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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’

#151

Post by Macha »

notthedroids wrote: post #30
cowsup wrote: 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…

If I would have to pay $100-$200 for the software subscriptions for my Windows VM (windows license, office) it gets close? Especially if Microsoft is also throwing in some hardware so my local computer is taxed less? Of course streaming a cloud desktop introduces its own problems (latency, unreliability, etc) but also advantages (portability, reproducibility, etc)

Unless you're writing Office plugins, why do you need an office license for your test VM?

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

#152

Post by unoti »

donmcronald wrote: post #10

> 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…

> 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?

It's probably not similar to the PC you're typing on in many ways, including the following:

- Probably significantly higher bandwidth to the internet

- Astonishingly high bandwidth to Azure resources (fiber)

- Outstanding security: cameras, carefully controlled access, 24x7 physical security

- Hardware reliability automatically serviced

- Multiple sources of power (usually more than one power utility company connected, plus generators)

- Multiple network connections typically, for redundancy

- Backups managed for you

- Can push a button and make a clone of your PC that your friend can log in to for a couple days then delete it when you're done

- If someone wanted to steal your hard drive by breaking into your house, they totally could. But getting your cloud PC hard drive image is going to take more determination than breaking through a window.

For many users, none of the above things matter. But for a lot of users, having all those things taken care of is a big win. Have you ever had a fan or a hard drive die on your pc? Or deal with the pain of migrating data off a dead PC onto its new replacement? Maybe that sort of thing happens only once every few years to you. But if you're managing, say, 25 pc's, every month you're going to be dealing with 1-3 problems in your fleet.

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

#154

Post by Macha »

908B64B197 wrote: post #150
Macha wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do accounting not get a record of everything you purchase on the corporate card and require an explanation (or else repayment)?

Yeah. Keyboards, headphones, mice, monitors, desk chairs purchased for software engineers... Pretty self explanatory.

Here's how that'd go in the last two companies I worked for: Purchase declined. Not valid under T&E policy. Please follow IT acquisition policy for computer equipment and real estate acquisition policy for furniture. Card payment is due by xx/xx to reimburse for invalid expense.

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

#155

Post by temac »

pwinnski wrote: post #40
donmcronald wrote: post #10

> 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-…

> The economics make so much more sense in that world.

Actually the economics still does not make any sense in that world, but some people in some companies count things (only) using such rituals that they think it does. Which is, obviously, all that matters.

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

#156

Post by maccard »

bserge wrote: post #119
antaviana wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had Ethernet installed in all rooms at home. For some 800 euros (5 Ethernet outlets including the router) you get sub millisecond latencies to your router and your computer works wonders again. Installing an Ethernet LAN network is the best investment for anyone who works from home. Wi-fi really sucks in urban areas and soon even in rural areas because of the IoT crap.

You get Ethernet for Gigabit speed, not latency. 5x 30 Euro routers in Wireless Bridge mode would've delivered the same latency. And I could've done the wiring for 2/3 of the price, btw.

How do you know you could have done it for 2/3 of the price? All my internal walls are solid brick, so running a cable from one end to the other would involve drilling through at least one, but likely 3 brick walls, and either channeling through the wall or pulling up the hardwood floors above them. No way are you going to install 5 points for €500 in a job like that.

Also Ethernet is definitely useful for latency. Having sub 1ms latency on a wifi network is very very difficult, and definitely not going to happen with 5 routers.

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

#157

Post by temac »

jensensbutton wrote: post #39
donmcronald wrote: post #10

> 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…

This sounds a lot like, "why pay for when it's cheaper to provision your own hardware?"

Except how will people access such Windows 365 VMs usually?...

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

#158

Post by jclulow »

bserge wrote: post #119
antaviana wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had Ethernet installed in all rooms at home. For some 800 euros (5 Ethernet outlets including the router) you get sub millisecond latencies to your router and your computer works wonders again. Installing an Ethernet LAN network is the best investment for anyone who works from home. Wi-fi really sucks in urban areas and soon even in rural areas because of the IoT crap.

You get Ethernet for Gigabit speed, not latency. 5x 30 Euro routers in Wireless Bridge mode would've delivered the same latency. And I could've done the wiring for 2/3 of the price, btw.

That's not really true in noisy areas. The available radio spectrum is limited, and as more users inhabit an area you are basically time-sharing. The less time you have to send packets, the more latency some of those packets will experience. Empirically, wifi latency can be _extremely_ poor in busy areas.

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

#159

Post by c618b9b695c4 »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #143
donmcronald wrote: post #10

> 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…

And as far as security goes, the now unmanaged BYOD client can still have keyloggers or screen recording malware that can extract company data. If your users can't be trusted with any sort of onboarding/MDM enrollment, it would still be cheaper to just send them a working laptop. If you don't want to do VPNs, you could still do Zero Trust style applications and have a cloud MDM for management.

>...or screen recording malware that can extract company data.

I have idly wondered how trivial it would be to exfiltrate data through HDMI. HDCP strippers exist and would let you record the output with perfect fidelity (1920x1080x3 is a lot of data). Simplistically, could compress data files, push through hexdump, paginate at chosen rate, and done.

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

#160

Post by TheNewAndy »

unoti wrote: post #152
donmcronald wrote: post #10

> 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…

> 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? It's probably not similar to the PC you're typing on in many ways, including the following: - Probably si…

You still need another device to connect to it right? The hardware reliability can only go down by adding more hardware to the system. Same goes for power, and to some extent network.
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