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posted by on Sunday February 05 2017, @04:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the RT-redux dept.

Martin Brinkmann reports via gHacks

Microsoft is working on a new Windows 10 SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) that the company named Windows 10 Cloud internally.

First signs of Windows 10 Cloud appeared a week or so ago on the Internet, but it was not clear back then what this new edition of Windows 10 would offer. Suggestions ranged from a cloud-based operating system to a subscription-based system similar to Office 365, and a successor of Windows RT.

[...] Windows 10 Cloud [is] a revival of the Windows RT version of Windows.

[...] Windows 10 Cloud [will] only run Windows Store applications and apps that Microsoft made to work with the operating system. Any legacy Windows 32 program [will] not work on systems running Windows 10 Cloud.

[...] Windows 10 Cloud is a work in progress. Things may change along the way before it is released.

Windows 10 Cloud behaves as you would expect it to behave. Cortana walks you through the first steps of setup on first start, and you may notice that quite a few apps are listed in Start after [OS] installation.

Some of these apps are first-party applications or games, while others [are] third-party applications. The selection includes Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and on the games side, Age of Empires Castle Siege, Asphalt 8, and Royal Revolt, among others.

Most don't appear to be installed though, but merely links to the application's Windows Store entry.

[...] You are stuck with Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer as the browser, and with Windows Defender as the security solution.

Several comments there mention how this will be competing with Android, iOS, and Chromebooks. Do you see a viable niche for what Redmond is offering? ... or is 420 correct when he says, "a company [...] determined to put themselves out of business"?

Also at Ars Technica.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Monday February 06 2017, @08:45AM

    by TheLink (332) on Monday February 06 2017, @08:45AM (#463356) Journal

    This is because there's not much left to improve since Windows 7

    There's plenty to improve (See the thread here: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=379&cid=9518#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] ). If someone pays me enough to do so, I can probably come up with more. Ideas are easy, implementation is hard.

    If they do the VR/AR stuff properly then coders, artists etc can have as many screens and "3D sandboxes/tabletops" as they want. Then there's 3D games and other entertainment. Do it right and there would be more _legitimate_ ways to soak up the computing power provided by Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

    But instead of increasing the capabilities and possibilities for users they tried to cripple our powerful desktops PCs and treat them like tablets. How stupid is that?

    The Windows "appstore" equivalent doesn't interest me - smells too much of lock in and tablet braindeadness. What would be nice for desktops is the "permissions stuff" of apps but _done_ _right_ (I proposed this years ago: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693 [launchpad.net] but I'm sure with what we know today Microsoft can do a lot better). Instead of every app asking for permissions to do anything and everything, you just have stuff like games asking for "3D network game permissions" and being sandboxed accordingly (there is normally no need for a game to have an access to your photos, email, ssh keys, address book etc). The program can get its requested permissions/sandbox template signed by a trusted party (your employer's IT Sec team if corporate app), or some OSS team if you trust them. Once you have this there would be fewer excuses to run AV software (which basically are trying to solve a harder version of the halting problem and lots of AV software have had security vulnerabilities).

    If Windows 10 had done all that sort of stuff, then I'd consider it an upgrade. Right now it mainly seems to be an upgrade in spying capabilities :).

    p.s. and how about making phones/wearable computers that are actually smart for the user rather than for the "Corporations/NSA"? For most people the "smartness" of their smartphones is used more to help corporations spy on people than for making things easier for people. No I do not want Apple(Siri) or Google to know everything about my schedule nor do I see a reason they need to know it - there's plenty of computing power on the phone itself. Just look at what stuff like Tasker can do on Android.

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