Microsoft's Miniature Windows 365 Link PC Goes On Sale (theverge.com) 41
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's business-oriented "Link" mini-desktop PC, which connects directly to the company's Windows 365 cloud service, is now available to buy for $349.99 in the US and in several other countries. Windows 365 Link, which was announced last November, is a device that is more easily manageable by IT departments than a typical computer while also reducing the needs of hands on support.
no it isn't (Score:4, Insightful)
"Windows 365 Link, which was announced last November, is a device that is more easily manageable by IT departments than a typical computer"
Thin client grade mini PCs already exist and are typical, so no it isn't.
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Thin clients keep getting rediscovered every decade or so. Dumb serial terminals from the 70s and 80s. Then actual X terminals that were diskless and booted over the network. The Sun Ray which was pretty slick with a smart card so your desktop moved with you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Then Nvidia and Google tried it with streaming games doing the heavy graphics processing on their end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
"Thin clients" still turn up today and they're incredibly handy and cheap if you n
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I create MAME and DOSBox machines out of discarded thin clients. Like you said, about $25 each, and loads of fun when connected to a big screen television. However, a thin client devoted to Microsoft's cloud ... no thanks, no joy to be found there.
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My problem with most thin clients is that they are artificially limited in the memory department. Even a machine with a single SODIMM slot can be expanded far more than most of them allow. I get that's not their point and they fear that they will cannibalize sales and so on, but that still leaves them irritating to me. I don't like to have swap space, I find it offensive. Having lived through the time when the memory was the expensive part of the computer, I would rather live in the now, where I can have 64
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"Windows 365 Link, which was announced last November, is a device that is more easily manageable by IT departments than a typical computer"
Thin client grade mini PCs already exist and are typical, so no it isn't.
But this one has the "Added trust and Security of the Microsoft name." Which is actual ad-slick I've seen quite a bit recently. Probably shouldn't point that out to the iT guys, though I suppose the managers that make the purchasing decisions might see it as a good thing.
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I wouldn't even go so far as to say thin clients are at all typical, I very rarely see them in use.
They are installed in massive numbers in a variety of industries, like fast food to run registers and so on. Also, most of them totally are typical computers, in that they have compatible processors, compatible BIOS, can be loaded with Windows (if you can fit it in the storage which is usually 8GB or less, though I have seen counterexamples) or Linux, etc etc. It would actually be more work to make them not typical computers, because you'd have to reinvent and support a lot of functionality, while typical P
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This whole page is lousy with people saying the exact same thing, and clearly not one person doing so did anything more than glance at the abstract and react. I get it. You don't like Microsoft. You shou
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Yes, this is a thin client, it says so explicitly in the article. No, thin clients are not what you typically see in offices, which is the environment that these target.
Then Microsoft is acting like a circus full of ass clowns as usual, because that's not what people want in offices.
So, a chromebook competitor (Score:2)
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It doesn't come with a screen.
So, more like 40 years: an X terminal.
Miniature. With exceptions for Greed. (Score:4)
Anyone assuming there’s anything “miniature” about a $350 price tag needs to take a Raspberry Pi to the fucking face.
Oh and stop pretending your 21st Century “thin” client is some kind of new invention. Citrix had to license their way into existence via Microsoft for fucks sake.
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The Pi was initially created as a learning tool for students to be made at the absolute lowest price point. It caught on massively and then industry started using them in tons of places. Single board computers used to be really expensive until the Pi came along. It really was a game changer.
For hobbyists there are tons of clones around and even RISC-V variations if you want an open source instruction set.
And what will be the price (Score:3)
after tariffs kick in?
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If Russia sells them? Nothing. Everyone else is shit outta luck.
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after tariffs kick in?
Is "tariffs" the new "nazi", as far as ritual utterances go?
I'm trying to keep up ...
US Dependencies! Get your US Dependencies here! (Score:4, Insightful)
Just what everyone around the world will want now: another, deeper tie to US-based cloud services. What a brilliant idea.
Re: US Dependencies! Get your US Dependencies here (Score:2)
Well, that is not true, for obvious reasons. Azure is not 100% based in the USA, and Microsoft has companies set up in many different countries.
Its called a thin client (Score:2)
ignore the clueless marketing.
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Everything old is new again! (Score:2)
For a few dollars more? (Score:5, Funny)
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365.2422 - almost like 365.25, not quite 365, but. (Score:2)
It's not US$365 ? Or even better US$365.25?
If only I could channel Nate Bargatze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Ignoring the entire metric system and going by a solar calendar invented by primitives ages ago,
12 months in a year
days vary from 30-31 except for February which has 28 days.
But every 4 years it has 29 days.
But not every 100 years where it stands at 28 days.
But not every 400 years where it goes back to 29.
So it's not 365.25. But for most of us with a lifespan of less than 100 years that's close enough.
None of this makes any sense, jus
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It's not US$365 ? Or even better US$365.25?
Okay, that's funny :)
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The start fee for the hardware is $349.99.
The subscription fees are much more.
the 1990's called... (Score:3)
They want their NetPC back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
NGL I misread it (Score:2)
I thought they said "Miniature Windows 386 Link PC" and balked at the price given everyone else's mini 386 PCs are more like $200 [aliexpress.us].
Of course, given recent announcements, I'm not sure how much a $200 item costs imported from China now, so maybe Microsoft's is good value after all?
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No support for local servers? Blah... (Score:2)
It would be nice if this had support for RDP servers so this appliance can be used for local stuff, as opposed to just a cloud terminal. Perhaps even allow stuff like xrdp to work, so I can use it like an X-station and allow users to connect to a Linux based virtual desktop server.
Overall, I like the idea of thin/zero clients, and I'm not sure if this is more of a zero client than a thin client. However, in my experience, thin clients can get pricy. Very pricy, just because there is always proprietary st
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It would be nice if this had support for RDP servers so this appliance can be used for local stuff, as opposed to just a cloud terminal. Perhaps even allow stuff like xrdp to work, so I can use it like an X-station and allow users to connect to a Linux based virtual desktop server.
Ah, but then companies would deploy VMs with browsers over RDP, and the users would use some cheap or free solution, and that would defeat the purpose of this category of product, which is to sell more Office 365 subscriptions.
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It's also somewhat weirdly placed in how thin it actually is: it's presumably using a custom shell and an even mor
Discontinued? (Score:1)
Oh, it's the PC and not Windows (Score:2)
I'd be curious about a miniature version of Windows.
It might be the first decent OS they'd have made.
OBSOLETE on production (Score:1)
A Raspberry Pi 4 with a screen, memory, Debian Linux ("Raspbian"), LibreOffice, and WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) will do better because:
1. IT EXISTS
2. IT's NOT MICROSOFT
3. It's a third the cost.
Microsoft - find a long trail, get your watter bottle handy, and take a hike. The fork in your forehead is clear -- you're done.
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Thin clients are terrible ideas but surface every 10-15 years or so because people think they're a genius for thinking of it again.
There is a product out there called nComputing. It's - quite literally - a RaspberryPi, in a box, with rdesktop. It boots connects to a session and lets you use whatever it's connected to (e.g. a cloud-based Windows desktop if that's what you want).
They are something like 20 years old or more, and migrated to RPi when they became more viable than their own custom kit. But tha