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Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

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Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#211

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #129
al_borland wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> compatible with Windows programs It seems with each passing year this becomes less important, as more and more apps are either web based or cross platform.

To the average consumer, Windows doesn't matter much anymore. To enterprises, Microsoft has them under lock and key with Office 365, basically forever. LibreOffice is nowhere near a replacement for Excel in an enterprise setting.

> To the average consumer, Windows doesn't matter much anymore.

> To enterprises, Microsoft has them under lock and key with Office 365

In between are a bazillion businesses who depend on couple of apps and/or devices that are Windows only or near enough.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#212

Post by mastazi »

wslh wrote: post #153
fortran77 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. I like Windows 11, and I think it's the best desktop OS out there.

Sincerely curious about why do you think it's the best desktop OS and/or where it excels. I understand that the Windows kernel is pretty advanced but I find difficult to find that it ends up in a good desktop OS (e.g. UX)

I'm not parent and Windows 11 is my least favourite desktop OS, but there are some things where I prefer Windows to Mac OS, for example multi monitor user experience, or the way full screen windows work (F11) and the ease of maximising windows without having to double click on the title bar. Also I like the way home/end/pgup/pgdown keys work. I much prefer how it renders text on non hidpi screeens. Finally I like how there is only one taskbar and no top bar, which results in more real estate on small displays.

Some Linux DEs also do these things well BTW. In fact I use Linux for most things at home. (I use Mac at work and my only Win device left is used exclusively for gaming).

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#213

Post by SoftTalker »

gessha wrote: post #130
mixmastamyk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting point. To what extent does AI support make Linux on the desktop more viable? Reminds me of a discussion recently that said something similar, that developing in Rust is easier now that you can have another machine do battle with the borrow checker, haha. To extend, maybe someone could build a "SysAd AI" distribution that administers itself given natural language directions? Let me know if anyone…

LLMs have probably trawled through ArchWiki+StackOverflow and can enough content to help you debug your system. That plus a few “are you sure” responses to LLM hallucinations have gotten me far.

So much Linux advice on the web is woefully outdated. Like answers for Ubuntu 8 still sometimes come up high in my search results. True that some things are still the same, but not many, especially pre-systemd.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#214

Post by RedShift1 »

dehrmann wrote: post #142
windows2020 wrote: post #94

Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand. My first experience with Windows 11 was figuring out some dumb workaround to use a local account. When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows. Maybe someone will develop a new user-focused OS that's somehow compatible with Windows programs. Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will realize v…

I'm not sure if Microsoft knows it, but it doesn't care about or need Windows anymore. Office has native apps and is on the web, Xbox is doing its own things, dotnet has been freed from Windows, and Azure doesn't need Windows. Computing is generally moving away from the personal computing model, so Windows is just less relevant.

Office on the web sucks though. Slow AF and can't handle large documents.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#215

Post by Marsymars »

altairprime wrote: post #85
torben-friis wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens Poor people. Surely Microsoft is fixing this by giving them a proper local skip that doesn’t bypass the other critical setup?

Presumably the business/enterprise editions still do?

Maybe not for the long term; business/enterprise are mostly using domain accounts for non-server systems.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#216

Post by Marsymars »

major505 wrote: post #80
packetlost wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The requiring internet part is particularly egregious, wow.

Because it seems that microsoft could not shitify windows experience anymore. I like windows, Its a great system specially for being productive, but the godamn start menu using react and edge and the online requirements are a pain in the ass. Sometimes it just hangs while you click the windows key. All I want is to open notepad++...

I've found the start menu is perfectly responsive if you disable its internet results.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#217

Post by setopt »

SoftTalker wrote: post #206
hattmall wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>those sales will exist pretty much indefinitely. To an extent sure, but when people that grew up as home consumers not using Windows become business leaders they won't have the brand loyalty to Microsoft that the current aging out generation does. If Google doesn't characteristically fumble the bag their dominance with ChromeOS in schools has potential pay major dividends in 10-15 years. Windows centric software dev…

Do we believe that we’ll be using anything like today’s PCs and operating systems in 10-15 years time? I mean, that’s been the case since the 1980s, but now we have usable (if imperfect) AI.

Personally: Yes, I do. Likely, voice assistants and other AI tools will have a bigger market share in a decade, sure. But I doubt an interface like Alexa can replace a PC-like setup for most of the «real work». Instead, I imagine we’ll just continue the trend of laptops and tablets with AI assistants integrated in better ways, and perhaps a wider adoption of AR/VR in some sectors. Tre The tech that could replace today’s PC setup is a neural interface, but I doubt that NeuraLink et al will be anywhere near mainstream in a decade.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#218

Post by Marsymars »

ryandrake wrote: post #109

Surely, at the lowest level, there needs to be some kind of a local account. I would imagine ripping out the very concept of a local account to be totally infeasible. As long as that's true, I'd expect there to be a way to create one, even if that way ultimately no longer comes from Microsoft.

AFAIK you can easily create a local account after initial setup and use that for whatever you want. As you allude to, there's a whole bunch of Windows functionality that relies on (or allows) local accounts.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#219

Post by 800xl »

stackskipton wrote: post #147
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the average consumer, Windows doesn't matter much anymore. To enterprises, Microsoft has them under lock and key with Office 365, basically forever. LibreOffice is nowhere near a replacement for Excel in an enterprise setting.

I wouldn't say it's Office365 as much as "What are my other options?" MacOS is good option BUT cheapest laptop option is 1000 bucks. Dell has 16 inch with 16GB of RAM for 600. There is Linux but Linux Desktop still is not ready and mass management of it is very painful. So you default to Windows. It works-ish, won't break the bank and just about every piece of software you need works with it.

I agree with your overall point but I'm starting to regularly see older M series MacBooks on sale for around 600 or 700 dollars brand new. Maybe they are using the strategy of selling older hardware for less like they did with the iPhone SE.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#220

Post by Marsymars »

fortran77 wrote: post #128

Can you use a Macintosh without an Apple account? Sort of, but with similar limitations: The App Store, iCloud syncing, iMessage, FaceTime, and other Apple online services are unavailable unless an Apple ID is used. What's the difference here?

> Sort of, but with similar limitations: The App Store, iCloud syncing, iMessage, FaceTime, and other Apple online services are unavailable unless an Apple ID is used.

And you get an impossible-to-remove notification from the Settings app.

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