[LINK] Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

[Stephen Loosley]

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop


Microsoft is moving Windows to the cloud and Apple will be happy to have 
you run macOS on the cloud

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols  Fri 4 Aug 2023
https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/04/linux_desktop_cloud_desktops/

OPINION:

If you count Android and Chrome OS as Linux, which I do, the Linux 
desktop accounts for 44.98 percent of the end user market.

But if your idea of the "Linux desktop" has a front end of Cinnamon, 
GNOME or KDE, then it's more like 3.06 percent.

Better than it has been at times, but it's no "Year of the Linux 
desktop." Maybe, though, it will be someday.

That's not because suddenly, everyone will realize that the Linux 
desktop is wonderful. Sorry, folks, if it hasn't happened by now, it 
never will. But there's another way the conventional idea of a Linux 
desktop could become the top PC-based operating system.

That's if its competition ceded the field.

And that's exactly what Microsoft has been doing.

For years, I've been watching Microsoft working on moving you from PC 
Windows to a cloud-based Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) model.

More proof has recently surfaced, further substantiating Microsoft's 
grand cloud desktop scheme.

ChromeOS


Windows Central senior editor Zac Bowden recently discovered an internal 
document from Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Activision.

This June 2022 presentation revealed Microsoft intends to "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 goal is to deliver a consumer version of the Windows 365 Cloud PC.

There are already two Windows DaaS versions: Business and Enterprise.
You can run these on a Windows PC, a Chromebook, a Linux PC, or even an 
iPad. They are engineered to bring Windows to virtually any platform.

You can even run them on an Android smartphone or an iPhone, if you're a 
glutton for punishment.

These aren't cheap. They start at $31 per user, per month. This gives 
you a 4GB Azure VM with 128GB of storage, plus Microsoft 365 apps, 
Outlook, and OneDrive.

On Windows 11 PCs, you can access your Cloud PCs through the Windows 365 
app. In the coming months, Windows 365 Boot, currently in beta, will 
allow you to log directly into your Windows 365 Cloud PC without booting 
your local Windows 11 PC.

This aims to enable multiple users to use the same PC to log into their 
own private, assigned, and secure Cloud PC.

Its target market includes nurses, salespeople, and call center 
employees who share business devices.

Pricing for this version remains unclear. We also don't have a price for 
the family version yet. There's speculation that it might be $10 a month 
for a "family" account. If true, this would be a loss-leader price aimed 
at encouraging people to try Windows 365.


Microsoft enables booting physical PCs directly into cloud PCs

Now you may say, "There's no way I'm going to 'subscribe' to a cloud 
version of Windows." Really? Tell me, are you running Office 2019/2021 
or Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) at a cost of at least $70 a year? 
345 million of you are already paying for Microsoft 365. The various 
flavors of Office 20xx? Not so many. Nothing like as many.

That's exactly what Microsoft wants. "At Microsoft, we believe that the 
cloud will power the work of the future. Overwhelmingly, our customers 
are choosing the cloud to empower their people."

It's also how Microsoft makes its coin. Soon enough, perhaps by the end 
of the decade, most Windows users will subscribe to cloud-based Windows.

Of course, that won't work for everyone. Hardcore gamers? No way.

Over in Apple land, serious photography and video workers will still run 
high-powered and high-cost Macs.

Others, however, will use the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Mac mini as a 
service or other Macs on the cloud services such as Virtual Mac OS X, 
MacStadium, and MacinCloud.

Do you know who else won't be following Apple or Microsoft to the cloud?

People who care about privacy, folks who want control over their data on 
their machines, and PC power users.

And where will these good people go? Three guesses, and the first two 
don't count. Yes, it's Linux. That's why Linux will finally emerge as 
the top PC operating system.

Mind you, it's going to be a much smaller PC market than the one we have 
today. Those are the breaks.

But for people who want a real desktop operating system, Linux will be 
their first and, indeed, almost their only choice. ®

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