Vast majority of Windows users getting a win. They are not constrained to a Windows only computer. Apple should get a nice boost in sales and market share.
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Microsoft's New Cloud PC Service Can Stream Windows to Mac and iPad
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Yes! Now I can run the full, desktop version of Excel from my iPad!
I agree, as soon as I saw this my thought was that we can dump our Parallels license costs and Windows instance costs and just use the cloud service. Will definitely be trialing this solution with a view to simplifying our company setup and hopefully saving some existing licensing costs.
Already a user of Office 365 Business, which works very well for us, so my hope is that Windows 365 will also be a good solution...time will tell.
Wyse is still around. it's currently owned by Dell.
Iv'e got about 200 of the terminals for my VMWare HOrizons thin clients.
Hardware is great
Dell's software implementation stack sucks and Dell's business prosupport is useless. The thing works about 1/2 the time properly to control the terminals, if lucky. random reboots. random rule changes that we're not pushing out hitting them. Dell can't program software worth a damn.
And whats worse, Dell now wants to charge me $7000 to investigate why their software isnt working.
Windows 365
*BREAKING NEWS* Windows 365 will fail to run for 1 day every leap year
*BREAKING NEWS* Windows 365 will fail to run for 1 day every leap year
This is just another step towards making Windows a service. I have been waiting for Microsoft to do something like this for a while now. This will essentially make every device that has a modern web browser a Windows machine. This is a good move for Microsoft.
Your damn right!
as a system administrator of a bank. Yes, All the content you do while working is ours. Not yours.
The "stupid terminal era" in enterprise is valuable for security and data retention. it makes our lives incredibly easier. Instead of having to support hundreds of thick installations, you can easily support thin terminals that have locked down secured OS's, and all your updates/patches and security implementations can be generally done in a single master image, than rolled out company wide.
In addition, by keeping things on "our servers", or at least belonging to us and under our direct controls, we can monitor for data protections and data flows.
this isn't really a solution for the average home user. This is enterprise and professional geared implementation for system administrators and IT Departments.
Now, I Don't trust microsoft to not **** me over with accessing that data (as they've now done to me with office365, but that's now involving legal department)
It's the long game here folks.....one step of many to come. One step that wasn't the start, but a continuation from many previous steps.
If you look back in time Hardware used to be king. Then things started to change and we started the transition to Software being king. Many of us forgot that the transition to making hardware irrelevant is still underway and a LONG way from being "done".
This move by MS is not a total thing in-and-of-itself. It is yet another transition step towards users interfacing with software where users don't pay attention/care about the hardware. Microsoft knows this and is working towards that path.
Hardware can be miniaturized. However, unless we make some major breakthrough in physics, we are not going to keep at the pace we have seen over the last 50 years. We are already dramatically slowing compared to the rate in which we started. So at some point to continue to provide better throughput for users we will have to find a way of remote connecting to larger computing/storage devices. This is another step towards that.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will be your wearable that utilizes the compute power of a non-wearable piece of hardware. And for all of you who say "I hate wearables", or "I wouldn't use it", if Apple offered a wearable that did everything your phone does and a slim and easy piece of tech you could wear instead of put in your pocket, the world would buy and use it.....even if "you" wouldn't. And that takes time and thousands of steps to get there. Modifying areas of technology that might not seem related at the time. Starting up projects and product lines and shutting them down. All in the name of taking a step towards a much longer end goal.
Each of these moves are a step. Are these steps moving us to a good or bad future? That is certainly up for debate! Should the compute power be out of our hands and in the hands of "businesses"? Time will tell. But Apple, MS, Google, etc... are all moving towards the same goal. The Cloud is now part of our daily lives and will continue to be a larger and larger presence to offset the inability for hardware to keep up with software. This will continue to grow until either we change our human/social habits or a technology breakthrough allows us to take storage and computing out of "the cloud" and back into our possession.
One step in a thousand step journey towards a unknown future. Exciting. Scary. Life.
If you look back in time Hardware used to be king. Then things started to change and we started the transition to Software being king. Many of us forgot that the transition to making hardware irrelevant is still underway and a LONG way from being "done".
This move by MS is not a total thing in-and-of-itself. It is yet another transition step towards users interfacing with software where users don't pay attention/care about the hardware. Microsoft knows this and is working towards that path.
Hardware can be miniaturized. However, unless we make some major breakthrough in physics, we are not going to keep at the pace we have seen over the last 50 years. We are already dramatically slowing compared to the rate in which we started. So at some point to continue to provide better throughput for users we will have to find a way of remote connecting to larger computing/storage devices. This is another step towards that.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will be your wearable that utilizes the compute power of a non-wearable piece of hardware. And for all of you who say "I hate wearables", or "I wouldn't use it", if Apple offered a wearable that did everything your phone does and a slim and easy piece of tech you could wear instead of put in your pocket, the world would buy and use it.....even if "you" wouldn't. And that takes time and thousands of steps to get there. Modifying areas of technology that might not seem related at the time. Starting up projects and product lines and shutting them down. All in the name of taking a step towards a much longer end goal.
Each of these moves are a step. Are these steps moving us to a good or bad future? That is certainly up for debate! Should the compute power be out of our hands and in the hands of "businesses"? Time will tell. But Apple, MS, Google, etc... are all moving towards the same goal. The Cloud is now part of our daily lives and will continue to be a larger and larger presence to offset the inability for hardware to keep up with software. This will continue to grow until either we change our human/social habits or a technology breakthrough allows us to take storage and computing out of "the cloud" and back into our possession.
One step in a thousand step journey towards a unknown future. Exciting. Scary. Life.
I run VNC or Microsoft Remote Desktop to view and control my PC on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac all the time. How well it translates depends on the local client. I now use Jump for iOS which has the best touch/move to mouse/click interface I have seen to date, including shared copy/paste buffers. On a Mac, it’s not a problem at all. My solution now since VirtualPC stopped working on M1 machines. Moving files is still a slight issue, but Dropbox solved that.
Or Chromebooks, Netbooks, any cheap hardware.
Or vintage MacBooks, where a new MacBook purchase is not required to run a modern thin-client edition of latest Windows.
I’m not sure if this is a win for Apple, but it could make M1 MacBooks more desirable now they can
One annoyance is the key mapping between both OSes is different. Debugging from a Mac is annoying because the frequently used F11 key brings up the Mac desktop.
This swing happens every generation it seems. Recall Oracle’s Network PC in the 90’s for example.
That remains to be seen. There might be a case for certain business profiles.
Mine is an obscure case. I spend a lot of time in data centres and quite often they will block cellular signals as well as not let you into their network.
Unfortunately support for the Mac is crap in industrial settings so Windows it is.
It’s probably a very small subset of their business.
As a veteran of pre-terminal days, and the first PCs, I remember so much.
The IT department is slow, expensive and says things can't be done.
The user department buys a PC and does things that the IT department said couldn't be done. And far less expensively.
The hard drive fails, the PC blows up, or is stolen, or just needs upgrading. Help please, IT department.
Umm, we didn't even know this machine/system existed, we don't have a backup, we don't know how it was put together (software or hardware), we have no budget to support you, no - the system can't be made multi-user, and it is using CP/M-86 - whatever that is. Tough.
I believe there is a co trial panel to change that key mapping. If I recall, at one tine shift-Fkey also worked.
Well, using this, Xbox Xcloud, and Sidecar, you could technically stream your Xbox to your cloud PC to your Mac to your iPad. That’d be fun.
Yes - keyboard issues can be odd.
I use one website which allows simple formatting on Windows - using Ctrl&b, Ctrl&i, Ctrl&u. I expected to use Command combos in MacOS - but no, I have to use the Windows combos.
Gee, if I had a dollar for every time someone predicted the death of Apple, I could retire. I guess if you say it for long enough, you might eventually be right. But this is not a “better product” as it’s been around for quite awhile via AWS and similar services. This is Microsoft being slow to catch up. Yea, better. Sigh.
This appears to be a shot across the bow of Citrix more than Parallels. Pre-pandemic the company I work for mostly used thin clients for most office personnel who didn't require mobility. The thin clients ran a stripped down Linux OS with the sole purpose of remote access to a Windows VPC housed at a data center via Citrix Remote Desktop. The VPCs were managed by a VMWare solution, and could also be accessed from a home computer, iPad, and even an iPhone via the appropriate Citrix app and authentication measures. The cost wound up being enormous though - the cost for data center server space, the cost of Windows and other software licenses plus VMWare's fees to for creation and management of the VPCs and fees to Citrix for the Remote Desktop solution, the cost of the thin clients and physical equipment (which isn't much cheaper than midrange Windows business laptops). We wound up switching everyone out to laptops when we started working from home as it was easier to troubleshoot people on consistent corporate hardware than a mishmash of home equipment.
That being said I could see this being very appealing for enterprise customers. Rather than working with multiple vendors to deliver a virtualized desktop experience they can work with a single party that can deliver a complete package.
That being said I could see this being very appealing for enterprise customers. Rather than working with multiple vendors to deliver a virtualized desktop experience they can work with a single party that can deliver a complete package.
I’ve read people predicting the death of Apple for a long time too. I was always the one who thought those people were crazy. But honestly take a step back and have a real look at what’s been coming from Apple.
I wouldn't be surprised if Citrix was integrated within the solution, so Azure Virtual Desktop powered by Citrix. They are cloud-only nowadays and strategic to Microsoft.
Nah. Desktop vitualization software will always have a market.