It was just a matter of time…

Posted on by February 11, 2026

Microsoft has always been a money grubbing bunch of @#$$)!!

From David Linthicum’s column in InfoWorld…

The era of true ownership is ending as cloud services and AI are transforming the PC. What does this mean for user control?

Last month, I met with a mid-sized law firm facing a common dilemma. Their Windows 10 laptops were nearing the end of support and needed to be replaced. Typically, this meant buying new hardware and software—predictable and straightforward. But this time, Microsoft suggested a different approach: move to Windows 365 Cloud PCs, a PC that operates with a monthly subscription and is accessible from any device, scalable, secure, and AI-enhanced. The catch? The shift from ownership to a subscription model and reduced local control led their IT team to question how “personal” these computers truly were.

Full article, HERE from InfoWorld.

Microsoft no longer ‘sells’ software of any type, they ‘lease’ it on subscription. Dell computers cut a ‘deal’ with Microsoft years ago, just paying them for the licenses for Windows for their computers, even if the customers didn’t want it…

Now, they want you to lease EVERYTHING and put it in the cloud.

Soooo, what happens when the Intarwebz goes down?  How do you work then?

What about your secure ‘stuff’… it’s now in the cloud for whomever wants to take a chop at it…

There are options, Linux being the best, if you are somewhat computer literate. That is a good open OS and it is supported world wide by volunteers. If you don’t want to run MS Office ver whatever, the options are include LibreOffice Writer (which I run), OnlyOffice, or a lightweight version called AbiWord.

As for me, I went to Macs when MS Windoze ver 7 died. I have not regretted it, and I started running what was then OpenOffice and was happy with it.

As always, it is up to the individual to do what is right for you in your particular circumstances…

Comments

It was just a matter of time… — 31 Comments

  1. How does the medical profession make sure the patients’s HIPAA data is secure. Although on a user level, I’m sure Microsoft’s AI would love finding out about illness discussions, drinking & eating disorders, etc to be sold to 3rd parties. That kind of info is what insurance companies would love to know to “adjust premiums”, and the users would be paying Microsoft to provide it.

    But a larger point occurs to me. Microsoft would be getting the financial data for people and businesses smaller than the Fortune 50 (as they would negotiate their own deals with Microsoft), and that is a gold mine for them (Wall St currently spends millions to collect it from various sources). Again, the users would be paying Microsoft to provide their financials to Microsoft, and then Microsoft can then use it and sell it.

    • Not computer literate except why couldn’t Microsoft sell it more than once?

      • They could and I’m certain they would. Any company/Gov’t waiving dollar bills. That’s the point about collecting the data. You can then sell it to interested parties as data is fungible, unlike physical objects.

        A case in point example, how many copies of software has Microsoft sold repeatedly over the Decades? Now they are going to do the same thing with the data they collect, and will have you pay for the privilege. Quite a lucrative scam.

    • Digital and secure should probably not be used in the same sentence. Data security specialists have oft commented that there are two types of businesses. Those that have been hacked…. and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked. Just look at articles about breaches and how often they are discovered months later.

    • Lots of handwavery, basically. Same with law offices and government bureaucracies.

      There’s a “no-phone-home” version of Windows government agencies can buy, but apparently most of the time they’re using ordinary spyware Windows.

      …and that’s ignoring the problem of the tracking and spy devices that might as well be surgically attached to most people; the ubiquitous smartphone.

  2. Yes. With AI becoming so prevalent, any computer or laptop can produce ‘work’ and earn income. Manufacturers will try and collect some of that one way or another.

  3. Me and my wife’s PC are running Windows 11 but when we boot up we shut down the Cloud backup keeping our records to our backups. I do not run Linux but I learned it decades ago.

    My youngest son, who is 38 and in IT, builds his computers and runs Linux. He also modifies software.

    Microsoft can do what they want but it will ultimately kill their products. People will stop the purchase that keeps them on a leash and look for other ways. Money is tight, but you can by the hardware and have the software changed out. There are small business out there that will do that.

    • Microsoft considers its software division to be “legacy business” and not the future of the company, which is to be “cloud” and “AI.”

      That is, they’re dumping the products that made them one of the largest, most profitable software companies, and betting their future on rainbows and unicorn farts.

  4. Hey Old NFO,
    I don’t like this at all, if it is leased, it can be “stripped away” at a moment notice if something or anything or for no reason just something in the small print, remember Paypal a few years ago, they changed their end user agreement “if you post something on social media they didn’t like, they would “Fine you” $2500 for wronggrouphivething and pull the money out of your account. I didn’t like that and killed my paypal account. Anything in the cloud can be changed on you like Darth Vader did on the “Empire Strikes Back “I alter the deal, Pray I don’t alter it further”. I see bad things on the horizions…but the upcoming generation, they are used to leasing and renting, ownership is an alien concept, they have been taught that owning something is “evil”. I think this is by design.

  5. Microsoft has made some bad decisions over the years. This one may be the worst. They should consult Budweiser about the outcome of alienating a huge number of your customers.

  6. Obviously, “2026 is the year of linux on the desktop” is an overstatement, or a simplification. Linux fanatics historically always overpredict how ready the common user is to switch.

    I used a page of instructions, and two days, to patch Devuan Daedulus to Devuan Excalibur. I’m happier with that than with the MS windows patch experience.

    However, that is the 4GM ram machine, not the 16gb ram machine and 32gb which are still windows.

    I picked my tool chains for moving to linux, but haven’t moved much of anything to linux yet.

  7. You will own nothing and (don’t worry) be happy.

    Switched to Linux (Ubuntu pkg) long ago.

  8. Okay, I’m going to break this into three comments, one URL link per comment.

    If you’re looking for a Linux distribution to try out on your computer (or install) that will give you the closest UI (User Interface) to Windows in the XP or 7 days, give Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) a try:

    https://linuxmint.com/

    • If you have really REALLY old hardware, you might want to try the MATE or XFCE editions.

      All of these can be downloaded in ISO format, burnt to a USB stick that turns it into a bootable “Live ISO” format so you can boot directly into Linux Mint and test drive it without installing a thing or affecting your current installed OS. The Live ISO has an installer built in.

      For burning of the LIVE ISO’s onto a USB stick, I recommend the utility “Rufus” available at:

      https://rufus.ie/en/

      • For installation, I recommend following this guy’s guide on Youtube:

        https://youtu.be/L2JyQ1VJm84

        Me, I’m still poking along with Windows 7 on my desktop, and I use VirtualBox 6.1.44 and I have Linux Mint 22.3 installed into that. Eventually I’m going to install a larger SSD in the machine, clone the existing Windows 7 OS over to it from the existing old SSD, and use the additional space to follow the steps in that guy’s video.

        Then will begin the project of trying to get my games that I love installed on Linux Mint using Proton, and if those work fantastically, I’ll be decommissioning stuff from Windows 7 and moving it over to the Linux partition in a “Weaning off” process. My goal is to be completely free of Microsoft at some point.

    • I recently read an article by a guy who had made that recommendation and then retracted it.

  9. I’m barely computer literate and lazy, that is, loathe to read instructions. Since I bought and paid for my computers, with the programs installed, damned if I will pay again.

  10. I’ve played with Ubuntu off and on for years.
    Dev this.
    Sudo that.
    Utilities I’ve used in Windows for years won’t work (that I can see).
    Set up a remote access and locked myself out of the desktop.
    My grandson is a computer security expert and very unix/linux savvy and got frustrated.
    Me too.
    If it’s just documents and spreadsheets,or youtube, sure.
    Run a home studio? Not so far.

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  12. The goal of MicroEvil is complete hegemony of the information sphere. They want to possess, control and if they choose edit ALL data. Yours, mine, everyone’s. The only reasonable solution is to bite the bullet and switch to a Linux based platform. Everyone had to learn how to use Windoze in the past…now everyone needs to learn Linux.

  14. I second the recommendation for Linux Mint.

    It is reminiscent enough of a windows UI that switching over shouldn’t be too difficult.

    It comes with an “app store” style utility that allows you to install open source programs to replace the Microsoft things you used to use, but you’re not limited to that. If you find something somewhere else, you can easily install that too.

    I’m relatively computer literate, but not a Computer Science geek by any means.

    I’m one of those guys who hates to get rid of anything that still works. My wife had a 2015 Macbook air that got to where it won’t run anything current and most of the older stuff wasn’t being supported so when you have a problem, you’re out of luck.

    She got tired of messing with it so I inherited it. It’s what I’m typing this on right now. Initially, I wasn’t too sure about Linux so I installed Mint in parallel with MacOS and dual booted. After about a month I realized that I just wasn’t using MacOS any more for anything, so I wiped the hard drive, installed Linux Mint (Cinnamon) as a stand alone and haven’t looked back.

    There were a few things I had issues with, but there is a robust support community for Linux Mint. I’d type into my browser’s search bar the exact problem I was having: “Linux Mint wont xxxx” or “My mouse is hinky on Linux Mint” or whatever. The search would return a forum post on the exact problem and there’d be a solution that I could just copy and paste and viola…problem solved.

    I still don’t know what “sudo” means and I don’t think I need to.

    I use Brave browser. LibreOffice for documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations. The Gimp for photo editing. Kdenlive for video editing. Freecad for design, etc etc etc.

    The only limitation I’ve run into is gaming, but I’m not much of a gamer anyway, so it’s not a big deal that I can’t run Halo or Madden 26.

    And, as I mentioned, I’m running it on a 11 year old laptop…which is a bit, um, limited in power to say the least. It runs fast, doesn’t lock up all the time, doesn’t steal my information and “phone home” with it and the interface is intuitive and easy to use for someone familiar with MacOS or Windows either one.

    I use a Windows 11 machine for work because that’s what our company uses, but I don’t like it and now that I’m using Linux Mint on my personal machine, I don’t expect I’ll ever go back.

    That’s my 2 cents anyway. That and $6.98 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

  16. You and I and probably many folks who peruse and comment on your blog have lived with air-gapped systems for a number of years. How will those systems work under Microsoft’s new scheme?
    DoD/DoW Secure Host Baseline works but what if mandatory software won’t run on this specialized install. And that’s just a desktop environment, what about Windows servers?

    • Microsoft will be more than glad to sell that TS/SCI data to China or Russia or Iran or India or who ever bids the highest or maybe all of them.

  17. In this environment, one must assume that anything that was ever put on any digital device anywhere is public record and WILL be used to train AI systems. Public Record, everything.

  18. I am pretty computer literate, having learned on very basic computers and programmed using very basic languages way back in the 80s. I have dabbled in Linux over the years and every single time left in frustration. I want to use programs, not operating systems. Every single time I switched to any version of Linux (always highly recommended as “the best one ever”) I spent more time trying to get programs to work or finding alternatives to the ones I already had, than I spent actually doing anything productive (like ranting on Curtis’ blog). Invariably I couldn’t find a program at all for simple things I used to be able to do. So then more time had to be spent trying to make an emulator work to run those little programs. At this point, I’m probably out. I don’t want to deal with it again. It’s not the UI that “is close enough to Windows”, it’s all the little things that you can’t do without spending significant time figuring them out, versus just clicking the “Install” button.

    I will, however, concede the “cloud storage” argument, which does really annoy me. I got a new laptop a year or so ago and everything is apparently stored on the cloud. When I tried to move it back to the computer and shut off the cloud part, a bunch of stuff disappeared. It all came back when I reactivated the cloud, and then I got bored so stopped fighting it. Most everything I have it backed up to an external drive, so at this point it’s mostly stuff I’m currently working on. I guess.

  19. Haiku has progressed steadily over the years. After evaluating the latest version in a virtual machine, I bought a compatible laptop and installed it “bare metal.”

    Firefox has been ported to it, and LibreOffice, and has printer support via CUPS, which was developed by Apple. There’s support for *some* Windows software via the Wine emulator.

    It’s about where Linux was circa the late 1990s as far as hardware and software support, but it’s tiny and crazy fast. Maybe not a choice for anyone not out to make a point, but if your needs don’t include much in the way of commercial software, an option for those who want get off the common platforms.

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