Since this thing only has to connect to some Windows 365 instance in the cloud, the device itself has no need to run Windows. I bet it runs some locked down flavour of Linux instead, similar to SteamOS or LibreELEC.
Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#22Another step toward modern dumb terminals, now "thin clients" of the mainframe, now "the cloud", where a handful of giants own anything and the others nothing, not even understanding this. A name? Ah, yes, 2030's Agenda or an old book I suggest to anyone The Science Of Government, Founded On Natural Law, by Clinton Roosevelt also available in pdf https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/sciencegovernme00roo...
I suggest https://kfx.fr/articles/2024-04-26-onnewdealexp-contrapolis/ and really starting to think about where we are going and where we could go. We could go in a distributed society, resilient like the Internet, spread like Usenet, desktop-computing and homelabs as the norms, where companies who needs more own a shed or more with some racks, p.v. and storage to ensure stable power, FTTH and emergency radio (4G/5G and LEO sat access) full of very dynamic SMEs or a set of large internment camps named smart cities full of inmates and no innovation nor dynamism till the obvious collapse.
BTW that's NOT a political vision but a technical one, because the cloud model will end up there technically anyway.
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#23Since this thing only has to connect to some Windows 365 instance in the cloud, the device itself has no need to run Windows. I bet it runs some locked down flavour of Linux instead, similar to SteamOS or LibreELEC.
Nope. It runs a heavily restricted version of Windows.
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#24$349 for a terrible thinclient
I expect OEMs to come out with cheaper variants (and more modern port selections).
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#25> its design, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Apple Mac Mini. I followed the link and they look nothing alike, unless this is the first time the author is seeing a mini pc. Otherwise it looks like a, surprise, mini pc.
> I followed the link and they look nothing alike,
So the title worked and made you click.
(Also, I agree with you, if anything it looks closer to the now "old" Mac Mini design... only very very superficially speaking of course)
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#26Since this thing only has to connect to some Windows 365 instance in the cloud, the device itself has no need to run Windows. I bet it runs some locked down flavour of Linux instead, similar to SteamOS or LibreELEC.
Nope. It runs a heavily restricted version of Windows.
Microsoft is going to use their own kernel. That doesn’t look great if they don’t even trust it.
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#27> especially in the light that end users shall not have the privileges to install local apps So it's a way to lock users into the MS cloud ecosystem even more than normal Windows... How nice.
I don't know about IT, but the employees working in various non-IT companies are already locked in MS ecosystem. This is brings nothing new.
Re: Microsoft's New PC Looks Just Like a Mac Mini but Serves a Whole New Purpose
#28The 1990s called, they want their X terminals back. It sounds like basically the same thing: a screen, keyboard and mouse that displays windows for apps running on a remote server.
The 1970s called, they want their 3270 terminals back. It's worth remember what the P in PC stood for. Personal. A computer that was yours to do with as you wished. Not a machine that is yours only as long as you pay rent to IBM (then) or Microsoft (now). It would be a tragedy to lose the P.
This is not a Personal Computer. It's a terminal for workers to use at job. It's a Company Computer.