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

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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.
  
  I believe the poster above you was referring to full cloud-hosted Virtual Desktops, not just cloud-hosted OS. The former would make a lot more sense and would indeed allow for need-based scaling of resources without any expensive local hardware. I think this is the future of the common man's computing experience - a nice monitor that also functions as a thin client to access web-hosted virtual desktops.
  
  It’s the Adobe model though. It’ll seem attractive to start with compared to upgrading every few years, but soon enough you’ll be paying out the nose for it.
  
  Yup, that was what I understood it to be, I'll admit to just skimming the article, but it seemed rather directly that?
  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.
  
  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.

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