In April Microsoft plans to release a
new device
on the unsuspecting workers of the world. Its name is Windows
365 Link. Microsoft’s
YouTube advertisement explains that the new device will be
secure because it will have, “No local admin users, no local data
storage, and no local apps.” In other words, it will be little
more than a dumb terminal with a few USB, HDMI, and Ethernet
connectors. Microsoft’s dream of a Windows computer that is fully
in the cloud is finally about to come true. Users of this device
will apparently have no control over it whatsoever. If true, this
means Microsoft will be free to abuse them as it likes, and they
won’t be able to do anything about it.
Microsoft’s YouTube video goes on to extol the device’s key
features. To begin with, its “security features cannot be
disabled”. Presumably, this includes a user not being able to boot
from a Linux USB flash drive. One has to wonder, however, whether
the security of the device will actually be any better than the
pitiful
security associated with many of Microsoft’s other
products. Assuming the security is as good as Microsoft
claims, the user will be inexorably stuck with whatever awful
software Microsoft allows him to run. At least company IT people
apparently will have some say in what software will run on the
device.
Each work session will begin when the employee enters his work email
address and authenticates with the Microsoft mobile authenticator
app. What else? No passwords allowed? The video doesn’t say, but
it does mention second-factor authentication with Fido2 keys and
“cross-device pass keys”, whatever that turns out to really mean.
The video says after a worker is authenticated, he is connected to
“his” cloud PC. Only, it isn’t his PC. A Windows PC hasn’t
actually belonged to the user in years. He–or in this case, his
employer–is just the one who pays for it. This device should
complete the process of transferring essentially 100% of the control
of a Windows PC to Microsoft.
For the “privilege” of having this device sitting on your desk,
Microsoft will of course charge a monthly fee, most likely a rather
fat monthly fee. So far, I haven’t found anything definitive from
Microsoft on exactly how much it plans to charge, but after an
employer has paid the MSRP of $349 for the device, he will pay
whatever monthly fee Microsoft wants to charge him. Otherwise, the
device will likely be just an expensive paperweight. Some
searching led
me to a Tom’s
hardware article that claims the fee will be between $28 and
$315 a month per user, a rather wide range.
PC
Magazine said, “On the downside, the device means businesses
will also need to pay for subscriptions to Windows 365 in addition
to buying the hardware. Monthly plans for Windows 365 start at $28
per device but can scale up to over $277, depending on the
configuration of the cloud PC.” The two statements seem to conflict
a bit, but now I hope you see the real point of a cloud-only device
manufactured by Microsoft and its partners. Money!
Microsoft’s video says the device provides a “no compromise
experience”. What that means is no compromise for Microsoft,
and maybe little compromise for your company’s IT team, but plenty
of compromise for you. But as far as Microsoft is concerned, your
experience doesn’t matter. You are not a person. You are just an
employee.
I have a feeling that many more BYOD’s (Bring Your Own Devices) will
begin appearing in work places around the world.
Do we have any bets as to how long Microsoft will take to begin
marketing Windows 365 Link or something very much like it to home
users? My guess is not long. And most likely, when the only
alternatives for most “normies” are Windows 11 PC’s, Chromebooks
(soon
to be Androidbooks),
cellphones, or over-priced Apple products, a large number of them
will at least consider buying something like this thing from
Microsoft Hell. And, please don’t insult my intelligence by
comparing this device to a thin client. I have installed OPNSense
on a thin client to make it into a very nice home router. Something
useful like that will very likely be impossible with this device.
Landfills of the world, open wide and prepare to receive hundreds of
millions of these things after companies have used them for two
years and tossed them out. Tom’s hardware says, “Windows 365 Link
makes no sense for individual users who have kept their computers
for several years.” Well, at least we can agree on that, but when
has Microsoft ever cared more about what makes sense for its users
than about making money? The dirty little secret of the personal
computer industry is that if no company makes what you want to buy,
you are just out of luck. Do you want a thick laptop with plenty of
airflow across its CPU to prevent thermal throttling? Do you want
scads of USB ports, an ExpressCard slot (what’s that?), one of
those icky old DVD drive thingies that helps you to avoid paying
for Netflix, a user-removable battery, and RAM not soldered to the
motherboard? Good luck finding that in a non-gaming laptop, or
really anywhere! Do you want a smartphone with a user-removable
battery and a 3.5 mm headphone jack? Good luck sucker! A tiny
number of models with those two features still exist, but you won’t
have much of a selection.
Most people’s total loss of control over their computers is what I
began warning cheapskatesguide readers about all the way back in
early 2019, and I have continued to warn about this problem ever
since. This is what I said in September
of 2020,
Not
only is the Internet being increasingly regulated and sectioned off
into separate Internets for each country, but the personal computer
itself is being hobbled. We are told that our computers are being
stripped of their functionality because they are just too insecure
and too complicated for the average ‘normal’ or ‘normie’ to deal
with. After all, the problem could not possibly be that the Windows
operating system is an insecure piece of junk, reminiscent of a
40-year-old family minivan held together with chewing gum and
baling wire. It could not be that more money can be made by locking
down the personal computer and moving most, or all, of its
processing into the cloud, where giant companies, rather than the
owner of the computer, will decide what software can run on it and
most importantly where a monthly fee can be charged for its use.
Many “smart”
people on Hacker News said back in 2020 that I had no idea what
I was talking about and that a war
on general-purpose computing was nothing to worry about because
a PC in the cloud doesn’t even make sense. When I said later that
the only point of moving the TPM module into the CPU via
Pluton technology was to prevent users
(who Microsoft now considers to be enemy “attackers”) from being
able to do what they want with their own computers, many of the
smart people on Hacker News once again said we have
nothing to
worry about, and they added that the tone of my article was too
insulting to nontechnical folks. Well, smart people, can we begin
worrying now? Or, is my tone still too insulting for you to pay
attention to what I am saying?
The truth is that I am just annoyed and tired of warning about this
year after year and having very few people listen as Microsoft slowly
coaxes Windows users ever closer to their prison in the cloud.
My efforts to warn computer users of the dangers of the cloud feel like
telling a friend that we need to call an ambulance because he has a
bullet hole in his chest with blood gushing out, and him saying no,
it’s just a pimple. I don’t know why people aren’t more concerned
about control of their PC’s being taken away. If they don’t see or
care now, will they when they are locked into Microsoft’s version of
America Online or Prodigy, where they don’t realize or even care
that Microsoft’s new walled garden is not the Internet? Maybe I
have answered my own question. Most readers of this article are
likely too young to have had conversations with users of those two
original walled gardens and realized they were unaware that Prodigy
and AOL were not the Internet and paying for them wasn’t even
required to access the Internet. I just don’t know how to make the
problem any clearer. Do I need to juggle flaming torches while
hopping up and down on one foot to get computer users’ attention?
If you have found this article worthwhile, please share it on your
favorite social media. You will find sharing links at the top of the
page.
Related Articles:
Taking a Stand in the War on General-Purpose Computing
Toward a Technological Cage for the Masses
When Computers become Nothing More than Devices for Accessing the Cloud
Microsoft’s Use of Pluton Suggests It Sees PC Owners as the Enemy
said on Jan 04th 2025 @ 08:18:51pm,
> I just don’t know how to make the problem any clearer.
I think this video does a great job at explaining this, and how one can improve their activism.
To make people care about something, anything, you have to share your joy with them. Show them what is it about that cause that makes you happy.
Show them how fun it is to hack away at software you can study and modify. Show them the amazing communities that arise from a free internet, the amazing things people can create, and the relationships they can build. Show them the joy of saving hundreds of dollars by repairing an old computer or installing Linux on it. But never, EVER, call them a bad person for not agreeing with you.
This is just human nature. No one has ever convinced me of something by calling me a bad person. All the things I care about today, I care because I made a choice to care, not because I was ordered or guilt-triped into. Because someone shared their joy with me, and I started to care about those who are trying to take these joys away.
I can tell this works from personal experience. I’m well known in my university as the “linux guy”, and although most people still don’t care about it, I have made a sizeable amount at least try it out, by sharing my joy with them. By showing all the cool stuff you can do with linux, by playing around, experimenting. One guy even started seriously studying bash and the command line because of me, because I showed how fun it can be, and never called him a bad person. He still does it to this day. I got much further than I ever imagined I would, just by sharing my joy.
That doesn’t mean you can’t talk about negative stuff, such as the topic of this article. You can, and you should. But to make people care, you must first show them how this can bring them joy. And THEN, you show things like this, show how these people are trying to take that joy away. Without ever making the person you’re trying to convince the villain.
Share your joy, and then share your pain. I think this works much better.
