Blech, no thank you. The only silver lining is that this would finally make it compelling for devs to support linux desktop for games. You know a cloud based windows is not going to treat them fairly.
More likely is that developers will start to work with Microsoft as cloud windows would become a sort of walled garden that is pretty useful if you want to crack down on cheating. And users will just be priced higher for bigger hardware demand, or be shifted to Xbox. In fact maybe even split Xbox into a separate OS specifically for gaming, so you could sell both OSes to gamers.
Honestly, I think linux is going to pull ahead in the long run for gaming.
Yeah, we can only hope. I’m stuck on Windows 11, because I like to play multiplayer games with the people around me, and anti-cheat is the bane of linux gaming’s existence. Once that is resolved I’ll move over my main desktop over.
I already have my server running Linux, because of course my server should be running Linux.
Luckily valve is putting a lot of effort into linux gaming. I’m hoping they’ll convince everyone to fix anti-cheat software that doesn’t work on linux/proton.
My fear is that microsoft will tempt them with free windows licenses or even paying them to install windows on steamdeck 2.
Welll… Microsoft wants to make a version of Windows that runs from the cloud for its surface devices to try and compete with Google’s Chromebooks. But that headline wouldn’t get half as many clicks.
If Microsoft wants to fix the internet problem that my country and many others have, then they can move it to the cloud.
I travel by RV a lot and frequently don’t have internet access. Would my laptop turn into a brick those times?
Well, no, because I run Linux, but if I were using a Windows laptop, what would happen?