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Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

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Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#71

> including one at the top end that includes eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? Why would I pay ~$10k over 5 years for something that's similar to the laptop I'm typing on which costed me $700 used? I know it's for businesses, but even then, does it come with tooling or something that makes management eas…

Companies amortize capital expenditures, while monthly service costs are a separate line item (operating expenditures). I think there's also a perception that deploying and support physical hardware has higher labor cost associated. If it take one IT staffer per every X PCs, the presumption might be that X is higher when the "PCs" are virtual. But mainly, companies aren't doing what you're doing: looking at the five-…

> But mainly, companies aren't doing what you're doing: looking at the five-year cost. They don't care what it costs over five years, or often even over one year. This quarter, the cost for that beast is $474. Can you deliver an 8-CPU PC with 32GB of RAM for $474? Today? Then the MS offering is better.

If you're willing to pay $10k over 5 years for a $2k PC, wouldn't there be a ton of financing companies willing to convert the capital expenditure to an operating expenditure for that? Where else can you make 80% annual returns on a capital investment?

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#72

Anyone else developing on a Mac/Linux desktop, and looking at Windows 365 to run/test/prototype windows applications?

If you are on a desktop, you might as well get a second desktop and gigabit ethernet between your machines.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#73
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 365's lowest tier, with only 2GB of RAM, works out to $288/year. If you're on a Mac, you can grab the Pro version of Parallels for $99USD/year and run it locally, and spin up an instance of any version of Windows you need, along with guaranteed uptime and availability. I really don't see Windows 365 as a viable option for most developers, when there are so many better -- and cheaper -- alternatives readily av…

Does Parallels still show ads to paying customers? I’d pay extra for Windows 365 to avoid ads.

Or you could use VirtualBox for free.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#74

> including one at the top end that includes eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? Why would I pay ~$10k over 5 years for something that's similar to the laptop I'm typing on which costed me $700 used? I know it's for businesses, but even then, does it come with tooling or something that makes management eas…

You have an 8core laptop with 32gig RAM for $700? That's not super common though, I think usually you'd spend more like $2500-$3000k for it. Count in the reduced maintenance and hardware support + having your whole stuff in one place.. Might make sense if you are not super low on money

> You have an 8core laptop with 32gig RAM for $700?

Like I said, it's used, so yes. I think the new cost is right in your $2500-$3000 range for a new version.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#75

> including one at the top end that includes eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? Why would I pay ~$10k over 5 years for something that's similar to the laptop I'm typing on which costed me $700 used? I know it's for businesses, but even then, does it come with tooling or something that makes management eas…

I worked at a company built on hardware products that was compelled to add some SaaS offerings because many large enterprise accounts have much simpler processes for subscriptions and AWS spend vs. capital expenditures. Sometimes a $500 machine is more expensive than $2,500 worth of services, it seems.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#76

> including one at the top end that includes eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? Why would I pay ~$10k over 5 years for something that's similar to the laptop I'm typing on which costed me $700 used? I know it's for businesses, but even then, does it come with tooling or something that makes management eas…

> Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain?

CapEx vs OpEx.

Also, your iPad is now a Windows machine with eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This it true but I've seen orgs in the past where a business unit would happily pay quite a lot of money to avoid going anywhere near central IT. I think the most extreme example of slow process I saw was an organization where central IT wanted to charge $20k and take two months to quote for a project. In that kind of environment things like this with opex pricing that can be assigned to a project's budget and fast s…

Don't you have security policies to make you must go through IT?

When it comes to policies from frustrating departments, people tend to find workarounds, especially if there is no easy way to enforce the rules.

At a prior company, one of the only reasons we adopted anything SaaS was that IT didn't have to know it existed.

Re: Microsoft pauses free Windows 365 cloud PC trials after ‘significant demand’

#78

> including one at the top end that includes eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? Why would I pay ~$10k over 5 years for something that's similar to the laptop I'm typing on which costed me $700 used? I know it's for businesses, but even then, does it come with tooling or something that makes management eas…

> Why is it so popular? I can't understand the economics of it. Can someone explain? CapEx vs OpEx. Also, your iPad is now a Windows machine with eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $158 per month.

> Also, your iPad is now a Windows machine

Until Apple decides they're not comfortable with that and bans it.

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