this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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Technology
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I'm really worried about this, I don't think it'll become a universal standard by all means but I can see Microslop forcing this onto people as a kinda next step from all the hardware limitation bs.
They would finally have total control over your OS.
They've been pushing the thin client for years and it's never taken off. You and I wouldn't be the target for this machine and neither would gamers or content creators. This is for business or grandparents.
It’s never taken off because of relatively inexpensive and abundant hardware. But these will be attractive to people who need something now and want something inexpensive.
Grandparents are the immediate target but eventually if they force the hardware supply shortages soon some people will need something.
Imagine students with low budget.
The next 5 years are going to be really interesting.
It must be noted that Big Tech is currently engaged in artificially forcing hardware prices upward, and that's going on while Microsoft continues their generations-long quest to deprecate old hardware by forcing new versions of their OS out of compatibility with it.
There are so many ways they're actively screwing their customers by making things tangibly worse, and then conveniently showing up to "help" by selling us more of their shit.
I would be surprised if this WASN’T a conspiracy among all the billionaires in their secret clubs.
Grandparents don't want to rent shit. They want to buy it and be done. Source: this old fuck right here.
I can totally see them targeting those demographics as well, cloud gaming has been kinda popular in the last few years. Content creators could be sucked in with promises of getting pro performance without the price, possibly bundled with creative software.
They need to lower the price of the hosted desktops then, it's still way more cost effective over time to buy a laptop/desktop for a 3 years cycle than to rent a monthly virtual desktop. The only business that wants it are opex obsessives that hate any capex.
Self-hosters will be all over these
Assuming they're not ridiculously locked down, which they probably are.
Not sure why they would be. There are plenty of these on the market already with no issues accessing the bootloader or installing other OSs on them. Same goes for Microsoft Surface device, Chromebooks, etc.
Think of how Wyse thin clients are typically ridiculously locked down, these are basically a newer version of those.
They did since it was online. It's closed and online, the OS "owner" are the only true admin. If it's closed and online, your "commands" are just "suggestions" compared to theirs.
Especially for businesses. At work you'll have no choice but to use something like this.