For over 30 years, we’ve thought of PCs primarily as Windows machines, which we owned and controlled. That’s about to change forever [...] 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 [but] 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 [b]ut you’ll no longer be in charge of your Windows PC. Instead, it will be automatically provisioned and patched for you by Microsoft.
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Windows patching was always chancy, but with Windows 10 you’re more likely to have trouble when you patch than you are to avoid problems. [...] So, with this track record, do you want to pay good money to let Microsoft maintain your desktops for you? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Nonetheless, DaaS Windows is coming. Microsoft has been getting away from the old-style desktop model for years now. Just look at Office. Microsoft would much rather have you rent Office via Office 365 than buy Microsoft Office and use it for years.Do you remember the last time Microsoft tried to take users' desktops away, and how
Guess what consumers emphatically don't want? If you guessed that consumers really, really, really don't want to lease Windows from Microsoft in perpetuity, while Redmond remotely control everything about their desktops, then give yourself a no-prize, because you're exactly right.
Windows 8 flopped hard because Microsoft tried to take users' desktops away, and now, here they are, only 7 years later, plotting to do exactly the same thing all over again, all while lamenting that they can't figure out what consumers really want.I tell you, Linux is looking better and better all the time...