TimbalooDoes it run Linux?

cvaldesGuys, this is not a new concept. In fact it's decades old and has gone by different names over time including (but not limited to) diskless node, thin client, zero client, net client.

And this isn't specific to really cheap hardware. You could net boot an SGI Indy workstatin (entry price around $5000 thirty years ago) in diskless mode.

And like all of those devices, this one is focused on enterprise customers not consumers. Think of this $350 net PC as replacing a $1000 Dell Optiplex in a hospital. Or rather, think of $350,000 replacing $1,000,000 in hardware.

I know it's hard for a lot of TPU readers to think outside of their consumer bubble dreamworld but there are usage cases that are commercial/enterprise where having a lot of power on the desktop really isn't necessary. People at your medical clinic, bank or insurance company aren't playing Cyberpunk 2077.

Mr. PerfectExactly what I want to know. If MS wants to sell some miniPCs at cost in the hopes of making a profit from subscriptions, I'll gladly take one and put a full OS on it.

TheinsanegamerNNobody is buying this glorified cellphone with a streaming OS to run an office. The performance of the N chip itself is already trash, and you wanna stream an OS through it?

This thing is gonna chug opening Edge. I'd fully expect anyone who suggested outfitting an office full of these to be terminated immediately for incompetence.

thevoiceofreasonThis is more of a chromebox alternative rather than a thin client.

Caring1Just super size a Windows Phone for the desktop :laugh:

sepheronxHey yeah, if we can install a Linux os on this thing, I may just get one for that very purpose

lexluthermiesterWhy? Get yourself a used micro HP or Dell for $200 and install Linux on that. Don't waste your time with this garbage.

sepheronxBecause I hate dell with every inch of my life (except their r640 servers, that gets exemption).

But I wanna do it for experimental and nothing else. I don't have money to burn but I'm also bored too.

lexluthermiesterI do, and no, it's not. Value over time is pathetic for devices like this. Ask anyone who has bought, installed and maintained a Citrix based network. This "subscription model" version of Windows is trash and it belongs in same.

igormpVDI products have already been a thing for years and many companies use it already.

Visible NoiseA full windows system for $30 that requires no support staff is cheaper than cheap. It‘s less than the lease price of a corporate pc.

Visible NoiseSo no, you have no idea.

OctopussI don't even understand what "streaming Windows from the cloud means". Can anyone explain?
What is this thing actually doing?

igormpYour "Windows session" is actually running in another computer in the "cloud" (so a VM hosted somewhere), and all this device does is stream the video input from there into your local device, and send back any inputs you do.

Think of GeForce Now, but with the entire operating system.

igormpYour "Windows session" is actually running in another computer in the "cloud" (so a VM hosted somewhere), and all this device does is stream the video input from there into your local device, and send back any inputs you do.

Think of GeForce Now, but with the entire operating system.

OctopussWhy would anyone want that? That must be slow like a remote session, which is something I only do because it saves time physically getting to whatever machine I want to do something on, which is often in a different town.
Like, WTF?

OctopussWhy would anyone want that?

OctopussThat must be slow like a remote session, which is something I only do because it saves time physically getting to whatever machine I want to do something on, which is often in a different town.

igormpIt's meant for companies

igormpRemote sessions are more often than not super doable, VDI solutions (which is the generic name of this solution) have already been a thing for ages, and the likes of GeForce Now show that it's doable for many people.

lexluthermiesterDoable? Maybe. Optimal and efficient? Good grief no and for the following reason, which I have personal experience with: Single point of failure.

lexluthermiesterOptimal and efficient? Good grief no

lexluthermiesterSingle point of failure.

igormpI've worked deploying such solutions before, and it did work fine and was way easier to manage than regular on-prem devices.

igormpYou can see many use cases in place all over the world, here's one example with many case studies:
www.10zig.com/case-studies/

igormpThat's just an skill issue :)

igormpInternet connection failure is a SPOF in most businesses already, so this doesn't make that much of a difference in your risk assessment.

OctopussFor companies? I don't know, that makes even less sense to me. Working on a computer where the entire system is laggy as shit sounds very productive. I wouldn't want that in an environment that's supposed to generate money even if it was free.

OctopussWhat made sense was what the bank where I was part of the outsourced IT department back in 2010 or so did - it centralized all the data to some virtual server somewhere, so nothing was stored on the branch computers at all. They simply used the computers as terminals of sorts to connect to a desktop in a datacentre. And if the computer they were on started to act up, they gave us a call and we remotely triggered a complete reinstall from a preconfigured image.