this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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A few years ago, Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos revealed how he thinks of local PC hardware as antiquated, ready to be replaced by cloud options from companies like AWS and Azure.

Bucha Bull to me.

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[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Well chucklefuck you need a basic PC to act as the client. You know what kind of computer most people have? A shitty PC good enough to be the fuckin client. Why would they want to pay for a shitty pc to rent another one when they can just use the fucking shitty PC they bought at walmart for 300 for 8 fuckin years like they do now? That is $3 a month amortized beat that bitch.

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 1 points 41 minutes ago

They will sell it like streaming services or printers and ink. The first Amazon PC is free, then the subscription price and amount of ads go up. Eventually people will stick because all their files are there, and their Amazon PC does not support mass storage devices like USB sticks to download all of their work.

[–] orbitz@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

Cheap computer (I'm Canadian so let's say these are maple bucks) say $500, what's a rental $30 a month, so 16ish months before it's paid off.

I ran a media PC off a $300 computer for years (I can't recall exactly least 2 maybe 3). If you need more you probably don't need a cloud one, if you get a cloud one it's cheaper to buy a cheap computer every 2 years.

It may make a sense to some but I enjoy having my nas backup and separate media PC. Also if Amazon goes down you can't even access the calculator, least with no Internet there are options at home.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

The very idea of simply owning a screen, keyboard, and mouse, and using Windows remotely via a subscription will likely send shivers down many of your spines — but you have to consider the trends here.

You need at minimum an ethernet or wifi adapter and a processor and a GPU to decode video and push pixels to the screen. You need effectively a local PC to rent a remote PC

Weird. You would think that the “genius” would know that the very AI and Quantum computing his organization and other Billionaires are building out, is going to undermine anything of value that is Centralized. Really proof his genius is how to exploit others and not really the reality we are finding ourselves in. I am LOL inside as the shift back to decentralized services will be a bloodbath for Centralized anything.

[–] borQue@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 hours ago

Murica is a deranged shithole. Linux is our only way out of this. To all hardware manifacturers: Build your goddamn drivers for it and free us!

~cry in the capitalist vacuum...

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 19 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Everything a subscription. You'll own nothing and like it!

And, people, I can't stress this enough, FUCK JEFF BEZOS!

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Internet and access to servers is the first thing that govts turn off when they get uppity.

Seems like a fatal risk to have online only services.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 17 points 6 hours ago

How about fuck you Jeff.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I love how the author keeps bringing up how expensive it would be to implement a system of cloud computing rental because no one would pay the amount it would require to make such a thing profitable. But we're talking about Jeff bezos here who took billions of dollars worth of loss for over 10 years before making Amazon the profit machine that it is now. Simply by making things cheaper for a long period of time until the customer base eas so used to the model that they could picture doing it any other way and their competition went out of business. I can totally foresee them doing this exact thing with cloud computing. Make it really cheap get people hooked where they have gotten rid of all of their in person computers and then, once access to home computing is either prohibitively expensive or impossible to do because parts are no longer available or otherwise impossible for people to switch away, jack up the price and make it profitable by squeezing every dime out of the average consumer.

This was also, by the way, Netflix's strategy as well as Spotify and all the other cloud-based services that people are "addicted to". Take billions and loss to get people used to your service and not consider any alternative. Then once you have a captive audience shoot that price to the Moon.

[–] oftenawake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 7 hours ago

Why in the fuck did we move away from mainframes and dumb terminals in the first place, Bozes? Now back to that, but... cloud based, and we pay you to fuckin own everything? Get bent!

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 hours ago

Genuenly I refuse to use cloud PCs, I don't give a fuck how "cheap" they are or how "convenient" they are I ain't using it. If there is still hardware being produced that works with Linux I'm buying it, if no hardware exists I'm gonna keep using my old hardware until new hardware that does support Linux comes out.

The only thing that's gonna be replaced is capitalism and by extension the capitalist class.

[–] PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

This is stupid. I will never rent a computer mainframe.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Shit like this is why I'm glad I'm almost dead.

[–] grapefruittrouble@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 hours ago

Perfect! And after that we can rent our phones from the cloud too. Maybe our electric cars after that?

[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago

"You will own nothing and LIKE IT!"

Yeah go screw yourself Tech weirdo's. You could help us, instead you just bleed us dry for profits.

[–] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 32 points 11 hours ago

I'll give up computers entirely before I rent one from you greedy pricks.

[–] enjoyingcarp650@lemmy.world 12 points 9 hours ago

I would rather never touch a computer again than rent one.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yup, Jordan was right, they want you to rent everything.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

You will own nothing and you will be happy.

[–] GaryGhost@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Amazon sucks

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (5 children)

As @TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com stated. This would never work in the US without major overhaul to existing infastructure. I'm rocking a 32/32 Mbps atm. My parents? they get 5. I have to enable steam to limit itself to 512kb/s download or I will take down their network as a whole and if anyone is using youtube or netflix it has to be a 240p or it starts to granulate. Remind me how a cloud based PC is going to work in this state.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Tbf RDP works pretty well for basic desktop stuff even over slow links. I'm sure there's a protocol out there even more optimized for use cases like this.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Easy. Remember a few years ago when google advertised that they'd have negative latency allowing you to play your games everywhere, on every device, in better conditions than on your own device? Just like that. You just have to hire enough salespeople to convince reality to bend backward.

[–] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Easy, they will just be locked out of having access to computing, that way they can only get their news and information from right-wing AM talk radio.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 5 points 8 hours ago

Well, if we go absurdly simple you only need to send user input and receive images or something that fairly easily could be rendered as an image (html?).

800dpi mouse sends about 24kbps, keyboard input is negligible. So theoretically speaking, you can do absolutely everything on such a remote PC but with a screen of 240p.

Absolutely miserable.

[–] d00ery@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

You'll have to rent a starlink from Elon, so he can keep an eye on your habits too.

Just think of the marketing potential, dynamic pricing ...

(Sounds like hell to me)

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[–] Eldritch_Alyx@lemmy.world 20 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Imagine the unparalleled censorship when the far-right tech elites decide what you can do on "your" computer.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

One way or another, major company-backed OSes are moving towards that. Checking all your pictures, messages, videos, audio, for your own good. For now it's creeping on mobile, but don't worry, it'll come to a windows near you soon enough.

[–] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Good thing you can uninstall Windows for now, then.

Also, I have a feeling that Bezos' threats to kill the PC (yes, I'm calling them threats because they sound like threats), and the KYC stuff going around are somehow linked.

Bezos' threats against the very existence of the PC could also be construed as a threat against self-hosting, including the Fediverse, and against the existence of alt OSes as well.

[–] Enzy@feddit.nu 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Boosteroid? Yes, it's great.

Amazon Luna? No, it's a joke.

As for renting a whole machine, unnecessary unless you need a server.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

That's like an EU member purchasing the F-35 under Krasnov. Yep, fuck that shit.

[–] Kaizodrack@lemmy.eco.br 7 points 10 hours ago

"Own nothing and be happy"

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 22 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

Good luck with that.

Signed,

A person who has recently started pulling all their files from cloud storage like Google Drive and Dropbox

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[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 12 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

So, these idiots didn't learn their lesson the first time with the colossal flop that was Stadia and now they want to convince us that, this time for sure, we really don't want to own our own hardware and cloud computing is the future?

These guys should not be getting a single bent penny for convincing people to switch over to cloud computing when their AI slop machines are responsible for the scarcity that is causing hardware prices to be completely uneconomical.

[–] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 20 points 11 hours ago

if they keep pushing it, eventually the younger generation will just comply.

we need to continue to educate the new generations that the rich/CEO/tech freaks like bozo cannot be trusted, they lie, and their goal is to make us own nothing and pay for it.

make it clear what their true goal is. media cannot be trusted to assist in this. citizens of the world must be loud at every moment we can be.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Stadia was Google and Bezos runs Amazon, who does have their own game streaming service, Luna, which is still operational.

I haven't used either of those, but I've been using GeForce Now recently while waiting for a replacement PSU and I have to say, it works really well. The on-device apps (Samsung monitor, LG TV) leave a lot to be desired but once you're in a game, the latency is negligible for me and they're running games high enough that it looks as good as when I was running it on my own 3090.

None of that to say I disagree with you, but I do like that the option exists; it's not black and white, good and bad. But it SHOULD be just that - AN OPTION. Not the only choice left after AI has demolished the market.

Take solace in the fact the AI bubble will pop and all these "sold" wafers will suddenly flood the market as they turn to consumer brands to try and offload them. I don't think we're headed for this "all compute in the cloud" future he wants. Not yet.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The unfortunate thing I've heard is that the chips made for AI/datacenter use won't be able to be repurposed for consumer tech.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Boy I sure hope that's not true, what an ENORMOUS amount of resources that would go to waste if so.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 13 hours ago

Yeah bud, maybe if you get just a little more money, you'll finally be complete. Just a little more money....

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 33 points 14 hours ago

"Hopes", more like will be doing a bunch of anti-competitive bullshit to ensure that this is your only option.

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