[German]Another short addendum from last week (readers had pointed it out in comments, but I was in vacation last week). Microsoft plans to offer Windows 11 as a cloud operating system to private users as Windows 365 via a subscription solution has leaked. For Microsoft, this is a logical step, which is already available as Windows 365 for enterprise environments. This solution offers the option to generate continuous revenue for Redmond, among other things. Whether the project makes sense for private users is another question.
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FTC filing became public
Zack Bowden addresses it in this article when he wrote that Microsoft was working on plans to move Windows 11 to the cloud and make it available to consumers as Windows 365. The whole thing could then come onto the market as Windows 365 Family in a monthly subscription.
The above article is based on an internal Microsoft document, which Microsoft filed with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in June 2022. The FTC is investigating Microsoft for its Xbox activities and the approval of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. The PDF document is probably almost 40 pages long and contains the statements from the following screenshot, whereby the statement highlighted in red specifically reveals the cloud plans.
Move Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud: Build on Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device. Use the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people's digital experience.
The short excerpt states that Microsoft is developing a consumer version of its cloud PC streaming service, Windows 365, based on an evolution of Windows 11. This solution is supposed to allow any user to subscribe to a Windows PC hosted in the cloud and access it from any device. The whole thing is then to be streamed from the cloud PC to the end device.
Continuation of Windows 365 plans
This development is not new, Windows 10 and Windows 11 are already available for commercial customers as a Windows 365 subscription. I first reported on these plans in 2021 in the article Windows 365: The cloud PC presented at Inspire. Then on May 29, 2023, the blog post Cloud-Betriebssystem Windows 365 in der Preview followed, because Microsoft has released a public preview (Public Preview) of this product for business customers.
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The cloud Windows is booted from Windows 11 on a PC, but the whole thing is then streamed completely from the cloud. With Windows 365, Microsoft is thus creating a new hybrid category for personal computers: the cloud PC with an operating system in the cloud, leveraging both the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device. Windows 365, according to this Microsoft article, is based on the Azure Virtual Desktop, but uses a simplified technique for virtualization. I had reported on Microsoft's new approach to a Windows 365 cloud PC in the blog post Windows 11: Windows 365 Cloud PC will be integrated, new Explorer and more.
Now the step has been taken to move Windows 11 to the cloud for private users as well and to enable them to use their PCs across devices. Microsoft has internally worked out concepts of what a Windows 365 for families could look like. The FTC document cites AI services, along with the ability to work across devices, as a key differentiator from the classic Windows PC. Microsoft is already building deep Windows 365 integration into Windows 11, allowing users to seamlessly switch to or automatically launch a Windows 365 cloud PC on their devices.
Does that make sense?
For Microsoft does something like "Windows 365 Family" as a cloud PC, which is offered as a subscription solution for say 10 Euros/month. A Windows 11 PC is then still needed on site, which can be booted. But instead of booting into Windows 11, the user can then choose to use the cloud solution. This is how it currently works in the preview of Windows 365 for businesses. Redmond could also kill a second fly with one swat: The solution could be positioned as a competitor to Google's Chrome PC – and the solution thing would generate steady stream of revenues to Microsoft.
However, one has to question whether the whole thing makes sense from the user's point of view. Continuous subscription fees for Windows 365, the need to hang on to the Internet and Microsoft's cloud infrastructure, and the necessity of having to use a "fat" Windows 11 PC as a "thin client" all raise doubts in my mind about the sense of the whole thing. To be fair, the plans are not officially known yet, and Microsoft could possibly change quite a bit of the concept technically.
And at this point, you also have to ask whether people don't just grab Google Cloud PCs, which come with cheaper hardware and a slim operating system and are quite popular in the education sector, especially in the US. Microsoft's plans, to move Office more and more to the cloud, will kill Microsoft argument for using Windows. Are we really experiencing the decline of Windows as an operating system as we know it from the past?
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