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Microsoft Wants To Move Windows Fully To the Cloud - Internal Presentation (theverge.com) 260

Posted by msmash from the boom dept.
Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud on the commercial side with Windows 365, but the software giant also wants to do the same for consumers. From a report: In an internal "state of the business" Microsoft presentation from June 2022, Microsoft discuses building on "Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device." The presentation has been revealed as part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearing, as it includes Microsoft's overall gaming strategy and how that relates to other parts of the company's businesses.

Moving "Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud" is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft's "Modern Life" consumer space, including using "the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people's digital experience." Windows 365 is a service that streams a full version of Windows to devices. So far, it's been limited to just commercial customers, but Microsoft has been deeply integrating it into Windows 11 already. A future update will include Windows 365 Boot, which will enable Windows 11 devices to log directly in to a Cloud PC instance at boot instead of the local version of Windows. Windows 365 Switch is also built into Windows 11 to integrate Cloud PCs into the Task View (virtual desktops) feature.
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Microsoft Wants To Move Windows Fully To the Cloud - Internal Presentation More

Microsoft Wants To Move Windows Fully To the Cloud - Internal Presentation

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  • No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:46AM (#63636648)

    This is just stupid. Why would I want my OS on a cloud?

    All your data are belong to us.

    • Re: No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AutoTrix ( 8918325 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:48AM (#63636664)
      This will fail not doubt. People don't even want to keep their data safe on OneDrive. I get calls regularly from people who freak out when they realize they accidentally moved all their files to OneDrive and now need to pay a whopping $2 a month to keep using their email.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hogleg ( 1147911 )
        The first hit is free, or for a small cost. In a year or so it goes to $4.50, a person would complain but is committed, so they pay the extra. After another year, it goes to $6.75. Totally committed, don't want to move my data, just pay the extra cost. Rinse, repeat, wash. Eventually, there is a price where users will leave, but MS and everyone else like them will push their users right to that edge. Maximize profit. Increase share holder value. Increase the stock price. Yay.

      • They said the same thing about office 365 (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @12:07PM (#63636944)
        People loved it because it let them replace the IT staff that maintained their email servers and because they didn't have word & excel breaking all the time.

        Techies like us always underestimate how much regular non-tech people *hate* computers. They hate everything about them. They're a means to an end. An overly complicated tool they're forced to use by circumstance and necessity.

        How much did you spend at a computer shop removing viruses last year? Or fixing an Application? How many hours were you down because something on your PC broke and you were waiting for IT to fix it?

        If you're here I'm guessing zero. But for a *lot* of people it's hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours. We can sneer at them for being dumb all we want, for refusing to learn to use their PC, but at the end of the day they out number us so they make the decisions about where the mass market PC industry is going to go.

        The only question is will their distrust of Microsoft override their hatred of computers? I'd say it's 50/50

        • ... well. I was having a bad day, but now.

          *Starts popping antidepressants like candy corn because damn that truth is a bit too true for me right now*

        • In all fairness, it isn't correct to blame the users for being dumb... in the business i work in, for example, we have hundreds of thousands of employees, none of which, but the IT staff, are allowed to do anything on their machines as simple as just changing the time! So, why would they feel the need to learn how to fix a small issue with their work-issued machine, when they are not given the privileges necessary to do so?

          Sure, at home, my machines run as good as I can make them, but at work, I have no c

          • they hate computers and they want somebody to take the work out of owning them away from them.

            Microsoft knows exactly how much PC ownership costs the average user in time and money. So their marketing drones are going to set the price right around there.

            There's a video of YouTuber Linus Tech Tips where he tried to dump Adobe products. It was a stunt, but he put the work into an honest assessment of it.

            What he found was that the cost to him in dollars for paying all his employees (it's a big YouT

      • What does OneDrive have to do with email?

    • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:56AM (#63636698)

      As a consumer I agree. But as an employee I don't. Having your Windows interface in a cloud is a damn godsend. Here I am using a laptop all fine and dandy. A few weeks later I'm stuck somewhere solving a crisis with nothing but my personal laptop and I can quickly log into a cloud instance of Windows that is directly linked to my company's internal network and work as if I was natively using my corporate device from my personal device.

      Then there's simulation. Oh I want to run a large scale simulation generating 1TB of data on my crappy work laptop? 2 years ago that involved getting the biggest and most painful to carry around "workstation" class laptop issued and that still took days to complete a simulation. Now I just fire up a cloud instance provisioned with suitable resources and suddenly my windows desktop pretends like it's a god damn supercomputer. The biggest issue is then syncing the resulting data afterwards.

      No idea why a home user would want this though.

      • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:04AM (#63636736) Homepage

        I can quickly log into a cloud instance of Windows that is directly linked to my company's internal network and work as if I was natively using my corporate device from my personal device.

        I have been doing that for many years using ssh from my home Linux box to a Linux box somewhere else

        A motivation for doing this is to make the customer continue to pay for computer usage. I also suspect that it makes it easier for the NSA to see what is happening.

      • No way. If I login to my work from my computer, they will insist on controlling it. They already did this with cell phones. If you wanted to get company email on your personal phone (they were not issuing company ones), you had to essentially sign over all your rights to them. They claimed it was about security, but mostly it was about control.

        • Proper security has to involve a certain degree of control though.

          I would agree that companies that want that security should be willing provide a second phone to those that request it but there is a line somewhere.

        • Yeah, you can set up work profiles on Android and iOS (or desktop, too, for that matter) to segment the work software into its own sandbox so if they claimed they needed the whole thing then they were just wanting to spy on you. In that case they'd better be giving you a business device.

      • For a home user, it can be useful. For example, if I'm going on a trip, all I have to take with me is a Chromebook or iPad, and, assuming a decent connection, I have my usual desktop available. As an added bonus, no data is stored on the local machine, so if it gets nicked, I'm out the machine's costs, and not worried about the data on it.

      • I just use VPNs and ssh to work remotely. I rarely use non web based GUIs anymore, since web browsers are fantastic at rendering UIs and documents.

      • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @12:10PM (#63636948) Journal

        You've been able to do that for decades though - going all the way back to Windows NT Terminal Services. Then it was called Remote Desktop Server. We've also had Citrix products for decades that allow you to do what you want. And we already have had "Windows in the Cloud" in the form of VMware / Amazon EC2 / Azure / GCP for years.

        The persistent desktop problem you are on about is a solved problem that was literally solved in the 1990s. Microsoft even supported remote profiles in Windows NT 3.51 I think, if you didn't mind your login taking 15 minutes for it to do the slowest file copy ever the first time you log into a particular PC.

        As for simulation - this is already one of the most useful uses for cloud computing and has been for years. 5 years ago we needed to train a neural net for image processing and we used an Amazon instance with an Nvidia card attached for a weekend. I'm not as familiar with Google Cloud or Azure, but I can't imagine they wouldn't have the same capabilities available for a while now.

        This is Microsoft trying to force everyone's data into their cloud, where they can happily mine and index all of it while they charge you monthly for the privilege.

      • No idea why a home user would want this though.

        Its not about a home user wanting "cloud services". Its about Microsoft removing its dependence on hardware manufacturers to gather consumer customers.

        Under the status quo, Microsoft gets a kickback ($15?) from every consumer laptop and desktop manufactured that's not Apple. Then Microsoft has to piss millions away every year on WGA and applying patches to every mystery hardware concoction.

        Once Microsoft has a stable of consumer subscribers, it reduces all those maintenance costs, and gets steady revenue.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MeNeXT ( 200840 )

        I had this back in 1985/86. It existed before. Using a terminal I could connect and work on the mainframe.

        If you have the need to run large scale simulations regularly you could buy a decent laptop that could run the simulations. The thing is if you buy a decent laptop it will last you about 10 years. It would cost you less than the 3 to 5 crappy laptops that you would otherwise go through. I won't get into the benefits of the better keyboard or the crisp clear monitor.

        Cloud is very expensive. It's like re

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm sure it will be a hit with corporations. Instead of buying a load of new computers every few years, they can just buy thin clients. Then they can get rid of most of the IT department, because Microsoft manages their Windows installs for them.

      Presumably Microsoft will have those cloud instances locked down pretty well, to prevent stuff like ransomware taking out a client. If or not, at least the client can sue Microsoft for their losses.

      Companies hate IT. It's an expense and it's difficult to get right.

      • You must be a youngster. We had WYSE terminals, thin clients, Citrix, WinFrame, etc. This technology has been around for a long time, and yet do you see it used everywhere?

        Maybe if Microsoft embraces it, it will be different?

        I switched to Linux. I see computers as a tool. I wouldn't buy a hammer that had to connect to the internet and login to Microsoft before I could swing it. I don't want to fight Microsoft for use of the hammer I paid for. I don't want my hammer making me watch ads before I can swi

        • Microsoft has "embraced" it decades ago and has been trying to sell it under different names since the Windows NT days. It's been a thing in the Windows NT universe to use "cloud storage" for your user profile since at least Windows NT 3.51 - it was just called "roaming profiles" and was locked into a CIFS / SMB share and copied it locally upon login (which could take FOREVER if you actually stored documents and stuff in your profile) - the new "cloudy" version of this is their OneDrive crap which everyone

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Thin clients are actually still very common. They can connect to Windows servers.

          Problem is you need to run a load of Windows servers. Licenses aren't cheap, you need IT guys with more than basic Windows desktop admin skills.

          A lot of places already do it over the internet, via VPN. Cloud is a natural transition for them.

        • The fad of the 20 year cycle between thin clients and fat clients would be comical if it wasn't so sad.

      • Presumably Microsoft will have those cloud instances locked down pretty well, to prevent stuff like ransomware taking out a client. If or not, at least the client can sue Microsoft for their losses.

        One acronym for you - TOS. I'm sure there are at least some jurisdictions in which your acceptance of Terms which include a "hold harmless" clause will be upheld in court. You will be unable to sue for damages, or at least the amount payable for said damages will be severely limited.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Sure, but the goal isn't to recover their losses. It's too get the next bonus, and ideally leave before things go wrong. If they do go wrong, blame Microsoft and your legal advisors that you ignored. Often the legal advisor is just the IT guy who should have read the TOS.

          Corporations are not rational actors.

      • Microsoft want to kill 3rd party applications without large regular payments to Microsoft ...

    • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:5, Informative)

      by blahplusplus ( 757119 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:18AM (#63636796)

      This is just stupid. Why would I want my OS on a cloud?

      All your data are belong to us.

      They are locking down the PC, this has been a 20 year project to kill piracy and turn the comuputer into a locked down device like a console see here:

      https://youtu.be/U7VwtOrwceo?t... [youtu.be]

      Secure boot wasn't about "protecting your PC" from malware it was about putting hardcore antipiracy tech in your PC and turning your pc into a locked down device like the iphone and console so you never see plaintext binary - the thing that enabled mass piracy of windows os, apps and games. Microsoft founded the trusted computing intiative with Intel, AMD and other companies to re-engineer and take over every microchip in every device on the planet, that's why shit like your mice and sd cards need "certificates" if they want to be used with the xbox console.

      The whole thing was to move us to encrypted computing.

      See the patent abstract here:

      "A digital rights management operating system protects rights-managed data, such as downloaded content, from access by untrusted programs while the data is loaded into memory or on a page file as a result of the execution of a trusted application that accesses the memory. To protect the rights-managed data resident in memory, the digital rights management operating system refuses to load an untrusted program into memory while the trusted application is executing or removes the data from memory before loading the untrusted program. If the untrusted program executes at the operating system level, such as a debugger, the digital rights management operating system renounces a trusted identity created for it by the computer processor when the computer was booted. To protect the rights-managed data on the page file, the digital rights management operating system prohibits raw access to the page file, or erases the data from the page file before allowing such access. Alternatively, the digital rights management operating system can encrypt the rights-managed data prior to writing it to the page file. The digital rights management operating system also limits the functions the user can perform on the rights-managed data and the trusted application, and can provide a trusted clock used in place of the standard computer clock."

      https://cryptome.org/ms-drm-os... [cryptome.org]

      That is why you have secure boot and the TPM requirement for windows 11, they are phasing out plaintext compiled binaries over the next 20 years, so I hope you enjoy your locked down OS. Game developers and everyone in the industry was hell bent on killing honest plaintext binaries to kill piracy they didn't give up, they've already had it in the bag in 1997 when you all took up client-server exe's like MMOS and steam, Microsoft was jealous of Richard garriot and Gabe newell.

      Microsoft's UWP has been cut up into multiple parts to convince developers to sign and encrypt their binaries over the next 20 years they are phasing out binary plaintext access to your device.

    • Don't you still need a device (PC/laptop) that needs an OS and needs to be patched? It seems like you now have two devices to maintain -- the real laptop that remotes into the one in the cloud. And closed to double your support costs?

      How is this an advantage for a user or employer?

      Or you could use something like a dumb terminal to to connect to the cloud computer. Back in 1970's we called this timesharing and used a VT100 (big upgrade from the Teletype Model 33) to access the "mainframe" in the cloud. Late

      • How is this an advantage for a user or employer?

        This is how:
        1. IT department makes a core image that is used by everyone on the terminal server^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sorry, Remote Desktop Server^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sorry again - Windows Cloud.

        2. When you start a Windows Cloud session, you get that base image, with applications saved as "layers" that can be applied on top when the app is assigned to you as a user. Microsoft's SCCM has been doing this for years.

        3. When it comes time to apply patches, the IT department only ne

    • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:23AM (#63636808)

      "Why would I want my OS on a cloud?"

      You don't. *Microsoft* wants your OS on a cloud because then they can charge you a monthly fee for it.

    • Just what the hacker Lisbeth Salander did in the Millennium Trilogy series, but legalized and more evil.

    • Re:No Internet, No Boot. No Way. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:58AM (#63636930) Journal

      Here is why: this would be the fatal blow to the Windows stranglehold on the PC market.

      I hope they jam the throttle to the stop on this one - maybe it will finally force change away from this toxic company that feels the only way for them to survive is to constantly make changes to their products that they want, instead of changes that USERS want.

      Now all we need is a graphical environment for linux that doesn't make me want to pull my own teeth out trying to get multiple displays working properly.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kackle ( 910159 )
        You hit it on the head: There is no alternative. 'Too many Linux distros (for the average, ignorant user) and none is SIMPLE, because Linux is not simple. If something showed up that was stupid simple, it could finally dominate the desktop. But it won't happen...

        • You hit it on the head: There is no alternative. 'Too many Linux distros (for the average, ignorant user) and none is SIMPLE, because Linux is not simple. If something showed up that was stupid simple, it could finally dominate the desktop. But it won't happen...

          The problem with trying to point to Linux as an "alternative" to Windows is that Linux distros either want to be Linux (fine for people who need / want that Unix alike environment) or they want to be Windows, which is as far from the simplicity we really need in a distro to attract users as Linux itself, just in much more scattered, more user-hostile ways. I wouldn't hate seeing someone develop a distro with simplicity to the end-user in mind, but I have yet to see one that doesn't cause me to dry-heave wit

    • Your tag line is dead on.

      Let me change just one word and MS's blurb will be accurate.

      "the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full looting of people's digital experience."

      There. Perfect. Truth at last.

    • People will fall for it, then lament endlessly when they can't play their games.

      Then they'll berate their ISP CC agent why the hell they'd have to be online to play some trivial game... then again, they already berated them for not being able to play some web-based flashgames while their internet is out, so at least they won't feel the difference.

  • The slow death of PC independence. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:49AM (#63636666) Homepage
    Back to renting time on the mainfram... er I mean cloud.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:11AM (#63636756)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Back to renting time on the mainfram... er I mean cloud.

        Some doubtless will, the rest will have even more incentive to upgrade to a real OS, like GNU/Linux for example, or perhaps a *NIX, like any one of the fine flavors of BSD, or something else. The more Microsoft tightens its grip, the more users will slip through their fingers.

        I'd like to share your apparent optimism, but from where I sit, and given the history, it looks more like naivete.

        If Microsoft's users were going to "slip through their fingers" in response to the output from Redmond's bullshit factory, the exodus would have begun long ago. Yet here we are, with 'The Year of Linux on the Desktop' relegated to punchline status.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by kenh ( 9056 )

          Agree, Windows survived Windows ME and Windows 8, a change in the pricing structure won't end their dominance, did you ever notice how many people buy $69 one-year activations for MS-Office when they buy a new laptop? MS just wants to add another activation card for Windows, likely after the first year (laptop includes 12 months of windows).

          It never ceases to amaze me how Linux activists continually think every slight mis-step by MS will lead to their ruination and that countless windows users will simply r

      • The least you'll see is a lot of dual-boot machines where people want to retain at least some ability to do something while their ISP is trying to put the token back into the TRN.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by nucrash ( 549705 )

      We already do this. Now companies like Microsoft are just trying to finalize the process. Our computers are effectively becoming dumb terminals.

      Computers without internet access are next to unusable now. They still have use, just seems like we use local resources less and less.

      • What I need is network access, because without my servers I'd have a hard time getting anything done.

        But I do retain most of my data on-prem. As does my employer. In the words of our CEO, there are things that are too valuable to put them into hands you never shook.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      The mainframe dream is like dracula in the castlevania series.
      From time to time, it rises back from the ashes, and a belmont need to do and defeat it again

  • Thanks Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:52AM (#63636676)

    I thought "It's the year of the linux desktop" was a running joke on slashdot... but it appears Microsoft wants to make that a reality.

    • Re:Thanks Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:15AM (#63636778)
      It's a testament to just how bad Linux on the Desktop is that people would rather deal with all the bad moves Microsoft does than switch.

      • I think it's more of a testament to the learning curve coming from Windows to a Linux Desktop, and to the lack of compatible mission-critical software than how "bad" Linux on the Desktop is, lol. This isn't 2004.

        • For what population of users does "steep learning curve + lack of mission critical software" add up to anything other than "bad"?

          • Those who don't use mission critical software or aren't totally opposed to taking a week to re-learn where stuff might be? Bad is a subjective term and there's probably no use in you or I arguing semantics lol. See my other comments in reference to Linux Mint as far as "steep learning curve" elsewhere in this thread.

          • "Steep learning curve" doesn't even apply anymore if you don't have an admin at hand, the default settings of most Linux distris are pretty much what most users can work with.

            Which is becoming less and less the case with Windows. Go find me someone who can set up sensible local security policies and doesn't waste countless hours trying to figure out how to do shit. In between more and more complicated interfaces and MS going out of their way to make the user experience terrible, and generally being a nuisan

        • The fact that the learning curve is still so steep that switching is still pretty unappealing for non-tech folk is a failure of Linux desktop.

          If that learning curve was dealth with early on and there was a better install system on linux we probably would be seeing a lot more mission critical software on the platform.

          • That'd be true if "Linux Desktop" was a monolithic company competing with Windows to produce a user-friendly desktop. I don't think Plasma/KDE or for that matter any of the other "desktops" have failed -- they objectively produce a working intuitive experience. For a lot of users you can pop in a disk of Linux Mint point them to the browser and Libre Office (or just a browser to access whatever from the web) and they'd hardly no the difference.

            It would take a company with a lot of money and dev time to pro

        • Name some Mission Critical software ... It's all either very corporate and so not applicable to any home user, or even the vast majority of corporate users
          Or is nowadays browser based ...

          • I can't name any bc I'm happy Linux desktop user (with some macOS in between) for the past decade, you're asking the wrong guy.

          • Autocad Fusion 360. No Linux support and pretty much the go-to software for anyone who does 3D modeling for 3D printing.

      • It's more a testimonial of how lazy people really are.

        I can't even say that it's a learning curve. I gave my dad a Linux laptop now. He's pretty much a computer illiterate. And yes, I retain root privileges and won't hand them over, but he's fine with that. Last time he said that this is again like it was back at the office (he retired in 2008), even the OS looks familiar and he's right at home.

        Yes, it took some work to get a WinXP-flavored surface going, but it was worth it. And most of all, unlike with Wi

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Z80a ( 971949 )

        Most people don't even know you can use another OS

  • Thin client (Score:5, Insightful)

    by troon ( 724114 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @10:56AM (#63636696)

    Ecclesiastes 1:9: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

    Words written by a wise man, or perhaps a Wyse man in this case.

    • Wyse the terminal ? my god that was a while back

    • Re:Thin client (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @12:26PM (#63636996)

      Same with cubicles vs. open concept office space. And any number of HR fads that make their way through the corporate world.

      There's always a new supply of enthusiastic young people buying the crap being sold by the previous generation's bullshit consultants. When enough time has passed that most of the people who remember the old mistakes and consequences have retired... the new batch of gullible people dive in and repeat them.

      Because I listened to my father when I was young, I've experienced 3-4 of these cycles either directly or indirectly. Nobody cares, they just keep repeating the mistakes.

  • Windows 365 is a service that streams a full version of Windows to devices. So far, it's been limited to just commercial customers, but Microsoft has been deeply integrating it into Windows 11 already. A future update will include Windows 365 Boot, which will enable Windows 11 devices to log directly in to a Cloud PC instance at boot instead of the local version of Windows.

    So I need a Windows 11 device to connect to a cloud instance of... Windows 11? I get the use case for enterprise purposes (though I'd shitcan Win11 and use a purpose built thin client/OS) but who wants this in the consumer space, and what do they want to do with it?

    If they were targeting this at other ecosystems (Chromebooks, Apple, etc) I'd see the utility ("run your favorite applications from your own desktop, anywhere, with instant access to your data for only $19.99 a month!") but the average Windows

    • So I need a Windows 11 device to connect to a cloud instance of... Windows 11? I get the use case for enterprise purposes (though I'd shitcan Win11 and use a purpose built thin client/OS) but who wants this in the consumer space, and what do they want to do with it?

      The mistake you're making here is that Microsoft ever considers what anybody other than Microsoft actually wants. For non-geeks in "the consumer space", Microsoft already effectively owns their computers, and there's nothing they can do about it. Sure, they could move to Linux - but who here believes that will ever happen in meaningful numbers?

      Microsoft already owns the entire desktop space, and the few exceptions simply highlight the rule. They can and will do whatever the fuck they want, and it's unlikely

  • Sun (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RedMage ( 136286 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:04AM (#63636734) Homepage

    The network IS the computer!

    Yes, this worked so well the first dozen times it was tried, now everyone only has a thin client on their des...
    What?
    Oh, nevermind then...

  • Best thing since we slapped sludgy GUIs on all mainframe apps destroying fastly finger-tipping through muscle memory tasks using codes and CLI commands in favor or sloshing around in a graphical mess. Plus, creating a whole new layer of bureaucracy for the control nannies.

    Worst of all worlds. Great job.

  • pffft (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dragonseye ( 1103251 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:09AM (#63636748)
    Ya every time net goes down so does my os, brilliant just brilliant. There are so many linux distros that fit the hole windows leaves.
  • I am not in favor of moves to make the world an even more unstable place. In the event of a real war, which we are almost having nearly every day, Microsoft's servers would go down quicker than a prostitute.
  • and their lazy press report printing.

    This isn't "moving to the cloud", this is charging an annual or monthly fee to use your computer. Basically leasing your PC from Microsoft.

    This is why nobody pays for Journalism anymore. Why the hell would I pay good money for corporate press releases & propaganda?

    • Leasing the computer, but you have t pay for it first, and pay for the maintenance, repairs and replacement ... when the system locks you out because you have not upgraded ...

  • The first piece of shit that shows up at my company proposing this will be thrown out of the 14th floor window.

  • Sun's Network Computer (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@yahoGINSBERGo.com minus poet> on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:30AM (#63636830) Homepage Journal

    ...Finally gets dusted off and rebuilt by the Evil Empire. The Internet still isn't fast enough in rural places for the NC to take off. As for privacy, security concerns - it's obvious Microsoft doesn't give a damn. The enterprise might not like it either - most large companies have their own Windows upgrade servers because Microsoft's patches are buggy. Gives them time to scrutinise what's going to blow up. But that won't work in an NC environment. Everyone gets the same patch simultaneously.

    Worse, it's going to mean mission-critical systems can't risk being upgraded, either due to fragile software or due to a need to never crash. That means mission-critical systems that are on Windows 11 will either be forced to downgrade to Windows 10 =OR= mission-critical sites will just have to get used to multi-million-units-of-local-currency payouts when inevitably something goes wrong.

    (Of course, a lot of existing mission-critical systems use Windows NT or Windows XP for precisely this reason. But newer mission-critical systems are going to be a problem because at some point they'll need to have their OS license activated and Microsoft won't leave old activation severs on forever. At some point, Microsoft will switch off W10 activation and then people will need to use unstable Windows software for critical systems. Or switch to Linux. But these places are ultra-conservative and unlikely to ditch an OS just because it's no longer safe to use. It's well beyond most CEO's comprehension and I doubt senior managers will think through the risks very carefully either.)

    Of course, the problem goes beyond critical systems. Once you lose control of the OS, you lose control of what software you can install. Microsoft has total control over that. Which means they can go back to knifing the baby and nobody will be able to do a damn thing about it. The web will become an extension of Microsoft and nothing more, because they CAN go back to dictating that there shall be no browser but theirs. It took something like a DECADE before Microsoft was finally convicted the last time, but a decade of Network Computing would utterly destroy all competition. There will be no Chrome browser, no Firefox, no Opera, there can be only one in such a world.

    And Microsoft are just evil enough to do it.

  • that now they no longer have to compromise the BIOS in individual machines to be able to access absolutely everything in your private space.

    Makes their work far easier.

  • I'm not totally against this. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @11:52AM (#63636904)

    While this is 100% idiotic, I'm in favor of anything that will drive people away from using Windows.

  • I think the people who think this stuff up have excellent, reliable Internet access. But that's not the reality for many, many people.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @12:17PM (#63636980)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Adobe, I'm beggin' ya, PLEASE migrate Adobe Creative Cloud to ANY version of Linux, so I can finally leave Windows behind. It's the last thing I still use Windows for.

    And don't bother deflecting by "we already have it on Android". The things called Lightroom and Photoshop that run on Android are toys, only useful for dressing up photos taken with a phone.

    And don't bother with the "Linux is so fragmented" argument. Migrate to ANY version of Linux and I will be happy to switch to that. Debian, Ubuntu, Fed

  • Steaming 1080P / 4K 24/7 can add up fast.
    also say need to load photos from local usb well all of that data will need to be uploaded in full to your remote pc.

    now to cost 1st comcast better pay that $15-$50/mo more to get unlimited data.

    now for compute cost 2 vCPU 4 GB RAM 64 GB Storage starts at $32.00 user/month

  • Long way off. But even when it comes, what is it really? Seems like, after I parse it a bit, that your "windows session" keeps its state in the cloud. That doesn't mean everything is running there - everything probably still runs locally. It means that if you move from device to device your session follows you. Selected pieces of the session are persisted, but they aren't going to inherit the full on process execution of a couple of hundred million machines.

    Will it be mandatory for you to buy in? Probably n

  • How many of you are old enough to remember mainframe and mini-mainframe computers connected to dumb terminals, sometimes over leased telephone lines with modems? That's what this nonsense sounds like to me: your """computer""" ends up being a dumb terminal. This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, literally a technological regression to 50 years ago, and it's all for one purpose and one purpose only: to make Microsoft more money, and to steal as much data from people as possible. There is

  • shadow pc for $32/mo get's you
    8 vCores
    GTX 1080/P5000
    12 GB RAM
    512GB storage
    add storage $17.94 per 256 GB

    MS price $105.00 user/month
    4 vCPU
    16 GB RAM
    512 GB Storage
      (NO GPU)

    shadow pc + $50/mo
    8 vCores faster then basic
    NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070-class or AMD’s latest RDNA 2 based GPU
    28 GB RAM
    512GB storage
    add storage $17.94 per 256 GB

    MS price $162.00 user/month
    32 GB RAM 512 GB Storage
    (NO GPU)

  • If ever there was a time to create a desktop friendly version of *NIX that time is now. Microsoft is about to screw the pooch in a big way if they follow through with this. Create a desktop *NIX that is truly easy to use for the average computer user, offer it for free for those comfortable with computers, and charge a small annual fee for true support for those that wish it. By the way, a truly easy *NIX means that average users never have to touch a terminal CLI. I've been hearing "The year of desktop Lin

  • If management, monitoring, and other features are included this could make sense for large enterprises using things like Citrix. The difference is that most won't remember is 3rd party doctrine, making everything *As A Service* susceptible to gov't intrusion and snooping.

  • Damn Clickbait got me. (Score:3)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @01:29PM (#63637254)

    (The following is my opinion and not that of my employer.)

    I clicked through here ready to rage about how this is a terrible decision and Microsoft, my employer, wasn't just shooting themselves in the foot but instead blowing both legs off.

    Then, before clicking submit, I read TFA. The author appears to have made this click-bait based on a misunderstanding of "enable [...] full roaming of people's digital experience". I can talk a little about what that looks like for me, today. I just re-imaged my PC, and when I signed in, Autopilot+Intune+Onedrive+Edge Sync+Enterprise Sync did a bunch of cool stuff. Intune+AAD did all the security tools setup on the machine so I could install Windows RTM+the June update instead of needing to hump into an office to PXE boot and install a custom Windows image. Onedrive pulled down the primary folders in my user profile, Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc. Office AKA m365 set up Outlook and persisted my mail, rules, font settings, signatures, and all the knobs I normally have to go fiddle with. Edge dropped down my favorites, history, saved passwords, default tabs, tab layou, extensions (I <3 Ublock), etc.

    The cool thing is that if I signed into a cloud desktop, a VDI, e.g. if I needed to work from a location where I didn't have or didn't want to have my laptop, all that stuff would be there on the cloud desktop/VDI too. That doesn't mean they want everyone on the VDI. That would be hella expensive, and I couldn't make any reasonable argument for a consumer paying for that.

    Making life suck less when you move from one PC to another is not at all the same as "Everybody will work from VDIs from now on." To be very VERY clear, If the VDI-or-nothing shift ever becomes a thing I'll be out in front handing out the pitchforks and torches.

  • More Years Behind than Ahead (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Retired ICS ( 6159680 ) on Tuesday June 27, 2023 @01:46PM (#63637300)

    Those of us that have more years behind than ahead really do not give even one shit what the kiddie arseholes do.

    These are the same sick children that removed the cache from the computers because it saved $5 per $2500 machine (it also rendered it slower than molasses running uphill in a Janualy in Edmonton) rendering the machines completely useless for any purpose.

  • Microsoft are already working on an offline mode for Windows 365. Their plans are likely not so much a thin client windows, but just an autosyncing windows with a subscription.

    Honestly I think it would be good for normies to have a version of Windows where you can't mess with the drivers and registry, which can only run well behaved win32 applications in a sandbox, which just syncs transparently to the cloud, including snapshot based incremental backups. Login to a fresh windows computer with your Microsoft

  • I said they were going to do this 8 years ago. Anyone that is in shock or pushing back on this is way too late.

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