I mean, imagine a future where every computer is just a chromebook, phones are no longer phones but just a “terminal” that streams the actual OS which runs in the cloud.

I mean, with 5G, I think its possible to make it seamless. And I think corporations push for this because they would love to have your data in the cloud, both for surveillance, and to charge a subscription for storage. I think this enshittifications would eventually happen to digital storage.

“You would own nothing and you’d be happy”

So how likely will this dystopian future happen?

I’d predict a 90% chance of this happening, and almost everyone would be okay at first, until they start overcharging for cloud storage subscriptions, but by then it’d be too late, there’d be a monopoly.

  • @Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    87 months ago

    It’s already happening. Microsoft’s push to onedrive and m365 was to get everyone off of legacy apps.

    Next will be ARM devices that have a multi-day battery because it’s all just cached apps accessing your cloud-saved data.

      • @Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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        17 months ago

        I’m split. Outlook and other apps have turned into pigs but have very little competition to force innovation. Customers are just as complacent, and demand things not change at all.

        Moving to PWA web apps has turned the industry around. MS is dumping all of the old code that causes so many issues.

        I find other IT people expecting MS to not make even small changes, while also complaining about battery life and app reliability.

        I’m looking forward to New Outlook. Supporting HTML and https is so much easier than map I and legacy client code with dirty plugins.

  • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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    27 months ago

    I think we’re already there but not in the way OP describes. People haven’t had great experiences with Chrimebooks and storage is cheap

    Think of your Google drive, OneDrive or Apple drive. The most common scenario is you use local storage for reliability and responsiveness, but it’s always aynching to the cloud. Many of your files may not even exist in local storage but it looks like it does

    Or consider Apples approach to photo storage. You can choose to use iCloud for photo storage and it keeps only a thumbnail on local storage. Your basic browse and search operations are reliable and responsive, and but you download the full photo as you need it

  • @algorithmae@lemmy.sdf.org
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    137 months ago

    It’s pretty funny how I’ve seen posts exactly like this one 10-15 years ago, and nothing has really changed that much from a consumer perspective.

    It’s just simply cheaper, more reliable, and more convenient to have local storage.

    • @ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      27 months ago

      If you dug into history - with computers in the 70s-80s, we used to remotely dial into another computer. The terminal at your school (as home computers were pretty expensive) would dial into a stronger computer and you’d use up their resources.

      Every few years, I see that mentality coming back. Cloud computing. Chromebooks. Remote desktops. Stadia and gaming on-demand.

      Its fascinating.

      • GHiLA
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        7 months ago

        People also know what cloud gaming means now.

        If that device loses service, it’s just a fancy paper weight until some nerd on GitHub spends a month rooting it and writing homebrew.

        But people are also fucking stupid, so… They’ll buy anything, just sell it.

      • Captain Poofter
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        17 months ago

        Wait, we had networking like that in the 70s? I’ve never heard that, do you have any other specific information I can look up? A computer at a school talking to another school remotely to use its processing power in the 70s sounds like alternate reality. That’s literally just the internet. What were they pushing the data over? Surely not phone lines?

  • @Kelly@lemmy.world
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    37 months ago

    I still consider a microSD card a must for my portable devices so I can hoard media locally.

    But I pay for a cloud backup of anything I produce.

  • TheOrcWhoWrites
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    87 months ago

    Likely, never due to the three storage backup rule: save on local device, save on external, and save one copy on cloud. So you don’t lose your work or media.

  • HubertManne
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    47 months ago

    Like others I don’t see it happening but I could see a fast persistant storage merging ram and disk into one feature.

    • DarkThoughts
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      17 months ago

      Very unlikely. You can already create swap files on your drives and that’s painfully slow, because your drives are so much slower and further away compared to your ram. It’s a very different means of storing and accessing data.

      • HubertManne
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        27 months ago

        There have been a variety of endevours to make non volitile ram. Im not talking about with current technology. Im 100% certain storage will be merged in future.

  • @BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world
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    117 months ago

    I would say it is unlikely - storage is so cheap that some form of local storage is likely to stay.

    A terminal device still needs some form of storage to run the software to access the cloud. That might end up being some small storage on a chip but the difference is not between none and something, but some and more.

    I also think there are enough people who want storage they own and control that it’ll persist as a concept. Also having devices that work when networks are down is a benefit in itself - attempts to make devices dumb terminals get exposed as a productivity nightmare when networks do go out.

    I think big business will certainly try hard to lock people in to their ecosystems. Remote storage, remote computing/graphics processing are all ways they will try. But conversely there are vibrant communities pushing independent & private alternatives that I don’t see dying - whether thats Linux on PCs, or Graphene OS to take control of your android device etc.

    • slazer2au
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      257 months ago

      Can I really? I won’t murder you for it, I am willing to wait.

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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        77 months ago

        Or more likely, desktop OSes will be locked down and will simply not be able to use it, while bank websites and other stuff will only work with locked down OSes.

        For your security of course.

            • @infinitevalence@discuss.online
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              37 months ago

              Then don’t buy those products. I only buy phones I can unlock and install my own version of Android on. Same with computers and iot. If I can’t install my own software then I didn’t own it.

              • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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                37 months ago

                If megacorps have their way, you won’t be able to use banking, government, social media, etc. if you aren’t running their proprietary slop.

                See Google’s Attestation API attempt. Computers can become like smsrtphones are right now.

                • LostXOR
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                  37 months ago

                  You can always have a burner “secure” device for official business, and a privacy-respecting device for everything else.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet
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        17 months ago

        Aren’t there enough real problems in the world to focus on without the need to go inventing more? This is just imaginative rage bait. Focus on real shit that’s actually happening.

  • lurch (he/him)
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    7 months ago

    Unlikely, as cloud storage providers can’t be trusted completely. They be like “but it’s encrypted. trust me bro”, but every time they get the chance, like when a weakness is detected in the cipher, they will peek or let some government peek. This is how magically your competitor ends up with your business secrets.

      • FiveMacs
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        27 months ago

        The average euser does not trust them, they just don’t care…until they should have cared.

      • lurch (he/him)
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        17 months ago

        Yes, but there will always be an important crowd that does care and that’s why cloud storage can’t completely replace local storage or home NAS. It can maybe replace it to like 50% max or so, but never completely.

  • @dudenas@slrpnk.net
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    7 months ago

    If by “seamless” you mean that wireless data speeds can soon match locally attached storage, there will still remain a political question of autonomy. We might some day have light terminals without storage or even serious processors with all the data and work still done in our cellars garages and and attics via 8G or whatever grade connection. If there will be enough demand for market and politics for devices to be available, of course. So yeah, I think, culture and politics hold the answer.

  • @otp@sh.itjust.works
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    27 months ago

    In some ways, it already has.

    Lots of orgs that used to have file servers and data centres have been moving to things like OneDrive.

    On-board storage space used to be a selling point for laptops, phones, and pre-built computers…but now some of them are coming bundled with a few months’ subscription to cloud storage. It’s been easy to find desktops with 0.5 or 1TB of storage space for years, yet the price of HDDs has been decreasing for years.

    Plenty of people seem to use things like Google Drive as a way to move files or even to “save space on their devices” the way that we used to use thumbdrives or external drives (and yes, those are still viable methods of moving and backing up files, but it used to be the only way).

    I think if your computer has only 0.5TB of storage, then the machine might as well be primarily a cloud storage-backed device. (Unless you’ve got your files elsewhere, etcetcetc). We’ll always need local storage for things like the OS and for more easily running whatever apps or files that were just downloaded off the cloud…so I don’t think it’ll ever go to 0. But 0.5TB is pretty darn close these days! Lol

    And if you think that you’re not guilty of using cloud storage…tell me what percentage of your Steam library you have downloaded locally… Lol

    (Steam isn’t cloud storage, but the principle is similar – “I don’t need to store my files because they’re available for me to download at any time from someone else’s computer!”)

  • Engywook
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    17 months ago

    “You would own nothing and you’d be happy”

    I’m fed up with that bullshit phrase. Please, stop parroting it. And, even if it became true… You’ll be happy, which is more than 90% of humanity could hope for.