neonchaos

I think you’re 100% right. There just too much profit incentive on the table. With AI continuing to cash strap companies, the best way to cover some of that debt is by finding other revenue streams. Microsoft already has cost models in place for virtual machines, and dummy hardware specifically for accessing VMs in the cloud. Extrapolate that out as the more “affordable” option ($200 entry free for an HDMI dock with a WiFi card and 32MiB of onboard storage for credential storage) and it becomes very appealing to most people just on the convenience proposition. Then Microsoft data mines the info stored by users to sell for advertising, and suddenly Microsoft isn’t in debt, it’s profitable again.

That’s pretty awesome! My grandfather had a globe I used a few times that had the USSR and Palestine on it.