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. 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.”
Who wants this?
Seems like a rhetorical question 🙂
As a user of a company laptop running this version of office, it looks much the same as the legacy version except that it has ads, phones home, has longer startup delays (I think it’s because it’s phoning home and getting permission to run). and I find that I have to reactivate it periodically or else it opens files in read-only mode. As for pros, I guess saving files on microsoft servers might be considered a pro, but it’s not a pro for me. Personally I’d rather have the “non-cloud” version. Then again I might be an oddball, haha.
Alfman,
Office “Web” version more or less can run completely in the cloud for most applications, with minor reservations.
Which means, the local version being too much integrated with the cloud is probably not the best way if you care about data privacy. They first did this with One Note. It started as a desktop app, then they introduced a second “Windows Store” version that ran side-by-side, but stored the notebooks in the cloud, and slowly they replaced the original one.
Yes, it makes sense to have cloud docs for collaboration. Google has been eating their lunch in this area, and several other similar alternatives. However, I might not be willing to aggressively share all my documents with a cloud provider. Especially when they could block accounts at the whim of a false positive: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked (this is Google, but I assume others could do similar mistakes).
sukru,
Yeah I remember that. Not only was google in the wrong, but they failed to make it right.
“Mark was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but Google has said it will stand by its decision.”
That’s a big FU to all google users. Even if you are cleared, google doesn’t give a damn they’re in the wrong. Google are above the consequences of their mistakes, yet their whims can cause grave repercussions to people’s lives because so much is controlled by them. They are the gatekeepers to our data, online accounts and devices.
At least apple backed off their plans to scan private user data when users complained.
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-photo-scanning-csam-communication-safety-messages/
Alfman,
This is a touchy subject, but I would be okay with an offline, black box detector that will only alert at high confidence. But, that is another discussion.
Anyway, Google not returning the account even after a court decision was not sounding right. I can’t think of a way to justify it unfortunately.
Especially more concerning is that many services now depend on OAuth logins, usually from one of Google, Facebook or Apple. Losing your account there means, losing your account in 10+ other places.
sukru,
The subject matter is touchy, however once someone has been cleared by law enforcement google are 100% in the wrong to take the law in their own hands as vigilantes.
Anyway, Google not returning the account even after a court decision was not sounding right. I can’t think of a way to justify it unfortunately.
Yeah, exactly. The repercussions of a terminated account are huge since so many services and devices are tethered to companies including google. The guy whose medical records were spied on by google probably doesn’t have the time or legal resources to sue google. But if justice were fair google deserves to be sued and the father deserves compensation from google for the trouble they put him through.
I totally agree. I detest recurring payments. In general, Every cloud provider attempts to loop you into a recurring payment into the mothership. Alongside that, I read awhile ago that Microsoft wants to do away with Files in general. If this is indeed true, I see how this would fit in. I say NO on both ends. Lastly, I see that OnLive’s brainchild has been totally taken over by Microsoft.
I agree. I’d also be called an oddball. Reading most cloud EULAS, your data, including works, private data, confidential files, etc. are property of Microsoft. So any invention created on that OS would not be yours. Google, Dropbox, AWS, has the same generic EULA. I hope the legal teams get involved before using.
I would actually want a “cloud Windows”. But I am also sure Microsoft will not do it to my liking.
It would be nice if I could use a simple client machine, possibly a Raspberry PI, or an older laptop, and use the latest version of Windows software. It would be even better if that came with some sort of isolation between apps, Qubes OS style.
Given even high interactivity applications like video games already work well in cloud setups now (at least when you have a good enough connection), this should be a no-brainer.
Yet, Microsoft is gatekeeping “app remoting” behind expensive Terminal license subscriptions. The same with containerized Windows applications on Docker (Windows Server 2016+ only). And I am sure they will include even more telemetry and ads into that platform
(where is my clean Windows desktop? Ah yes; it stars here: https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/)
Start11 isn’t bad, but I found this one less buggy after trying everything that could give me a half-decent taskbar:
https://www.startallback.com/
Thanks for sharing that link,
And it seems to be open source as well!
Think of how many different ways a slacker can find to cut the cord and have a defacto “do nothing day” while the IT department get bolloxed under the continual pressure of repairing broken connections, it’ll become the new national sport!
Data replication makes strong sense, streaming an OS makes no sense at all!
Is this too much influence from big business who miss the old days of jack boots patrolling cubicles and thin clients, control, control! Executive control freaks who actually live the “This is the way” mantra!
I couldn’t put it better. Thank you.
Corporations have been doing this with Citrix for over a decade. It’s either down for everyone or it’s up. Said slacker would be unable to cover up the fact he’s disconnecting ethernet or causing other problems. If he cuts the connections, well then he’ll just be fired quickly for destroying company property.
A cloud-based internet-dependent OS for my personal desktops and laptops? Absolutely..f’ing..not! NEVER.
The word “fully” is highly ambiguous here. It could either mean Microsoft providing a cloud Windows 11 instance to all customers or Microsoft discontinuing the local versions. There is no chance the second will happen, but that’s what some people think when reading it (from what I can see on Twitter).
Yeah, see Office 2022 MS released in parallel to the web based 365 thingie, right?
Christ almighty, what is the codename of this totalitarian cloud-based Windows? 1984? Diablo V?
FFS, I am getting so frustrated by Microsoft/Nadella pushing this dystopian agenda of user incarceration. Microsoft pushes everything that handcuffs customers to their cloud services. Last nail in the coffin is the OS. The future is bleak.
That’s it. We are all moving to Linux! Not. Bring it on Microsoft. Lets run Windows on other people computers. It’s not like anybody will do anything about it. But to use it!
Might be better for ‘work devices’
Ive worked at a few places and often times the amount of admin software they install is insane. There might actually be a market here if it removes all this complexity
It streams a prebuilt windows… Hopefully with software your company configures. It only connects to your company vpn or whatever network config. All files stored on cloud. Anti virus… All run outside the device…
Easy restore, clean boot, switch hardware…
Who would want this?
Well, almost certainly the IT folks that do not want to deploy Windows to hundreds or thousands of desktops and laptops anymore.
With hybrid work being more common and businesses “hoteling” space in office ( one desk – different employees on different days ), the idea of being able to get your full desktop from any machine has compelling advantages.
As a person, I hate the idea of software subscriptions. That said, Office 365 has saved me more than once when I have left my laptop somewhere or needed to update a monthly presentation and realized that I used a different machine to create the last one. Oh look, I have Word and Excel in the cloud and the most recent version of the doc I am looing for is on One Drive. Saved!! This is just the evolution of that idea.
With all these changes coming, I am glad that Linux is my primary desktop. To be honest though, we will be doing the same thing to ourselves. Sure, some of us will “host” our own private cloud to provide these capabilities to ourselves but many of us will just use some “service” to do the same. How much does it matter that it is Microsoft?
tanishaj,
I think active directory and msi automation tools already handed this fairly well. The main difference is that your machines are connecting to microsoft instead of a local active directory server.. I don’t think the savings will be all that great for large enterprises. Subscriptions will probably cost more. There may be a bigger benefit for smaller companies that don’t want to install even a single domain server or hire a single full time IT staff member.
What happens when your service as a service provider goes under?
zeos386sx,
They do now and then. AWS was down recently for several hours on the east coast and can affect things from ecommerce to banking to whatever else is running there. There’s not much you can do but wait for it to come back online. Emergency providers should have a plan for when providers go offline.
When Google classroom had an outage during covid remote learning they canceled school for the day since they were 100% dependent on google. The schools were totally helpless. So it would make a lot of sense to have redundant service providers, the problem is nearly all modern services are proprietary and you cannot opt for federated services that are easy to switch to other providers, it’s mostly vendor locked. I don’t like being vendor locked, but it;s what passes for normal these days.
What if you have unsable internet connections? Like when you are out camping. Is it still usable?