Technology @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud

www.theverge.com Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud

You might boot laptops straight into a cloud OS in the future

83 comments

So if I don't have an internet connection, I can't even boot my computer?
Big "you'll own nothing and be happy" energy.
- As long as it’s opt-in then there are also huge benefits. Updates would happen organically, less issues with driver support for your specific manufacturer, laptops would become even thinner and lighter, you could run windows on virtually (lol) anything and they could even sell tiered hardware so that you could game in the cloud (this tech is getting better and better). I love my Shadow PC for gaming and other nonsense, being able to play modern games with maxed out graphics on my fan-less MacBook Air is a dream.
  I also work in IT and there are so many bullshit companies offering cloud based services that run specific software in the cloud, RightNetworks being one of them, but one thing I like is it’s almost completely hands off on my end and if the whole OS is running in the cloud then it would be cake for provisioning and remote management.
- So if I don’t have an internet connection, I can’t even boot my computer?
  While I personally hate this Idea as well, I have to admit, that there could certainly be rather significant upsides for users.
  Cheap Chromebook-like Laptops, but can run Video Games, Video Encodings, Finite Element Analyses, Computational Fluid Dynamics etc no problem. "Your" PC can be accessible from your phone in a Pinch.
  You open a weird Link and got a Virus? No problem, just roll back your "PC"
  Your home floods/burns down? All the images from your children are still safe.
  Never being bothered by needing a hardware upgrade.
  
  Being able to run video games or other hardware intensive process would either require pricey hardware or they'd be streamed from a cloud service (which comes with a whole other bundle of issues to consider) as that computational power has to come from something physical somewhere. Offloading your OS to the cloud wouldn't affect that. PCs can already be accessed by phone if you have the right set up (dedicated IP hosting and a VPN) As for saving data in case of emergencies, we already have cloud based storage solutions that wouldn't be impacted by cloud based OS.
  There is 0 reason to use a cloud based OS other than making sure people are tied to your service for the life of their computer. This feels like a solution to a problem no one has.
  
  Can’t afford your monthly windows cloud bill? Lose access to all your data, important files, pictures of your kids, music library.
  Fuck everything about that with a rusty spoon.
  
  All for the low low price of...your freedom, privacy, security, and consumer rights.
  MS can kiss my piss.

Microsoft wants to move me fully to the Linux

I hope that gaming on linux then is as seamless as it is on windows today. Because the rest of the things that I do with my PC are already equal, but gaming is the big reason I still use windows.
- Steam has that on lock right now. No, it's not perfect, but for most games it's pretty much seamless.
  There are some cases where Windows is better - mod management tools are better on Windows, for instance. Anything you have outside of Steam might need another app like Lutris (or Heroic, which is great for GOG btw). And that's not mentioning malware under the guise of "anti-cheat".
- Gaming Linux has been seamless for 2-3 years now. I stopped checking Linux compayibility scores around 2021 because I expect everything to work now.
- Don't know what games you are playing, but I game myself quite heavily and doing it exclusively on Linux. Steam proton has changed a lot of things for Linux gaming. Only issues are with anti cheat. So if you are playing single player you are good to go. Multiplayer can be difficult, it depends on the game. I have 200 hours on Apex in Linux.
  
  I switched back to windows for gaming because NVidia drivers are terrible and I had so many issues with many game that no amount of googling and debugging could fix. Linux also doesn't have HDR support yet (it's in the work though)
  I really prefer Linux, but I had so many non trivial issues. I know this isn't the same experience for everyone, but considering I do gaming 95% of the time on my personal PC, I got fed up of hitting a wall for the games I wanted to play.
  I will buy an AMD gpu when I will switch so that hopefully the open sourced drivers will fix my issues.
  I still daily drive linux for work though.
  
  Yeah, anti-cheat/multiplayer is the biggest hurdle to go for linux gaming, as well as VR. They're the two things that continue to hold my kids in Windows, for now. I hope that someday they're remedied and I can move them into Linux systems for gaming, but for now, it's just not realistic, sadly.
- I've been trying out linux gaming annually. With the steam deck out it proton has become super good. I think my gaming pc is finally going to stay on linux this time around.

2023, the year that big tech shot it self in the face, continues.

bet itll suddenly become subscription based too
- Of course, how else will they pay for storage of your data? This part already started with OneDrive. Now you'll buy a new laptop for $100, the thinnest laptop you've ever seen, it will just come with a 128GB m.1 drive soldered to the board, and you'll run (and save) everything from Microsoft's servers.
  
  That’s exactly the argument they and their bootlickers will use too. “we need it to run infrastructure!!!” they wouldnt have to run infrastructure if they didnt gut features from their products. Like the whole Toyota remote start subscription crap. “They need the subscription to run the servers so you can start your car from anywhere” but you can no longer use classic radio remote start which doesn’t require servers
  
  That’s exactly the argument they and their bootlickers will use too. “we need it to run infrastructure!!!” they wouldnt have to run infrastructure if they didnt gut features from their products. Like the whole Toyota remote start subscription crap. “They need the subscription to run the servers so you can start your car from anywhere” but you can no longer use classic radio remote start which doesn’t require servers

Hard pass.

man, this might be thing that finally makes me switch to Linux. what an incredibly stupid, shitty, and greedy decision.
- Windows 10 not allowing you to postpone updates when it launched pissed me off enough to switch to linux for around 4 years. I came back for games, but the GPU market (and age) has pushed me back to consoles or just not gaming.
  
  Check again Linux gaming, Proton/Wine is surprisingly viable now and the vast majority of games run without any issue.
  
  I still game a little on PC, but tabletop gaming in-person with my friends is so much better. I highly recommend it if you're burned out on the whole computer games things. Board games, card games, and pen-and-paper RPGs are a lot better now than they were years ago. There's something for almost every taste.
- Do it! Linux is great, and not nearly as hard as its reputation suggests.

The writing was on the wall considering how much they're trying to push Bing into Windows 11. They want everything to be online and connected to their services, and it sucks.

I already have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make Win 10/11 tolerable for personal use and preferences Things like ShutUp10 and dozens of manual tweaks, registry settings, policy changes, etc. The cloud version will probably constantly roll all of that back on me.
I really hate this silicon valley mindset that everyone has reliable broadband and worse, they know what the user wants/needs better than the user does.
Enshitificstion is ruthless.
- Linux welcomes you :)
  
  I like Linux a lot, I just have never mastered it. I plan on learning it better when I retire.

Well, that should be interesting for businesses. I wonder how things will play out with HIPPA, GPDR, and such.

Redmond locking out consumers with shitty/metered Internet connections? What a wonderful idea.
Asking people to move to a subscription model will also be appreciated, I'm sure.

I don't get it, what's the benefit of this? Why would your average joe want to use a cloud instance instead of running Windows locally? How does Microsoft benefit from this?
- Microsoft gets to sell the sizzle, not the steak. They also have all your data since the OS is running on their computer, not yours. I guess this will make Windows a web app, working like NextCloud only on their machines.
- Subscription service, infinite income without requiring innovation!
- You can't torrent on these, that would be my guess.
- As I posted elsewhere in the thread:
  If I don't misunderstand things, and we are talking streaming everything to a thin client, then this:
  I think It's terrible for consumers, especially long term, but there are short-term shinies which you wouldn't have to deal with yourself (which you totally could of course)
  Cheap Chromebook-like Laptops, but can run Video Games, Video Encodings, Finite Element Analyses, Computational Fluid Dynamics etc no problem. “Your” PC can be accessible from your phone in a Pinch. You open a weird Link and got a Virus? No problem, just roll back your “PC” Your home floods/burns down? All the images from your children are still safe. Never being bothered by needing a hardware upgrade.

I knew they were planning on removing all local control at some point. By the end of this users will propably have to call ms support/something equivalent to that, to do anything that requires admin rights. I guess I should be thankful to microsoft for steeling my resolve to not use any windows beyond 10.

Is the "cloud" sustainable and scalable, in terms of energy and environmental demands?
- No, no -- they want to get you to pay for your hardware, mandatory, big network transfers, and cloud resources. None of which are exactly powered by unicorn farts.
- It's probably better because you don't waste that many hardware resources.

Wow great More always online drm in windows
- Recently I moved to a Fedora distro called Nobara for my gaming rig. Microsoft has been working hard to force me out for years. When I have to make custom installers, and run scripts to control updates and telemetry, you're not being a very inviting OS.
  
  I would switch os if roblox didn't decide to screw linux users with the byfron anti cheat
  
  I've just been testing it out, but tried installing a couple of games through lutris and had no luck with it. Tinkering isn't an issue, but the system hung so bad when starting Arcanum I had to reboot to get back in. Even after killing wine, the game and gnome-shell I still couldn't interact with the gui at all.

@dvdnet90 I’m leaving windows as soon as support is dropped for windows 10

What consumer is asking for this?
- No consumer wants this. Microsoft wants this.
  
  Exactly.... I do use windows, but I if this becomes mandatory I will be 100% on Linux immediately.
  
  I'm sure there's some VP execs that will want to "reduce maintenance burden" and will force a partial migration to the cloud before they pick up their next bonus check.
  
  Why does Microsoft want this? What's the benefit of encouraging people to use VMs instead of running Windows locally?

I know I'm one of the few, but what I like about a PC is the Computing part, but also the Personal part. I can use this apparatus to automate some calculations in my own free time and display it however I want. Sure things can be outsourced. Sure I can use a cloud computer. But that's no fun for me.
I had notebooks where I turned off WiFi and all its services, I had a desktop PC where the network card fried. Those were the most stable and fastest Windows installations I ever had. Running for years on end without ever needing a reboot.
Windows Terminal-mode, it sure may have its place. But not for me.

I guess it's about time to look into Linux again. I've run it on and off since the late 90's, but always end up back on Windows because of games.
- Almost all games are supported on Linux, with the exception of games with invasive anti-cheat, but those rootkits shouldn't be installed on Windows either.
  
  I wonder if they can be exploted by someone attacking your computer. How much do anti-cheat developers care about user's security?

I assume it is not a full transition to cloud, instead they are adding 'Cloud Computing to Windows' and integrating with system.

I'm glad Linux gaming is getting better so I can make the switch if I have too. That being said I find Windows copilot intriguing. An AI assistant built into the operating system could be very useful. It's good to have options.

I only use windows if i have to in my workplace and it always sucks. It's the only thing on my workflow that slows me down or drives me crazy

And if you try to use a browser other than Edge it'll shoot your dog

An OS as a service that you would connect to from.... what ? Do they intend to sell computers that can do nothing else than running an RDP session ?
- The Surface Duo and Duo 2 both start up an RDP session if you plug them into a keyboard and mouse, so it's not unlikely

Imagine being able to use your computer 355 days of the year (looking at you, Office 365 and Teams) :)

While I could understand this approach for big enterprises, to avoid the hassle of managing thousands of employees PCs, I don't understand it for home use.
I mean, people who want a PC at home, want it for the multi-purpose capabilities and power in gaming, not to mention full control over it.
Those who only use the PC for email, browsing the internet and watching videos, are better served with a tablet, they're so powerful nowadays that you don't really need a PC for those simple tasks, students would be better off with chromebooks, they're even cheaper, a few types of jobs, like professional graphics for example, are better done with a MAC, and probably other things I'm forgetting right now.
I fully switched to Linux years ago, but if I were still using Windows, I know for sure I'd be furious if my computer stopped working only because the internet went down or MS servers had some downtime.
I'd love to know what they know that I don't to be so sure this won't blow up in their faces.

What if my wifi goes down?
- I have 300mb down with a major carrier. (Spectrum)
  The service turns to un-useable shit all to often. All online games are out. Streaming services work most of the time, but barley. 5mb down would be great in those times when it slows to a crawl.
  Rebooting modems/routers doesn't help, and there are times where it does get to 300mb down so I know the hardware can support it.
  Online based Windows would be terrible for me. I'd move to another OS quick
- Move out of the woods.

I wish Linux was an option for me, but Adobe software is what has me stuck, and there's no Steam pushing for that to be properly supported... And migrating my Lightroom catalog to another software would be an absolute nightmare.
- Maybe consider starting to play with Darktable. Get a sense if it is a viable alternative to support.

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