In a slide from June 2022 made public via the current FTC investigotion regarding the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft is presenting a few long term needle-moving opportunities to increase its customer base beyond 1.5 billion. Moving Windows to the cloud possibly with a subscription model similar to Office 365 is seen as a primary opportunity.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Internal-documents-show-Microsoft-s-plan-to-introduce-cloud-based-subscription-model-for-Windows-11.728886.0.html
I'm not sure what to think of moving Windows to the cloud. I've worked and played with computers since the 1980s and I've never known anything except a local OS. My experience in the past with game streaming services and the like is that working or playing from the cloud slows you down. It also makes work or gaming that might otherwise not be dependent on being connected to the internet dependent on being connected to the internet. This part doesn't sit well with me because intermittent internet outages are still a somewhat common occurrence. I think the internet itself has to improve before it's ready for the operating system that most PCs use to be accessed from the cloud. I never use the online version of Office 365 I find it stripped down and quite frankly it is a far inferior version of Office compared to the downloaded apps. If this is what Windows is moving toward then Windows likely will be replaced in the not too distant future.
I'm rooting for Windows to become an OS you have to pay for each month. Finally Linux will have a chance to take over!
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a more retarded idea from anyone, but this is Microsoft so it's hard to be surprised at all.