Windows 11: The finish of the old-school Windows desktop
In the long term, Microsoft desires you to change to a Desktop-as-a-Service mannequin, and the primary steps on this journey could already be in place in your standard Windows PC . You realize it as Windows 11.
I’ve referred to as Windows 11 a pointless improve. My reasoning was that it got here with compatibility issues and actually added nothing to Windows 10. Sure, it consists of higher safety. But, spoiler alert, most of these enhancements had been already within the Windows 10 20H2 launch (the October 2020 Update). You simply have to show them on.
So, what’s Windows 11’s level? I believe it is to slowly get you used to the thought of Windows as a Service (WaaS).
[ Related: Windows 11 Insider Previews: What’s in the latest build? ]
Microsoft has been shifting customers to this Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) mannequin for years now. Today, you possibly can already subscribe to the easy-to-use Windows 365 Cloud PC. Or, if you need extra management and options, there’s Windows 365 Enterprise or Azure Virtual Desktop. But these are all extra enterprise than shopper performs. And, whereas Microsoft loves its enterprise clients, it nonetheless likes its residence gross sales, too. (Of course, the distinction between residence and work is blurring extra then ever because of the rising work-from-home motion.)
With all this in thoughts, after I take a look at current Windows 11 adjustments, I see clear indicators that Windows 11 is the Trojan horse bringing WaaS to everybody — whether or not you need it or not.
First, Microsoft sneaked a Microsoft subscription supervisor into the February 2022 Windows 11 replace. Check it out: look into the Windows 11 Settings menu > Accounts and you will find a brand new part referred to as “Your Microsoft account.” There, you’ll discover your Microsoft 365 subscription standing, how full your OneDrive cloud storage is, and different particulars.
Trust me, it says — having a subscription to our cloud providers is a traditional a part of Windows. Relax, settle for that Windows is a part of a cloud-based Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) world now.
Wait? Didn’t Microsoft say it was solely going to be including options to Windows 11 every year? Ahem, sure it did. But Microsoft fibbed. Windows 11 will get Feature, Web, and Online Service Experience Packs at any time when Microsoft desires to replace them. That wailing you hear within the distance? That’s Windows 11 sysadmins worrying what mischief the hidden options will deliver with them.
Leaving that apart, there’s one subscription lacking from this new function — bear in mind what I simply mentioned about mischief? — and that is the Xbox Game Pass. It’s virtually like Microsoft was considering of enterprise first with this replace, and enjoyable along with your Xbox video games second.
Then, just a few weeks later, the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22567 for the Dev Channel arrived. And what ought to we discover in it? Why, Windows 11 now asks to your bank card data from inside Windows. Of course, Microsoft has been asking to your bank card data for transactions by way of your Microsoft Account internet web page for ages now. So, what is the huge deal?
Well, it makes Windows a trifle simpler to make use of for purchases. What I believe is vital is that, together with the subscription function, this makes it simpler so that you can pay not only for Microsoft 365, however for Windows itself. No longer will Windows be a one-and-done buy. It might be ceaselessly a subscription service with just one foot in your PC and the opposite ever extra firmly within the cloud.
While I just like the DaaS mannequin instead, I additionally like having my working system underneath my management and totally on my PC. So, I’m going to proceed to make use of the Linux desktop as my principal working system. As for everybody else, I hope you are OK with trusting Microsoft for all of your computing work, as a result of now greater than ever, Microsoft, and never you, might be calling the pictures.