TL;DR
- Microsoft officially launched Windows 365, which is essentially a computer you run in the cloud.
- The benefit to this would be the ability to run a fully powered Windows machine from even a low-level PC, phone, or tablet.
- The service will be open to businesses only at first, and Microsoft hasn’t mentioned how much it will cost.
We’ve all heard it a million times: the future of computing is in the cloud. While we’ve seen plenty of cloud services deliver on this promise, we’ve yet to see what we’ve always expected: a cloud-based version of Windows.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is keeping the service locked to businesses for the moment. Business owners will have the option to pay a monthly per-user fee, allowing employees to access a virtual version of Windows. Employees could access this from all manners of devices, including low-powered laptops, tablets, and even phones.
This isn’t too different from Google Stadia or Microsoft’s own Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s just that, instead of gaming, your connection is focused on productivity.
Microsoft hasn’t divulged a lot of other info we’d love to know, though. Pricing, virtualized specs, supported resolutions, and other details are still unknown. However, the fact that Windows 365 has a name and a release date assures us that we’ll soon find out more info, including, hopefully, when regular non-business folks will get to use it.
