James Serra clears up some confusion:
If you’re a Power BI report author who’s just getting into Microsoft Fabric, you’ve probably asked the same question I hear over and over: am I supposed to stop using Power BI Desktop now?
It’s a fair question. Power BI Desktop is a Windows app that has traditionally been the place where report authors do everything: get data, transform it, model it, and build the report. Microsoft even describes that “connect, shape/transform, then load” experience as part of how Power BI Desktop works with Power Query.
Fabric changes the feel of that workflow because Power BI is now also a first-class experience in the browser inside the Fabric portal. And that browser experience isn’t just “view and share” anymore. You can edit semantic models in the service, including using Power Query for import models and building reports directly from that same environment.
Read on to see, for a brand new report, which of the two models can make the most sense.