Microsoft puts Windows Live out, invisions PC's in the cloud
Not sure I dig this at all.
Microsoft Puts Windows Live out of Its Misery
quote:On Wednesday, Microsoft dished out its latest thesis on how software services should be branded in the cloud era. Since 2005 it has used the Windows Live monicker to describe cloudy things. People signed up for Windows Live accounts and used those to manage such services as Hotmail for e-mail and SkyDrive for online storage. As Microsoft described it, Windows Live was “a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices, and the Web.” Phew.
Well, the Windows Live brand failed to capture the public’s imagination, and now Microsoft has decided that the cloud is a right rather than a brand. In the future, people using Windows computers and phones will sign into their Windows account, which will then open up all those same online services. As terminology, Windows Live no longer exists. And the change is more than mere nomenclature fiddling.
Microsoft is basically saying now that when you log into a machine, you’re logging into the cloud as well and don’t need to take that extra step of hopping onto Microsoft Live’s website. No matter which computer you’re on, your data and apps will follow. This is Microsoft putting its stake in the ground as a cloud believer.
They've been saying this would happen for years, but I didn't think they'd actually follow through. Yet one more reason I have zero interest in Windows 8.
Re: Microsoft puts Windows Live out, invisions PC's in the cloud
If Microsoft follows through on this, it could eventually portend the return of the dumb terminal. That war seemed over and won, with the onset of the desktop PC which undercut the previous near-universal corporate mandate (and IT department micro-control) that terminals and users all had to be umbilicaled to a central computer under IT control. That central computer is now increasingly looking like "the cloud"...
What it means is Windows 7 is the last Microsoft OS for many of us. For me, it means that I better hurry up and buy my new computer...if Dell would just co-operate. They have a brand new XPS out with the ivybridge processor I've been waiting for and a small secondary SSD drive (on the desktop version) for extremely fast booting but since I rarely boot that doesn't impress me. It looks good...except NO nVidia cards and no sound card offered...at least not for this first XPS 8500 offering. So, I continue to wait.
I thought Windows 8 sounded intriguing...but not with this cloud stuff even though the referenced Microsoft blog says you can turn off the cloud stuff ...I wonder if you really can. It seems Microsoft is thick headed enough to have not realized why Windows Live did poorly but then again I suppose newly renamed it will attract more sheeple this time around.
Dumb terminal. I remember that from grad school days ...freezing in the lab ...trying to write simple programs in Cobal...and lollygagging at the huge main server in the next room.
Well, the difference is that now you get to pay not only for the terminal, but for a license to use it.
Remember this?
"A computer on every desk and in every home, all running Microsoft software."
That is old news now and even in 2008 this was in planning:
quote:September 30th, 2008, 14:46 GMT · By Marius Oiaga
Microsoft Says “No” to a Computer on Every Desktop, in Every Home
Just three months after Bill Gates retired from his day-to-day role at Microsoft, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is divorcing the company from the motto that helped put it on the map. Ballmer revealed during a Q&A session at The Churchill Club the past week that the Redmond giant had outgrown Bill Gates' famous mantra “A computer on every desk and in every home” which is virtually synonymous with Microsoft. The CEO indicated that the software company's mission had evolved past putting a computer on every desk in every home.
“We're working on a broader agenda than that, and I love that. It's still my favorite mission statement of all time, because it was a mission, it was a vision, and it was a scorecard. Our people loved it, you could count up every day, how are we doing, how are we doing, how are we doing? But, in a sense when you look at the footprint of the things we work on today it's almost like each business deserves to have its own equivalent. And in a sense maybe we should make that formal, I think our enterprise business has a mission, our advertising business has a mission, our phone and TV business, our devices business has a mission,” Ballmer revealed.
However, at the same time Microsoft is not renouncing to the slogan completely. Ballmer revealed that as far as the Windows operating system is concerned, the Redmond giant is indeed laboring to continue the original mission set in place by Bill Gates. However, as even the Windows without Walls $300 million marketing campaign illustrates, Microsoft and Windows are no longer about just the PC.
“We are, in our industry collectively, we get to change the world, we get to give people tools to allow them to be more productive, more creative, more effective, more in touch, more in contact. And whether it's in a phone, or a PC, or a server, or in the cloud, I think that's kind of the core value proposition of information technology,” Ballmer added.
Dumb terminal. I remember that from grad school days ...freezing in the lab ...trying to write simple programs in Cobal...and lollygagging at the huge main server in the next room.
I think you meant COBOL Real programmers used punch cards and wrote in FORTRAN on a DEC-10 (running TOPS-10). Terminals were for wimps
Moving PC into a dumb terminal? What are they thinking?!?
And it's the company, which makes money from selling big and fatty OS's... I think they try to shoot themselves in the foot and even don't know it. Anyone who still own MSFT? Sell it ASAP.
Not so much of a terminal or even a thin client as a PC that runs a version of Windows that is integrated into cloud services from the get-go. You Windows log-on would be the same as logging into Windows Live. How's that for a security risk?
For example, you could still play Skyrim on it unlike a "dumb" terminal, but considering they are even planning a MMORPG version of THAT, I can see where everything would be shifted into the cloud or otherwise socially integrated for profitability.
Mac's sort of do that with all their iStuff already. Many people just don't want to have to think or do anything they don't have to when it comes to computers. If you offer all-in-one access to All Of The Things, some folks will slurp it up. Not to mention it's a boon for Enterprise control and monitoring...except for InfoSec anyways.
This old dude typed up FORTRAN IV programs on 029 and 129 punch cards and submitted to batch compilation on a 360/20. I loved 129s because I could backspace to correct - and dup our card sets to protect against lost or destroyed decks.
We had "happy hour" processing between 6-8PM at the lab where we could get 5 minute turnaround on compiles. That way we could find our SYNTAX errors faster
Lesson learned by the data center - be sure to screen for programs that called for a DO=1,500,1 to print a dollar sign then index to the next page. Chain printers could feed paper faster than it can be spit out into the bin.
Just one more example of the war on general purpose computing. Proprietary vendors do not want you to have control of your machine. This is evidenced by the trend toward things like TPM, UEFI, etc. They want your machine to become an "appliance" that limits your freedom of choice and locks you into their own software.
Just one more example of the war on general purpose computing.
Oh, please. "War"?
Microsoft is a commercial entity. They plan a strategy that they think will maximize their chance at success. It should be obvious that the classical "personal" computer market is pretty close to being over. Desktop computers are basically good enough. Desktop operating systems are basically good enough.
From where I sit, it seems the market looks like this:
1/ Access to information on demand 2/ Commercial information providers 3/ Corporate in-house information systems
None of these is well-served by the current PC model. The first of these has traditionally been where Windows PCs sit, but that market is going mobile. Expect anyone wanting to make money from 'consumers' to focus on that (and I say that as a man sitting at Ye Olde Desktoppe Computerre, and quite happy with it).
The second case wants big servers; the third probably wants in-house cloud-like solutions (the probably already approximate it to some extent with domains, roaming profiles, etc).
This isn't war, it's commerce.
It looks pretty damn radical from down here, but the stakes are pretty high for Microsoft. Once upon a time, "a computer on every desk, in every home" was damn radical. Now, it's a matter of fact. Radicalism is called for. Some people will like the new stuff, others will not. I might be in the latter group: we shall see.
Reference was made to real programmers working on DEC machines. Guess what happened to DEC when they stuck to their wildly successful past business model.
Why bother calling them "PCs" anymore... instead of personal computers we will have cloud computers. Chromebooks already are, I guess Microsoft will call em Livebooks or Cloudbooks or something.
quote:So Microsoft assumes our connection to the internet will never go down, and even if it does it's no problem if we can't continue to work?
Not gonna happen. They can kiss this idea goodbye.
You realize they are invested in MAKING IT HAPPEN.
I've been on USwest/Qwest/CenturyLink for long over a decade, guess who Qwest had as an "ISP" branded partner? That's right, MSN.
All Microsoft has to do is broker deals with Comcast and it's over.
Broadband Monopoly + OS Monopoly = We're Done.
All I see lately is how corporations and tech companies are flocking to the model of massively scalable server VM's and cloud computing. Hell, my GPU has 10X the number of cores as my CPU, and all running at about the same speed but with higher memory throughput. Wait until that gets fully utilized. One Nvidia Telsa GPU has more raw power than every computer I've every owned...put together.
All I see lately is how corporations and tech companies are flocking to the model of massively scalable server VM's and cloud computing. Hell, my GPU has 10X the number of cores as my CPU, and all running at about the same speed but with higher memory throughput. Wait until that gets fully utilized. One Nvidia Telsa GPU has more raw power than every computer I've every owned...put together.
It is the future, whether we like it or not.
Some corporations, maybe, but not all. Some don't need raw power - they need reliability and stability, and if they don't get it, they wind up with thousands of union workers sitting around waiting - and getting paid. And if they wait long enough, they get paid OT.
The prospect is so horrifying and critical, one incident negates any savings. They spend a fortune on contingency planning, and backups for the backups. Sure, they'll shove the sales staff onto the cloud maybe - but nothing that matters.
Just one more example of the war on general purpose computing.
Oh, please. "War"
Yes, war! There are a lot of powerful interests who do not like the freedom of a general purpose computer. One of the most powerful driving forces behind this push is the MAFIAA (due to DRM issues). Big data companies like Google have their own motives (your data is worth money to them). And the government has its own motives (fighting crime, cyber security, etc.).
I made a much longer reply a minute ago, but once again my post went to /dev/null. So I will just point you to a talk my Corey Doctorow at 28C3. It's an hour long, but he outlines *very* well this argument.
I probably would have enjoyed your longer post. What do you mean it went again to dev/null? You tried to post it here and it instead ended up posted in dev/null and you lost it? You are using what browser? Some enlightened browsers would not lose the text...Fx and SM come to mind.
A trend against the desktop is what is happening with browsers. Fx is about to get rid of many long standing functions/attributes and also is about to radically change the GUI across all of Fx. The reasons are because Fx on devices other than the desktop (particularly on cell phones) is the future so Mozilla thinks the desktop needs to conform to the changes being made for other platforms. I don't like this especially since I don't have a cell phone with internet or any sort of cell phone. I hate to see cell phone needs take over and dictate what will be on desktops. It is all about mobility now though (hence the cloud) not about desktops in the home.
I probably would have enjoyed your longer post. What do you mean it went again to dev/null? You tried to post it here and it instead ended up posted in dev/null and you lost it? You are using what browser? Some enlightened browsers would not lose the text...Fx and SM come to mind.
/dev/null is the null file on UNIX systems. Any data written to it is lost. Sometimes called the "bit bucket."
