They aren't trying to move to be completely cloud based. That was a bad headline that misconstrued what they were actually doing. The article actually just talked about how they wanted Windows to be fully streamable from the cloud as an option.
That's exactly how Office365/Microsoft365 got it's start. Now, instead of buying a copy of Office, you subscribe to Microsoft365.
I'm assuming that the path from cloud as an option to subscription based OS will be a little faster. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if the stripped down locally installed version is offered as a Freemium option. Air-gapped and non-online computers usually just do one thing anyways. Most aren't being used to watch movies, buy stuff, etc.
My prediction would be that within 5 years, probably sooner, if you don't subscribe to your cloud-based Microsoft Windows OS, you'll have a bare-bones experience. Good enough for kiosks and such.
Granted, you are correct, the article passed around only talks about how it's an option right now, with some benefits… but we've all seen Microsoft do this exact same play before.
Now, instead of buying a copy of Office, you subscribe to Microsoft365
They aren't trying to move to be completely cloud based. That was a bad headline that misconstrued what they were actually doing. The article actually just talked about how they wanted Windows to be fully streamable from the cloud as an option.
That's exactly how Office365/Microsoft365 got it's start. Now, instead of buying a copy of Office, you subscribe to Microsoft365.
I'm assuming that the path from cloud as an option to subscription based OS will be a little faster. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if the stripped down locally installed version is offered as a Freemium option. Air-gapped and non-online computers usually just do one thing anyways. Most aren't being used to watch movies, buy stuff, etc.
My prediction would be that within 5 years, probably sooner, if you don't subscribe to your cloud-based Microsoft Windows OS, you'll have a bare-bones experience. Good enough for kiosks and such.
Granted, you are correct, the article passed around only talks about how it's an option right now, with some benefits… but we've all seen Microsoft do this exact same play before.
Naa, I just install Office and autopatch it.