Paul Blouin

Windows in the Cloud for $345 USD – An office workers dream?

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Highlights

  • Microsoft is planning to launch a new purpose-built miniature PC for its Windows 365 cloud service next year. Windows 365 Link is a $349 device that acts like a thin client PC to connect to the cloud and stream a version of Windows 11.
    • Note: If we think about what we really use our computers for in a work environment, it really doesn’t involve much more than email, word processing, chat, PDFs, presentations and the occasional spreadsheet. Why do we need all these massively powerful laptops with price tags over $1,000 with 16gigs of RAM, it seems like a bit of a waste to me. The idea of the ‘dumb terminal’ is not a new one by any stretch. But it looks like Microsoft is leaning to this next generation of off boarding the heavy lifting to the cloud. And why not, I can run 90% of what I do in a browser, albeit, it is not as good a user experience, but it does work. The Microsoft Link does require an internet connection but I can’t remember the last time the internet was actually down in my office. I’d be curious to see the administrator tools for managing ‘Windows in the cloud’ but I would think that as long as the device has connectivity to the internet, troubleshooting any OS or application layer problems would be pretty easy to manage from a distance. I look forward to testing one of these devices out. When other manufacturers get on board, I really do think this will be the future of office work computing.

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