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Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

pcworld.com

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Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we crossed the point where Linux is less shitty than Windows. KDE and XFCE can compete.

That could very well be, but less shitty is the wrong metric. Can get shit done is the right metric, regular users don't care about corporate telemetry and adware so long as it doesn't get in the way of getting their stuff done. A good example of what I mean is a work event I attended a year or two ago. We had a bunch of guys up on the stage and between the lot they probably had over a century of combined Linux exper…

Who says the windows or mac users would be any quicker, per-se? Some days the windows folks get lucky, sometimes the mac folks get lucky, and some days the Linux person might actually get done faster than everyone else (it has happened!).

If you need to use local hardware you haven't used before; it's always a good idea to arrive well in advance to get yourself set up. You never know what you might run in to.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#142

It's worth noting ChromeOS doesn't let you do that either, while MacOS doesn't require an iCloud account. iOS doesn't either, but is pushy about having an iCloud account. Don't know about Android.

Macs are way worse about pushing services on you than they used to it, back in the glory days it was maybe one CTA in the OOBE. Now once every 2 months or so I open Apple Music and get blocked from my local music until I dismiss an Apple Music subscription offer.

In general you can tell there is no one at the top in a position to veto this who has the taste to know they should and it's slowly eroding the brand just to hope they get a few more Apple One, Apple Play, Apple News, Apple Fitness+ whatever subs

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder when Europe starts to stop this and also forces Microsoft to stop users from the hard requirement for an online account. It's about time. I mean, they could make a ton of money by charging users for Windows without tracking/online accounts/bloatware.

I'm guessing that selling OS:es to consumers isn't making a ton of money. Most would come as OEM for a small Windows tax on a new computer. The money is in AppStores, OneDrive subscriptions, Office 356 subs and so on. And letting people run some sort of no-frills windows where you login as a local account and run your old spreadsheet for 10 years is completely at odds with any kind of strategy that will make money fr…

I'm not saying that MS shouldn't sell M365 or similar. The thibgs you mentioned are not exclusive to my issue.

I would be willing to pay for an OS that has no Candy Crush, LinkedIn and whatever installed and that would allow to use local accounts. I also don't want forced reboots because of updates.

Yet, I still would use OneDrive, M365, ...

It's currently possible to to run your Office 2010 on Win 10/11, there's nothing holding you back.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#145
Little bit off topic, sorry.

Windows 10 support ending in 2025 is really scary. Literally billions of computers are not eligible to install Windows 11 because of artificial limitations, all of these are supposed to be trashed? That would be an enormous amount of e-waste.

Realistically one or a combination of the following will happen:

  - Microsoft extends the deadline
  - There will be a paid long term support update channel, and hopefully a registry edit will enable this (happened a couple of times before)
  - Most people will continue to use it without security updates (most likely)
I guess Microsoft will agressively tell you that your OS is not safe, etc, so hopefully a single tool will exist that hides all of these messages and switches to the long term support updates.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#146
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only thing holding me from Linux I've spent the last 25 years using linux and seeing this statement. There's always something.

For me, the something is the DAW i use (Cubase). I know it intimately, I make a living with it, and despite trying other alternatives, there isn't a DAW which runs on Linux which would cut it for me, in terms of overall features. If Cubase ran on linux (and all my current plugins could work), then I'd drop it in a heartbeat. I've been running Linux in various guises and roles since (I think) 1998, but it's never made…

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=applicatio...

Bother. You do seem to be stuck for now.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#147
post #47
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only thing holding me from Linux I've spent the last 25 years using linux and seeing this statement. There's always something.

Let's be honest here, the something is 99% drivers. It was printers, then it was wifi, now it's gpus. DNNs and LLMs at least made the compute part of the gpu driver Linux-native (from the vendors' perspective), one would hope the graphics part of the graphics processor would come next, but alas making big iron do work is done from macos and windows laptops.

In the year 2024 of our lord, Linux do not works fine with the ultra-common Realtek ALC892 chip for sound, having constant audio skips. Found in a myriad of motherboards from the last decade.

This is just my issue, I am pretty sure, there are other loads of drivers issues elsewhere.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#148
post #39
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think both things are true: the consumer apps division of MS is more open and is being allowed to follow the money, even to other OSs. The Windows division is doubling down on all of the worse practices that the law allows them to try to extract some more value from their users. Thankfully the EU has forced them to curb some of these practices, even if the process is still intentioanlly obtuse. For example…

I would rather hope the vendor has the right policy, not that a multi-national union forces it to have the right policy.

Unfortunately many people, in particular the leaders of industry in the USA, believe essentially the opposite: that any company almost has a duty to extract as much profit as legally possible, or even beyond, assuming profit > fines.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#149

So what would be a good laptop for Linux these days?

that depends entirely on what you do with it. bare 24.04 sits at about 0% CPU / 1 GiB RAM usage.

a browser+IDE combo will perfectly fine even on a budget laptop with 4 cores / 8 GB RAM / generic SSD.

Re: Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that selling OS:es to consumers isn't making a ton of money. Most would come as OEM for a small Windows tax on a new computer. The money is in AppStores, OneDrive subscriptions, Office 356 subs and so on. And letting people run some sort of no-frills windows where you login as a local account and run your old spreadsheet for 10 years is completely at odds with any kind of strategy that will make money fr…

I'm not saying that MS shouldn't sell M365 or similar. The thibgs you mentioned are not exclusive to my issue. I would be willing to pay for an OS that has no Candy Crush, LinkedIn and whatever installed and that would allow to use local accounts. I also don't want forced reboots because of updates. Yet, I still would use OneDrive, M365, ... It's currently possible to to run your Office 2010 on Win 10/11, there's not…

> I would be willing to pay for an OS that has no Candy Crush, LinkedIn and whatever installed and that would allow to use local accounts.

Me too. But I do agree with the beancounters at MS that putting such an OS on the market might reduce sales of store apps or O365 subscriptions or make it less convenient for people to use OneDrive backup etc - in a way that costs them more than they would make from selling this great version of Windows to very few enthusiasts.

Btw I think there are lots of differences between getting a good LTSC install now, vs if you have an OEM Home version of Win 11. A lot of my complaints only apply to the "bad" SKU's of Windows and not generally. The problem is of course that you can't buy this "good windows 11". It's reserved for volume license customers.

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