Technology

“You will own nothing, and you will like it.”

Microsoft has recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11. Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in June before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.

Oh my God, they're bringing back clippy.

That’s a big nope for me.

Internet goes out? I can still do some amount of work, now I need power and internet to both work to do any work at all.

Not a fan of this and I will not embrace it.

I guess that means more people switching to linux, assuming they eventually 100% phase out non-cloud. Not even because "cloud bad" - there will be some of that, but because of the sheer number of people who don't pay for windows, not paying for it isn't an option if they control it completely.

Didn't read the article.

The idea of online only software irritates me. Of course multiplayer games have to work this way. When blizzard and Ubisoft started requiring an active connection for single player games that was just going too far.

Can you imagine sitting at your computer, doing literally anything. The screen goes strait to blue with the windows shutting down screen saying, "Internet disrupted, please contact your provider for support".

and I want to move fully off of windows, what a coincidence.

Are we doing the nobody reads the article thing here too? This isn't a replacement for Windows as an operating system, it's a cloud based version of the OS being sold to consumers. They're trying to compete with inexpensive Chromebooks, not take away your PC.

No thank you.

Also I bet instead of a one-time license you can have the privilege of paying $9.99 a month forever or lose access to all your files. And possibly requiring an internet connection to use your desktop computer?

Ya I'd be fully Linux after that. Still too many benefits of having your own hardware.

Okay but what happens if you don't have a good net connection like at the coffee shop or airports? I swear sometimes people are clueless and just assume you always have good internet when that's not often the case!

Well of course they do. They want to turn an every-few-years OS purchase into a monthly subscription fee, like they did with O365. And eventually they'll drop the ability to install apps except through their store (under the guise of providing "safety" from malicious apps), so that they can collect a commission on the third party software sales market as well.

Google tried that.

Anyway, I'll stick with Linux.

As someone who works in cloud services/ops and has to deal with Microsoft partner relations almost daily, good luck with that.

I don't really want to switch to Linux, Microsoft, please stop pushing me to. I will, but I'd rather not. Ffs.

Haha that will be the year of the Linux desktop, in many ways

I'm kind of confused...if the plan is to move Windows fully to the cloud, why are they talking to chipmakers about enabling more Windows features in future chip releases? Why would you need processing power for the OS if the OS is fully on the cloud?

I want to move Windows fully to the Recycle Bin.

How is this supposed to work in countries that have bandwidth caps, or slow internet connections?

It seems like every company these days wants to move everything to the cloud, but it doesn't mean it's going to happen. While something like this makes sense in some instances (like kiosks or similar maybe?) for the vast majority of use cases this is a non-starter.

Good luck to them. I’ve been very much enjoying Fedora since Windows 11 came out.

Microsoft has recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11. Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in June before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.

Assuming this will use OpenAI API like other Microsoft's AI products, this is going to be expensive to operate. Subsidizing it indefinitely is surely not an option. How would Microsoft monetize it? By charging subscription like GitHub Copilot, or monetizing it somehow using users data they collected? I assume it would be the latter.

Typical loop in this case:

• Oh, M$ is so disgusting, I never gonna switch to the new platform!

In a few months/years

• Well, my apps/hardware are not working, time to switch anyway. Not because it's not working anymore, but because the platform is mature and I actually like it.

Moving “Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud” is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft’s “Modern Life” consumer space, including using “the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people’s digital experience.”

Intel and Microsoft have even hinted at Windows 12 in recent months, and Windows chief Panos Panay claimed at CES earlier this year that “AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows.” All of this is part of Microsoft’s broad Windows ambition, detailed in its internal presentation, “to enable improved AI-powered services” in Windows.

Words cannot express how much I do not want to participate in this version of the future.

Microsoft has a track record of having excellent uptime! /s

I find it somewhat funny that this article came out on the day Microsoft 365 had an outage for most of the day.

Was already considering running Linux on my next machine. That just made it a definite. Is Mintos still the best choice for an everyday desktop?

Of course they want to get as many people as possible to pay a monthly fee to use their cloud system. I'm sure they won't be going cloud only anytime soon, but they will keep making each new windows version worse than the previous one.

They won't get a single cent from me. I've been running Linux for the last 15 years. Wine, DXVK, and Proton keep getting better and I can run all of my games in Linux now.

I switched to Linux a long time ago, it's only getting better and better. After valve started making serious investments in the ecosystem it has only gotten better for desktop usage and it simply 'works' in ways that even windows struggles with, ie: ps4 controllers/switch controllers work ootb, gamescope allows significantly more control over how games are rendered and offers a true console-like experience combined with big picture UI.

I'm surprised they're bothering to focus on consumer devices instead of just going all-out on enterprise and business.

Cloud workstations make a lot of sense for when you need the extra grunt occasionally and have a rock-solid internet connection, but about the only reason the average consumer would want to use them on a portable device is gaming. Everything else you can do locally or as a web app.

And even gaming has been a bit rocky, though it has its small cult of followers.