Posted on 09/02/2013 12:13:08 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Microsoft Windows 10 might become a cloud based operating system (OS) according to a leaked road-map. The road-map shows that Microsoft will no longer release service packs but instead will release major updates every year which also increases the version number of the OS. The next major improvement should be Windows 9, this should bring back the Aero interface in a new form.
This should also be a version in which Microsoft will merge its ARM CPU based Windows RT platform with Windows Phone. This version of Windows could also be the last version of Windows as we know it.
According to the road-map is Microsoft planning to release Windows 10 with heavy cloud support, something Google is currently doing with ChromeOS. This means that many functionality on the computer no longer requires heavy hardware on the client side, lots of processing could be done on the servers of the cloud service.
Currently Microsoft is embedding their Skydrive cloud service in Windows 8, which is for e.g. Office the preferred option to store documents. For users this has the benefit that documents can be accessed from everywhere.
A cloud based OS has the benefit for Microsoft that it will limit piracy. Many parts of the OS will not run on the local computer but require to access the cloud where the actual software is running from. Benefits for users is that they always have up to date software and that they no longer need fast and expensive hardware. But since the rumors say that Windows 10 might be controlled using eyesight, new hardware might be a requirement to actually use the OS.
The roadmap has been posted on a Russian forum by an user of WZOR, the hacking group that was responsible for leaking Windows 7 RTM, Windows 8 RTM and Windows 8.1 RTM before their official release. The group allegedly has access to Microsoft internals which allows them to release software preliminary, this makes the rumor at least interesting.
OSX is on that map too. ITunes and the App store... iCloud...
We’ve done the centralized computing model before with mainframes. This is retrograde action to ensure a revenue stream and nothing more.
That may be a bridge too far, a decade too soon.
Cloud interaction is one thing; total cloud dependence is something else.
So! If you cannot connect to the internet, your computer will not work.
I’d rather do without a computer than deal with one that is solely cloud based.
We can go back to Bit/Burst ant. transmissions.. a little slow, but works worldwide.
I don’t like the Cloud idea at all. Maybe if we were all high on post-war optimism—and, with Donald Fagen’s “I.G.Y.”, could sing “What a beautiful world this will be / What a glorious time to be free”—we could be excited about it. Too much water under the bridge since then for us to “trust” technology.
Adobe took their products to the cloud as a subscription model. You sign up, pay a monthly fee and download the program to your hard drive. Updates are done in real time, as are verifications of your right to use the product. Bottom line is you end up paying a LOT more over time for something like Photoshop than you would the old way. I’m using Photoshop 6.0, so far behind I don’t even qualify for upgrades. I figure that someday I’ll buy a used copy of the last CS version prior to the cloud and it will seem like a quantum leap to me.
Or I may just say GOODBYE to the web and to computering! Anyone else feel this way?
Whatever happened to "They'll be Spandex Jackets, one for everyone?"
“Or I may just say GOODBYE to the web and to computering! Anyone else feel this way?”
As soon as I sell my company I will be moving someplace without internet access. It may have electricity.
Oh, goodie!
LOLWhut?
Every company that places a high level of importance on computer security will avoid this.
And that would be nearly every company.
“If they do that, I predict it’ll be the biggest shot in the arm ever for Linux, and it’ll be a cold day in the realm of double hockey sticks before I let Billy Gates grab me by my data.”
You, and everyone else. Given the recent disclosures, US corporations have ALREADY taken a hit because of worldwide distrust of our technology, and it certainly has put a hurt on US cloud-based systems. And to think six months ago we were bitching about the Chinese...I have yet to see direct evidence of ANY backdoors in their hardware, computers, equipment, etc.
The good news, is that many versions of Linux look and feel a lot like Windows XP, which a lot of people, including me, still like.
“I work with VMware. Explained what it was in rough sketches to my Dad, who replied, “Hmm. I did that 30 years ago on an old System 34”.”
VM’s actually predate even that. I didn’t see the rise of x86 VM’s coming because at first, the systems were crude, with no guaranteed levels of performance, granularity, and other types of manageability - all of which IBM and other mainframe manufacturers were doing years ago. The last few x86 generations added the magic instructions needed for this, and VMware’s newest stuff does a pretty good job of it.
“[...] that they no longer need fast and expensive hardware.
LOLWhut?”
It is true, that you can “run and use” a powerful system from a much less powerful computer - I do this all the time. For example, I can remote desktop into a Linux machine on my PC and run software much faster than I can with my desktop’s native hardware.
Agreed. With all the NSA spying revelations, putting all of your personal data like taxes and accounting info up there means you can get audited without notice or your “papers searched” without being told until charges are filed.
And once they impound the data as evidence you won’t even have it to defend yourself.
Is VMS a UNIX variant? For all practical purposes Linux, BSD and OSX are flavors of UNIX.
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