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[...] Microsoft is getting ready to replace Windows 10 with the Microsoft Managed Desktop. This will be a "desktop-as-a-service" (DaaS) offering. Instead of owning Windows, you'll "rent" it by the month.
DaaS for Windows isn't new. Citrix and VMware have made a living from it for years. Microsoft has offered Remote Desktop Services, formerly Terminal Services, for ages.
Microsoft Managed Desktop is a new take. It avoids the latency problem of the older Windows DaaS offerings by keeping the bulk of the operating system on your PC.
But you'll no longer be in charge of your Windows PC. Instead, it will be automatically provisioned and patched for you by Microsoft. Maybe you'll be OK with that.
January 14, 2020 is the last day Microsoft will provide security updates for Windows 7. According to Microsoft's estimates, there are 184 million commercial devices out there (as of April 2018 and excluding China) still on Windows 7. And 64 percent of those devices are more than five years old.
For Microsoft's reseller partners, that's a huge potential opportunity, as they heard repeatedly during Microsoft's Inspire partner show last week. Traditionally, end of Microsoft support for an operating system means more chances for partners to sell customers on migration, provisioning and other services.
At the same time, the way business customers are purchasing PCs is changing. By 2020 -- the same time Windows 7 hits end of support -- 30 percent of all PCs will be acquired via DaaS, or device-as-a-service, plans, Microsoft officials told partners last week.
[...] During the Inspire show, Microsoft execs worked to hammer home the idea that resellers shouldn't simply be selling Windows 7 users a new device running Windows 10. Instead, they should take the DaaS approach and set up a whole platform to lease new Windows 10 PCs to customers.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 02 2018, @06:51PM (1 child)
Oh come on, baby...just the tip...
Maybe, but that hardly means they won't do it. Just look at what Mozilla has been busy doing the last several years.
A fair point. It's too bad appealing to Microsoft's better side would be an exercise in futility.
It's sad that we've come as far as we have already (even ignoring this article) in the field of locked-down computers. Hardware whitelists, Trusted Computing, locked bootloaders. management engines...computers used to be a thing where you just put software on it and the thing ran it. Now we have to get permission to use our own hardware.
RMS is right about everything if given enough time. Unfortunately the frog is a long ways towards boiled already.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:03AM
I couldn't even get "plays_for_sure" to work reliably.
That one was so faith_based it belongs in a church.