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The goal, really, is to cut the crud out of Windows to create a more Linux-like experience.
but
for powerful developer hardware with 64GB of RAM and gobs of memory bandwidth.
????
If their idea of distraction-free requires 64GB of RAM, they're pretty lost as a company.
Why do developers need 64GB+ RAM on their computers? Maybe Iβm biased as a Ruby on Rails web application developer but Iβm happily squeaking by on just 8GB RAM. Maybe theyβre developing with the memory-hungry VS Code?
I thought it was the gamers who needed tons of RAM.
Visual Studio, VS Code, WSL2, docker containers, SQL Server + SSMS, MS Teams, ...
Usually all at the same time. Not everyone is doing just web dev.
I've worked on large C++ applications and it's worth having a beefy machine. Each source file can be compiled in parallel so you save time by having a ton of CPU cores and memory.
I do use quite a bit, but I also do a lot of different things. Compiling code, running docker containers, local web servers, an android emulator, slack, browser tabs for Jira/confluence/figma/etc., all adds up pretty quick.
8GB is definitely nowhere near enough, at least for what I need to do.
I don't get it either.
If they said "requires a beefy dGPU or one of the handful of high-bandwidth APUs" that feels like it would make more sense than just 64G RAM. I thought most models weren't optimized to run on a CPU even with gobs of RAM.
And plenty of firms don't ship their devs 64G machines, especially in ghe current RAM crunch. Mine sent me a 16G machine in like 2023 and only replaced it with 32 on request because Win11+Docker were heavier than the old Win10/external server workflow.
requires 64gb ram

Clearly, the focus is on local AI development β a timely move as cloud AI token costs start to rise.
This is called burying the lede.
If Microsoft knows this cloud-based AI thing is a bust and people will be moving to local models that are not controlled by Microsoft or OpenAI or Anthropic, then it's only a few months before Satya tells his investors buddies and the bubble pops.
I find this unlikely... IMO I think they are hedging in both directions.
Personally I like the idea of local AI. open source models that you an control, decide, and use smartly, sort your things etc... and not pay an absurd cost or link up.
Personally I think MS is actually betting on the opposite. IE they had a prototype windows that was basically just an AI prompt, no start menu etc... and applications just "streamed".
IMO I think that's more of the goal, use the data center buildout to drive up hardware prices, until people cannot afford a basic PC. Sell thin clients... then sell us "access" to compute in a form where we own nothing, but pay by the processes used etc...
I'm pretty sure local models still induce pyschosis and hallucinate. Maybe the cat's out of the bag, but they still suck.
You believed Microslop once, that's on them. You believed Microslop twice, that's on you.
You need 64 GB or RAM to use it? Seems like it's just a marketing gimmick to find dumb developers who can afford 64GB of RAM in the first place. Kind of like that "I am Rich" app....
Some of us bought our 64gb of ram when it was cheap.
I have 128gb. I didn't need 128gb but it was a good deal and thought fuck it, i spent too much into AM4 anyway might as well go all in and not bother with AM5 for another four years if ever.
I rarely manage to time anything correctly for market fluctuations, but for once I hit it right on the head when I built this machine last summer.
it's 64gb so you can run local ai models to 're-clutter' your windows experience.
64GB of RAM to use it.
Does that mean it does not run on my beloved Thinkpad X220 with 4GB?
Looks like I am stuck with running Debian 13 on it.
Fun fact, at $currentwork there are two true believers in AI and somehow they managed to procure me a laptop for home office which weights in roughly 9 kilograms - a bit more than six times as heavy as my 12 year old X220. Must be the battery which is needed to power the NVidia graphics card.
Is this their follow up to the wildly successful Project Test Everything In Production?
Itβs called zenith because it only gets worse from here
Zero details about what clutter they're going to remove...
E: Reading the original Windows release does not mention anything at all about decluttering. They do call it "distraction-free" at one point, but no elaboration on what that means...
The goal, really, is to cut the crud out of Windows to create a more Linux-like experience.
LOL. I'll just keep using Linux, thank you very much. Great article though:
[β¦] demanding 64GB of RAM in the age of the RAMaggedon seems inexcusable. (Especially because Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI and its overall AI push is a big reason memory prices have skyrocketed.)
Microslop must be getting tired of all the winning.
/s, obviously
Iβm sure the event viewer, resource monitor, etc will support hidpi with this right and itβs not just gonna be another Ui layer painted on top of all the old ones like a shitty apartment where you can cut the wall and count the layers of paint
Win 11 IOT enterprise LTSC already exists and doesn't even require a TPM.
Unless this is a legitimate channel for regular users to get IOT enterprise LTSC, this is a non-story. The thing we want already exists, they just refuse to sell it.
If it was "clutter free", it would not need 64GB. It might even work with 4GB or less.
Why doesn't Microsoft just use AI to fix their shit products? I thought AI was the future and Microsoft is OpenAI's largest shareholder so this should be a slam dunk.

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