Windows 10 - Cloud OS ?

So the interwebs suggests that Windows 9 will be released by 2015 and Windows 10 will be a pure cloud OS, aligning with Office 365, XBox Cloud thing and whatnot.

Could you imagine using a OS which is solely in the cloud (*)? With some countries still lacking behind in decent internet, I don't see it working. We probably talk 2016/7/8 here but still ... My area doesn't even have cable and our local ADSL provider suggests fibre by the end of 2015 at 10Mbits max.

(*) Talking as consumer and not business

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Comments

kj0

Here in Australia don't know what we will have... Apparently our current government wants fiber to the node and copper the rest of the way by 2020 instead of the Fiber to the Home that the previous Government wanted. However, we may get our FTTH with the new.. but that's a pipe dream at the moment

As a cloud OS, what exactly is it going to be? Will it be a VDI or a ChromeOS situation? I really like ChromeOS, but only as a type of netbook, it is limited (Obviously).

tecke

Time will tell but I know that I would never turn over my data assets to Microsoft's "cloud" Os. Can't trust these fuckers with nothing because they will sell you out and abuse their power.

CCNTrainee

The only way I see this Cloud thing happening is if Thin clients and Zero terminals become the next big thing in the everyday average joe customer household. With Virtualization we are going back to the Mainframe way of communication again, I can see the CloudOS being a stepping stone for Business networks but not in a household environment…

blargoe

I don't see how mainstream adoption of residential VDI could be viable unless home internet becomes much more reliable.

exampasser

REMOVED UNNECESSARY QUOTED REPLY FROM PREVIOUS POST
And people get better upload speeds, I still only have around 1Mbps upload.

CodeBlox

blargoe wrote: »

I don't see how mainstream adoption of residential VDI could be viable unless home internet becomes much more reliable.

I can't remember the last time I had an issue with my residential ISP.

DevilWAH

I think it will have to be partial cached. like CromeOS does for some of its major apps, or cirtix can do. Where you run the OS on a hypervisor and its always synced to a central location.

Citrix actually have a very good model, yes you still run things locally in the main part, although you can also deliver thin apps should you wish. But should you need to replace the hardware, you simple swap it out and it resyncs to an identical state. Or should you log on from a different type of device if it cant run the OS/apps locally it can simply stream as you would expect from the old school VDI.

One project we have on at the moment is being able to deliver a user experince to a mobile device, where the user can put down one device in a room, walk across the corridor (biosecurity means devices cant be moved between rooms) pick up a generic device there log in and get the same screen they just left. IT has to be ready with in 10 seconds or less of them picking up the device as these guys might walk in and out of a rooms contently throughout the day.

So yes I can defiantly see a time where windows and any other OS for that matter is cloud based, and you can chose to run it locally (still synced to the cloud) or via streaming. No more installing or syncing as we currently know it. But pick up any device, log in with your credentials and have the best experience that bit of hardware can support.

Far from worrying it actually in my view a very powerful model to finally abstract the OS from limited hardware, and instead be able to uterlise any device, even borrow a friends and be able to log on and have all your data exactly how you want it.

blargoe

CodeBlox wrote: »

I can't remember the last time I had an issue with my residential ISP.

Me either, but I'm blessed with a really great local DSL provider. Many are not as lucky.

jdancer

If push comes to shove, I ain't using a "cloud" OS. Since I use residential broadband with no SLA, I ain't risking lost of access to my data. Thank goodness Linux is free and can virtualize any PC based OS.

CoolAsAFan

Business cloud computing makes sense because you will likely need to keep scaling up your hardware/software resources. I just don't see any reason why a home user would need cloud computing. Hardware is cheap enough and home users don't need much of it to get going and sustain their usage. I still don't understand why people use services such as dropbox, especially with all the leaks and spying going on these days. Why not just remote/vpn to your desktop that hosts your files that you might need while mobile?

In short, business cloud computing makes sense (from a business perspective), home cloud computing not so much.

DevilWAH

CoolAsAFan wrote: »

. Why not just remote/vpn to your desktop that hosts your files that you might need while mobile

because 99% of home users are not IT engineers. While it might be second nature for us to use VPN, on multiple devices, the average home user doesn't know what VPN is let alone how to use it.

Take the wonderful example of face book, it's so big because there are native apps for multiple devices allowing same user experience across them all. And on many devices it can cache data so you can work off line if you wish. This is the experience most home users want, same interface and single gate way to there data. In fact outlook even better example, the only thing that happens if you lose connection to the exchange server is you can't send and receive, but you can still read, compose, check meetings, etc. if you are not on your PC you can access it via web or phone apps, so no complicated drop or VPN.

Now images taking this from the application to the OS using the same model. Central storage of configuration and data, and a mix of native apps and streamed apps. For non it people this is a big selling point, especially if you don't have a IT friend to help you out setting things up.

tier~

How many home users even have files to take care of at this point? I feel like most people (non-business) I know simply consume things on the web... whether it's browsing or blogs or via fb/twitter/other social media, they stream their music, store their photos they take with their phone on shutterfly or dropbox, etc.

Most people can get by with a web browser any more which is why tablets/smart phones/phablets seem to be the predominant consumer tech right now.

As has been stated earlier, the pendulum is swinging back towards centralization. With all that being said, I'm not sure a full blown cloud based OS makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside assuming that I need to guarantee the security of my data. I don't think I'd want to be logging into a Microsoft (or any other vendor for that matter) owned system somewhere where I no longer have true ownership of what I'm doing.

RobertKaucher

jibbajabba wrote: »

So the interwebs suggests that Windows 9 will be released by 2015 and Windows 10 will be a pure cloud OS, aligning with Office 365, XBox Cloud thing and whatnot.

I think you misunderstand Office 365. What makes Office 365 compelling is not just the web apps (which are completely free to anyone with a Microsoft account aka Live ID) it's the licensing model around installing the actual applications. What makes them "cloud" is that you get additional cloud storage as well as the ability to move licenses of the desktop/mobile versions of the applications to different devices and you always have access to the latest version. So when MS says Windows is going to be a "cloud" OS that is what they mean. They don't mean it's going to stream a desktop to you PC over VDI or similar; although it would not surprise me if that were not a component of it. What this will mean is a shift in licensing to a "lease" sort of model where backup, storage, etc is all handled "in the cloud" but you still download and burn an ISO and activate the OS in a similar way to what you have always done but upgrades can be done via the Windows store. I am sure you can imagine how this makes piracy more difficult. It's a win all around for MS.

N2IT

No problem with local ISP either. It's always up and if it's not nothing a reboot can't take care of.

tpatt100

I think the average home user already has all of their files "on the cloud" somehow. The issue is their data is on the cloud but also "all over the cloud" spread between different services with no central service. I had to go around cleaning up different junk I stopped using for storing my pictures like Google which I used for a year or a folder I stopped syncing in Dropbox.

Internet providers and service providers of cloud storage and applications would love nothing more than becoming totally dependent on data access to justify data caps and plans for additional profit opportunities.

CoolAsAFan

DevilWAH wrote: »

because 99% of home users are not IT engineers. While it might be second nature for us to use VPN, on multiple devices, the average home user doesn't know what VPN is let alone how to use it.

This is very true. It would seem that there is some money to be made to automate this process or to set up your own "home cloud". I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen any software like this yet. I mean sure there is stuff to get this done now, but as DevilWAH pointed, these tools aren't for the average users....yet.

Everyone

It's already here, and everyone is doing it, not just Microsoft. Google and Apple do similar things. Your files and settings can sync between your desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, and even your TV.

I may be a little biased, but I love the Microsoft ecosystem.

Windows 8.1 + Windows Phone + Surface + Xbox + SkyDrive + Skype + Office 365, all work great together.

Phones and tablets have limited local storage, but with services like SkyDrive/DropBox/iCloud/etc, you don’t have to feel limited.

blargoe

Yes, cloud "storage" and "apps" are already mainstream for residential/personal consumers. But it will be a much larger leap forward to mainstream the actual OS/desktop as a service. I'm guessing many of you who just assume residential ISP is nearly bulletproof have never lived in a rural area or have lived in a neighborhood where some idiot accidentally cuts into the buried cable while they are digging for whatever. An intermittent ISP outage, dropped packet, latency, etc. aren't as impactful when you are on cloud storage if you are syncing/caching your files and/or email. If you rely on your ISP to even be able to use your operating system, it becomes a much bigger deal.

DevilWAH

blargoe wrote: »

Yes, cloud "storage" and "apps" are already mainstream for residential/personal consumers. But it will be a much larger leap forward to mainstream the actual OS/desktop as a service. I'm guessing many of you who just assume residential ISP is nearly bulletproof have never lived in a rural area or have lived in a neighborhood where some idiot accidentally cuts into the buried cable while they are digging for whatever. An intermittent ISP outage, dropped packet, latency, etc. aren't as impactful when you are on cloud storage if you are syncing/caching your files and/or email. If you rely on your ISP to even be able to use your operating system, it becomes a much bigger deal.

I think it is a little silly to assume that the likes of Microsoft, Google and Apple do not appreciate this issue. Look at Crome OS. Yes you need a connections to set it up, and to sync data, but for many of its core function is can run off line using cached data. In the event of a state of emergency like we see in Philippines, let along a home IPS going down, or your train going through a tunnel. There will always be a need to access data while off line. The OS that is going to win the race is the one that allows you to central manage all your data do you don't have duplicates or issues of having to think about keeping things in sync. And at the same time letting you access it where ever and from what ever device you chose.

So you will have the choice, do I purchase a £50 tablet that runs a web browser and access it it all as a delivered service, or do I purchase a desktop that has plenty of internal storage so I can have my data cached for rapid access and use of line. The difference will be from what we have now, is should I walk up to ether device and put a sledge hammer through them. I could simple go in to a shop, buy a new device, log in and be back where I was before, with minimal set up and working as any offline data re-syncs.

tpatt100

Yeah any cloud storage I use is for backups and syncing of data, it is never my primary storage method.

010101

Looks like anyone working on certs or degree in IT is wasting their time if this is true.
MS isn't on our side.
IT will be dead in 10 years short of a handful of guys who work for Amazon and Microsoft.

010101

CoolAsAFan wrote: »

Business cloud computing makes sense because you will likely need to keep scaling up your hardware/software resources.

The downside is you're more likely to get hacked.
Every major company has been hacked (google, microsoft, apple, RSA, US Government, etc, etc)
What happens when ALL medium/small companies are inside of 1-2 major companies????
All companies get hacked at once.