by Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica.
I think a lot about cloud computing and I'm ready to go (pretty much) all in. Actually, I'm already there to a large degree. However, when I think of possibly needing to run Windows (I don't expect to), I usually think of needing to get some VM software, a Windows license, and software to boot up at least a virtual Windows machine.
It hadn't occurred to me, really, that a service could provide Windows machines on demand. You could have a fully running, personal, persistent desktop, or an ephemeral Windows machine on-demand, or even just a virtual app that runs, popping up a virtual Windows VM underneath it, again on-demand.