NOTE: This article is “off topic.” It has nothing to do with the normal topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, DNA, lifestyles of our ancestors, and similar topics. However, it does reflect interest in computing and other state-of-the-art technology and I suspect many readers of this newsletter are also interested in those topics so I am including it.
If you are looking only for articles relating to genealogy and related topics, you might want to skip this article.
Quoting a new article on Microsoft’s web site at https://bit.ly/3isPsaU:
“Today we’re excited to announce Windows 365, a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when it’s generally available later this calendar year) for workers from interns and contractors to software developers and industrial designers. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft Cloud, securely streaming the full Windows experience—including all your apps, data, and settings—to your personal or corporate devices. This approach creates a fully new personal computing category, specifically for the hybrid world: the Cloud PC.”
Another quote from the same web site:
“Much like how we’ve embraced the cloud for other products, our vision for a Windows 365 Cloud PC is to deliver a new way to experience Windows through the power of the cloud—while solving both novel and traditional challenges for organizations. This new paradigm isn’t just about allowing and securing remote access. The user experience is more important than ever for attracting and retaining talent, improving productivity, and ensuring security.
“The Cloud PC draws on the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device to provide a powerful, simple, and secure full Windows 10 or Windows 11 experience that you can use to empower your workforce, regardless of location or device. Windows 365 provides an instant-on boot experience that enables users to stream all their personalized applications, tools, data, and settings from the cloud across any device including your Mac, iPad, Linux device, and Android. The Windows experience is consistent, no matter the device. You can pick up right where you left off, because the state of your Cloud PC remains the same, even when you switch devices. You can get the same work done on a laptop in a hotel room, a tablet from their car between appointments, or your desktop while you’re in the office. Seasonal workers also can ramp on and off according to the needs of the business, allowing the organization to scale for busy periods without the complicated logistical and security challenges of issuing new hardware. Further, companies can be more targeted in how they outfit specialized workers in creative, analytics, engineering, or scientific roles who need greater compute power and access to critical applications.”
The article goes on to describe Microsoft’s latest release: the Windows 365 Cloud PC.
If you only have one computer and have no desire to add more or a newer computer, this new product won’t interest you. However, if you are thinking of purchasing a new and more powerful Windows computer or perhaps an additional laptop, tablet, or perhaps a second computer for the office or for home, this article will explain how to gain a more powerful system at (perhaps) a cheaper price.
The Windows 365 Cloud PC is intended to be used as your only computer but available at multiple locations. This piece of magic is accomplished by having the customer rent a new, high-powered Windows system that is installed “in the cloud.” That is, the new Windows system will be installed in (possibly multiple) data centers, possibly in different locations around the world, and being accessed via low-powered computers remotely through the Internet. This “remote computer” could be an older, lower-powered Windows computer or even a Macintosh, a Linux system, a laptop, an iPad, or even a (less than $100) Raspberry Pi. It also could be easily portable so that the user may access the Windows 365 Cloud PC from any location: from home, from the office, from on-board an airliner, or perhaps from a hotel room in a foreign county.
The Windows 365 Cloud PC has almost all the same capabilities as a standard Windows PC and can be used as the user’s only computer (not counting the remote computer that simply provides a screen, keyboard, and mouse).
I travel a lot and would love to travel with a tiny laptop, iPad, or Android tablet computer and to still have access to all my files and to a high-powered computer from any location, even from Singapore or from Moscow. If you travel frequently, you may want the same thing.
If you do not travel much and have no need for a second, remote computer, this probably will not appeal to you.
To read more about this new Windows 365 Cloud PC, read the full introduction on Microsoft’s web site at: https://bit.ly/3isPsaU.
This new device is generating a lot of publicity and you can find dozens of more articles, each describing the new product from a different author’s viewpoint, by going to any internet search engine and performing a search for “Windows 365 Cloud PC“.
I expect to write about my own “hands on” experience from a genealogist’s viewpoint as soon as these things become available and I can get my hands on one (remotely, of course).