Skip Navigation
174 comments

  • I guess that means more people switching to linux, assuming they eventually 100% phase out non-cloud. Not even because "cloud bad" - there will be some of that, but because of the sheer number of people who don't pay for windows, not paying for it isn't an option if they control it completely.

    • Will this actually be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or will everyone just continue to say “but I can only do this on a PC” and not even attempt to look at Linux or MacOS as an alternative.

      My moneys on the latter. People have been complaining about anti-consumer practices from Microsoft since Windows 7, but it always ends the same way. Microsoft has most of the world by the balls and they know they can squeeze tighter and tighter and not lose 99% of their customers.

    • Yup, that'd also be the case for people like me who stick with Windows for gaming compatibility/convenience reasons and critical GPU features the Linux drivers just don't implement (looking at you, DLDSR). That, or just anyone with a GPU, I suppose, assuming the hardware market would look remotely like it does nowadays by then.

      • There's definitely going to be a push for cloud gaming / cloud GPU + VDI, and with GPU pricing going the way nvidia is doing right now isn't going to help prevent adoption of that.

  • No thank you.

    Also I bet instead of a one-time license you can have the privilege of paying $9.99 a month forever or lose access to all your files. And possibly requiring an internet connection to use your desktop computer?

  • Okay but what happens if you don't have a good net connection like at the coffee shop or airports? I swear sometimes people are clueless and just assume you always have good internet when that's not often the case!

  • How is this supposed to work in countries that have bandwidth caps, or slow internet connections?

    It seems like every company these days wants to move everything to the cloud, but it doesn't mean it's going to happen. While something like this makes sense in some instances (like kiosks or similar maybe?) for the vast majority of use cases this is a non-starter.

    • When I had a laptop, it's wasn't always connected to the internet and it certainly did not have a mobile internet connection - nor would I pay for another one when I have a perfectly good one in the form of my phone.

      Most of the time, believe it or not I didn't need an internet connection - half the time I was sitting at a park or a restaurant and playing singleplayer games or writing code.

      I never connected to the restaurants free wifi, as I have trust issues with it. And I used a cable to hotspot when necessary. (Either that or i use the browser in my phone, mainly for stack overflow purposes)

      If this happens, and windows goes Cloud ONLY - it would necessitate an always on and active internet connection.

      God forbid if you decide to move out of signal range with it - let's say, watch a movie on the laptop while camping in the outback. On top of that, what if your internet goes down - ISPs can and have been a-holes in the past, and this isn't going to stop them in the future.

      I have to wonder why anyone on earth would go for this? It's inherently limiting, despite all the AI gimmicks they are touting.

      I for one and not switching back to windows any time soon - I mean I wasn't anyway, but I'm definitely not now.

      On the other hand, this makes sense, why else would they release a sub par ARM chip in a surface pro 9 for the only 5G model? I always thought that decision made no sense. Now it makes perfect sense.

  • As someone who works in cloud services/ops and has to deal with Microsoft partner relations almost daily, good luck with that.

  • Just another case of "you will own nothing...". Come on over to Linux, where the ISOs are plentiful.

  • I'm surprised they're bothering to focus on consumer devices instead of just going all-out on enterprise and business.

    Cloud workstations make a lot of sense for when you need the extra grunt occasionally and have a rock-solid internet connection, but about the only reason the average consumer would want to use them on a portable device is gaming. Everything else you can do locally or as a web app.

    And even gaming has been a bit rocky, though it has its small cult of followers.

  • As someone who works in cloud services/ops and has to deal with Microsoft partner relations almost daily, good luck with that.

  • Assuming this is just fancy talk for Remote Desktop to the average user and hosted by MS.

  • More reasons to switch to Linux and stay there.

    Once you're logged into Windows 365 you're technically using their hardware and just streaming the use to your machine. You will have almost no control over your own device because it isn't actually your own device. Your own device has been turned into a television, a device that just plays what another device is displaying.

    This is about property and ownership and how Microsoft wants to take those things away from you. They want full control of how you use their operating system, and when they force users to use their software and hardware, they will acheive it.

  • @floofloof. That's a hard no. I mean if work wants to do it....ok? But on my own machines....Linux or Mac. I can just picture some jerk DDOSing it.

  • Microsoft has recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11. Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in June before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.

    Omg... The return of Clippy

  • This might be a hot take but I wonder how this would be priced.

    It could be handy for cloud gaming (since gforce now publishers are trying to block it).

  • "You will own nothing and you will love it" jesus. All in on OpenAI and automation.

174 comments