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Microsoft's Rumored CloudBook Could Be Your Next Cheap Computer (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: In a few weeks, at its education-oriented software and hardware event in New York, Microsoft could unveil a sub-premium laptop -- something more robust than a Surface but not as fancy as a Surface Book. And rather than run good old Windows 10, the new product could run something called Windows 10 Cloud, which reportedly will only be able to run apps that you can find in the Windows Store, unless you change a certain preference in Settings. The idea is that this will keep your device more secure. However, that does mean you won't be able to use certain apps that aren't in the Store -- like Steam -- on a Windows 10 Cloud device, such as the rumored CloudBook. Microsoft is going after Google's Chromebooks that are very popular in the education space -- so much so that they are playing an instrumental role in keeping the entire PC shipments up.

2 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Brick by design by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> reportedly will only be able to run apps that you can find in the Windows Store

    So...a brick by design? The only reason to still run Windows is to run stuff that ISN'T in an app store.

  2. Too little too late by zerofoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our school moved away from Mac OS and Windows to Chromebooks and Google Apps for staff and students 3 years ago. Two years later Microsoft had a half-assed approach to cloud computing. Their windows-lite laptops required a windows Live account to login to the laptop and then a completely separate Office 365 login to use Office.

    There was no way to bring my domain to them, there was no way to deploy policies to secure the devices, and the windows-lite endpoints still needed Anti Virus and imaging tools to create some sort of managed, standardized and secure experience for end users. Finally, Microsoft only gave schools the cloud version of Office 365 - no local copies allowed.

    In short - all the drawbacks of running windows with none of the benefits. It was an absolute shit show.

    Three years into Chrome OS and Google Apps, the students and staff are pretty pleased with the ease of use of the entire system. I like that it is ridiculously easy to manage and CHEAP.

    Finally, families like the Chrome OS/Apps system since many decide to buy a cheap Chromebook for home and have the exact same capabilities for the students at home.

    Switching back to Microsoft would have very few if any benefits for us, and I suspect lots of schools are in the same situation.