.R. disaster. Hundreds of millions of people will give up on desktop computing altogether. Microsoft will single handedly kill their own golden goose and then flail about for someone to blame when the stock prices begin to plummet. Google will eat their lunch with cheap hybridized Android "desktop replacement" devices.
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DaaS is not an impediment if you are the developer and don't have to pay for it. Dogfooding hasn't stopped Microsoft from producing reams of garbage to date, and they've been about it for many a year.
This is why (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why some open-source people like Stallman are so fanatical. We have Linux, and no one can take it away from us. In ten years from now when everyone is suffering with DaaS, I'll still be typing away with Linux, free as always.
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depends, there may come a day when hardware will only run government approved operating systems.
Fedora with Xfce desktop (Score:2)
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Yeah, right until systemd starts mining cryptocurrency in the background just to cover project expenses.
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Hell no -- then they'd be making money mining your data and selling your usage habits to marketeers, data pimps, and probably governments. If it's free, then you're the product.
Actually, if it's MS, Google, Apple, or Amazon, then you're probably STILL the product even if it's not free.
Why would I pay for Microsoft? (Score:3, Insightful)
This just means that I go completely to Linux for development. Chrome and ChromeOS for storage, email, presentation and business apps. Maybe Mac because I love OSX on a laptop - I'm dropping Office on my Mac because Microsoft wants $250 CDN to upgrade to the latest version and won't continue with updates.
And, after doing all this, I don't feel deprived one bit.
So, why would I pay Microsoft a lot more for the same capabilities?
Somebody, down the road, at Microsoft is going to be crucified in front of the shareholders for pushing us away from Windows and Office.
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I'm dropping Office on my Mac because Microsoft wants $250 CDN to upgrade to the latest version and won't continue with updates.
So don’t update. What “must have” feature has Microsoft added to Office since ~ 2000 anyway... the Ribbon?
If Office 95 would still run, it would probably meet my “Office” needs.
Also, on a Mac, there’s always Pages / Numbers / Keynote.
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This just means that I go completely to Linux for development. Chrome and ChromeOS for storage, email, presentation and business apps. Maybe Mac because I love OSX on a laptop - I'm dropping Office on my Mac because Microsoft wants $250 CDN to upgrade to the latest version and won't continue with updates.
And, after doing all this, I don't feel deprived one bit.
So, why would I pay Microsoft a lot more for the same capabilities?
Somebody, down the road, at Microsoft is going to be crucified in front of the shareholders for pushing us away from Windows and Office.
I've been hearing this for over 20 years now and I guess I will be hearing that song for the 20 years too.
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This just means that I go completely to Linux for development.
I hope you're not an iOS developer.
Yeah.... no (Score:2)
This old fart is fucking done with this bullshit.
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My main home PC has been Linux forever (Mint for some years now, Slack before that). I keep an install of Windows 7 around for two things I can't live without, TurboTax and Orbiter. But honestly I don't fire it up that often these days.
What's old is new (Score:2)
Mentioning mainframes is appropriate, as this is the way mainframes used to be "sold": you didn't buy them, they were leased, and to some varying extent, managed by the vendor.
Fuck you (Score:2)
I've been using Linux as my *only* desktop since 2003. My PC is my PC.
Thank you Linus... (Score:5, Insightful)
Once again, thank you, and all who have contributed to the open source movement to provide us with an alternative to profit-driven corporate overlords. History will be most kind to your work...
This whole aas thing is too much (Score:2)
That will be the day I use DaaS, if you go for this replace the second 'a' with a 's' in my subject because that is what you are.
Will I guess Linux as a desktop may happen soon with this. So lets count for the future:
1. Mobile has a monthly fee with net limits
2. Monthly fee for home internet, maybe limited
3. Now a monthly fee for a PC you bought yourself
This is worse than paying taxes and all you are paying for is to allow people to spy on you. At least with Linux or a *BSD you can lockout spyware. I am
The day it becomes official (Score:4, Interesting)
will see a significant increase in Linux, macOS and may actually BE the death of the desktop.
Ironic that the folks who helped bring the desktop to the masses would also be the ones to kill it off. :|
All in the name of greed.
There is exactly ZERO chance I will ever " rent " my operating system and cede what little control I have :|
left to someone like Microsoft. I keep my drawing tablet ( Wacom Studio Pro / Win10 ) offline because I
don't want it updating / breaking anything. Will be impossible to do with a Managed Desktop that is required
to check in on a monthly basis to see if you are still " allowed " to use your computer
Once implemented, I'm pretty sure we're seeing the final days of Microsoft. The smart ones will start selling
their stock off as soon as possible.
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The day it becomes official will be the day that Windows users will continue to justify Microsoft's abuses, but do absolutely nothing different (except to keep less of their money).
No. Just... No! (Score:2)
This kind of shit is precisely why I won't do Office 360 or any of that other SaaS bullshit. It only encourages more of it.
My computer is mine. Wholly owned by me and used as I see fit. There's no way I'd pay for the privilege of using someone else's desktop environment.
LK
They're trying to compete with the Chromebook (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole Google productivity suite is right there when you log in. I think it's okay for kids (don't get me wrong, the Google drive is fabulous and the spreadsheet has its place). I can understand trying to get experience in that model. But personally, I like having software and data locally. Also, putting your data on another company's servers lets them get a really solid grip around your balls/profit.
Given we're talking about non-cachable content.. (Score:2)
It sounds like prime target to a good ol dose of amplified distributed denial of service attack.
And people say Apple is arrogant.. (Score:2)
..this is worse, way worse.
Whatever. If this creates a smoking hole in the ground, someone will take up the slack. Linux maybe. Or MacOS.
Corporations will buckle and give into this. It's inevitable. Removes one more bit of drudgework, from their point of view.
PC revolution (Score:3)
As I remember it, the PC revolution was slow and stumbling. PCs took a long time to get to the point of really being useful in larger office settings. Sure, it started off popular in small businesses that had no computers previously, or on the desk of execs who otherwise had no terminals, but for places that used mainframs the PCs took a long time to take over. You really had to wait until the 386 era before things started to be more useful for actual work.
Everything "as a service" sucks. (Score:2)
Those of us from many years before it was even a concept, those of us good with money, have always hated it.
In Australia, buy an $800 cell phone, get a $20 per month cell plan, total 2 year cost $1240. But you could always get the phone free! with a plan, only $80 per month ... or $1920.
And so on and so forth. Applications, gaming, etc, it's all 'just rent it' and it stinks when the option for people with a clue to pay outright, disappears.
There's 0% chance of me ever paying for Windows as a service.
Click bait (Score:5, Informative)
What everyone here seems to fail, and it is tagged as such right at the very top of the article, is that this isn't journalism. This article is one person's opinion piece. That is it.
This entire thing, this article, something that has gone fucking viral all day in every goddamn tech site that I visit, is nothing more than an oversensationalistic bullshit opinion piece.
It is a click-bait viral article to drum up views to get advertising dollars, and all you fell for it.
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I can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find a comment that actually understands what is going on. If this DaaS is going to be rolled out then it will be primarily for enterprise customers. Neither in the linked article, or the one it basically steals from, is it asserted that domestic or small scale business users will be affected. And why would it?
But the linked article just reeks of click-bait bullshit, designed to get foaming-at-the-mouth Linux users to post in their indignant hundreds.
This is not a replacement for Windows 10 (Score:5, Informative)
The title of this article and the ComputerWorld article are misleading. If you read the original ZDNet article that is being linked to, you will find that this is just Microsoft trying to take a piece of the DaaS market. This will be offered as an additional service, primarily intended for enterprise users. Not your desktop at home.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-managing-windows-10-devices-for-a-monthly-fee/
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So, like a Chromebook except expensive, crappy and insecure? Got it.
Just when you thought Windows can't get any worse (Score:3)
Just when you thought Windows can't get any worse they pull this out. I'm not weeping I'm chuckling.
Panic Rising...Oh Wait, it's Enterprise Support. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not for your personal PC. Let's face it, Microsoft isn't completely stupid. They aren't going to put themselves on the hook for managing and supporting hundreds of millions of desktop computers used by people like your mother.
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MS gradually seems to be abandoning the lower-end of the market: consumers and small business. They are targeting "enterprise" tools. Google is taking up small business sales with Google Docs and the related office suite, and young consumers are skipping home PC's for mobile devices.
MS can't compete with Google online because Google designed their suite for browsers up front, and we know that MS already flopped on mobile, probably because compatibility with Windows conflicted with simplicity and a small foo
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Yeah, it's not like Linux hasn't been my desktop OS for 12+ years or that people who think using "lol" in lieu of punctuation makes them look witty aren't idiots.
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Let me see, Linux since 1994 in my case? Sure, I also have Windows for gaming, but as soon as Win7 goes out of service, gaming is the only thing I will be doing on Windows and it will get exactly the network access needed for that, nothing else. For the occasional use of MS Office, I will use a Win7 VM under Linux with no network access.
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What are you talking about? You can easily choose to use another desktop window manager (I use XFCE, there's LXDE, KDE and more), Pulseaudio isn't actually required (see this screenshot: nothing depends on it except the preference manager software and an emulator for ALSA only apps https://i.imgur.com/rIc6Ccx.pn... [imgur.com]) and I can remove SystemD using this: https://systemd-free.artixlinu... [artixlinux.org] but honestly Pulseaudio and SystemD have not given me problems, but if they did I know how to remove them. So why complai
Re:Not much different from my recent Linux experie (Score:4, Insightful)
Move to FreeBSD, it is time. It's like Linux but written by rational adults.
Re:Eh... (Score:5, Interesting)
The post you are quoting is absolutely correct. and your post does not dispute it or detract from it.
I'm still using Office 2003. on Windows 7 SP1, and yes, the file format converters still work perfectly, both forward and backward. I don't NEED to upgrade, and I don't want to either. I hate everything about the ribbon interface, I use the ALT menus, and don't you dare try to tell me they have replicated the shortcuts because they fucking haven't! Try selecting some precise area of text with arrows and the shift key, then press "ALT - O and then O". Are you looking at the Font Dialog? No?! Exactly. Lies. (on their part!)
I will never update Windows again. Spyware and "telemetry" killed it for me. Windows user since 3.1
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My main use case nowadays doesn't work in a virtual machine - playing games. ON silly or old hardware. And I hope the Linux trolls don't try telling me that GPU pass thru is a useful or working feature, when none but the most expensive and newest graphics chipsets are supported properly. Mobility Radeon 3470 running Skyrim at native resolution at 40+ frames per second on a dual core with high-res textures. No updates / malware. That's how I like my Windows, fast and lean.
They keep publishing lies about how
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Adobe CS is a terrible example. I have a 7-year old suite that runs fine. And I use it professionally. My last version before that was only a 4 year gap, but that's because I bought 5.5 knowing they'd be going subscription-only soon.
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It's not a protest. It's a means to maintain control. My machine, my software, my data.
If the software no longer works for me, then the only alternative is a different OS.