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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

#261

Post by octo888 »

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…

> Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand

Well their stock certainly isn't tanking. Do they care about anything else?

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

#262

Post by OptionOfT »

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…

There is no Microsoft in this story. There is the structure of the company which roll up to the CEO. And they have 1 priority: make the shareholders happy.

This has caused incentives to shift thought the company. No more long-term work. Only short term stuff, where each change needs to make impact somewhere.

This is why you see CoPilot in 20 places in Edge. This is why OneDrive shows you nagging screens to upload your data there.

And this is why the OOBE now makes it harder. That change is used by a PM / Developer to justify their existence in the company at review time.

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

#263

Post by anonymous982347 »

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…

Developing a new consumer-grade OS is literally not possible. I don't mean it would take a herculean effort like the software ecosystem issue takes to address, I mean actually not possible regardless of how much effort any development team put in. Virtually all hardware on the open market is made for Windows, largely powered by proprietary, closed-source drivers. Linux gets some afterthought from a percentage of vendors, but even for it, hardware support is in an absolutely atrocious state. Hardware vendors will obviously not give the time of day to any uppity new OS. This relegates any attempt to a hobbyist project targeting virtual machines or obsolete hardware. The only way a new player could enter the game is by using Apple-level money to develop their hardware in-house, but any kind of corporation fronting Apple money to do that would certainly not be aiming to produce a user-driven experience.

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

#264

Post by diego_sandoval »

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.

LibreOffice is not a real contender to replace MS Office. The real alternatives are:

- OnlyOffice - WPS Office - Google Docs.

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

#265

Post by magicalhippo »

drabbiticus wrote: post #251
magicalhippo wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RDP. Simply nothing in the same league on Linux. I prefer having a beefy workstation at home and connect to it remotely from a cheaper laptop, as I find laptops are noisy and weak unless you spend a sizable fortune.

What are you comparing it to or what do you feel is missing? Remote desktop has gotten way better on Linux since the days of only X-Forwarding or VNC, at least from a performance perspective.

I tried just about everything a couple of years ago. Various VNC variants, X2Go etc.

They all sucked in terms of speed/performance compared to Windows-to-Windows RDP, and none allowed for starting a new desktop session if user wasn't already logged in, or resuming existing session if present. Both essential to me.

Many lacked some features like clipboard, file transfer, sound. First two are hard requirements as well.

I see things have been moving, so I'm hoping things become viable in a year or three.

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

#266

Post by somenameforme »

philistine wrote: post #252
somenameforme wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It being the year of Linux is definitely a meme at this point, but Microsoft's trying their hardest to make it a thing. Steam's latest survey [1] shows Windows losing 0.19% marketshare. 3/4 of it went to Mac, 1/4 to Linux. 0.19% over a single month is a fairly significant shift, especially because the Steam survey is biased towards Windows gamers to begin with (Windows has 95.4% marketshare on the Steam survey), so i…

PC ownership is NOT a zero-sum game. You assume that lost marketshare must be replaced by something else. I'm confident this is not people replacing their PC for a Mac, this is people who stopped using a PC completely. Microsoft, by ruining Windows, is not leaving the field open for a replacement OS; they're slowly killing the PC itself.

I think you can approach this 3 different ways:

Mathematical: If this were the case then all competitors would have seen an increase in marketshare proportional to their existing marketshare. This isn't what happened - Mac saw 3x the increase of Linux, even though Linux has greater marketshare on the survey.

Statistical: It's often said that the PC is dead or dying, but that's a misrepresentation of the issue. 25 years ago, a new computer was dated in 3 months and obsolete in a year, so PC sales were huge. Now a days, a ten year old PC is still fine for just about everything, even including relatively high end gaming. So sales have plummeted, but ownership rates are around historic highs. [1] The main limiting factor is money. More than 96% of households earning $150k+ have a desktop/laptop, while only 56% with income less than $25,000 do. The overall average is 81%.

Pragmatic: PCs are still necessary for many types of games as well as content creation. Mobile devices and tablets (to a lesser degree) are limited by their input mechanisms to a subset of all experiences, and there's a pretty big chunk of people that utilize experiences outside that subset.

[1] - https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/acs-5...

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

#267

Post by mattmaroon »

exabrial wrote: post #90

Why is _anyone_ still using Windows?

I prefer it. Always have. Don’t have any objection to logging in with my online account, in fact I would even if I didn’t have to so all my stuff just syncs. Getting a new PC is now finally as easy as getting a new phone, just sign in and let it sync. Anyone who owns a cell phone and is worried about the privacy issues here is being ridiculous.

Mac users fellate themselves over Mac usability. But if I click a file in Windows and hit the delete key you know what it does? It deletes the file. You know what Mac does? It makes the “bonk” sound and nothing happens. (Or at least it did, been years since I used it.)

I tried to like Mac for years, even using it as my daily driver for two straight, because their hardware is so good, but I just never could because of 100 little things like that. MacOS sucks.

The concerns of the people who inhabit this tiny little enclave of the internet are alien to 99% of the population at least.

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

#268

Post by p0w3n3d »

wyldberry wrote: post #18
Havoc wrote: post #7

Had to edit a .docx today to refresh my CV today...and realised oh...I don't have any more windows machines on hand anymore. Interesting how smoothly that faded away psychologically after 20+ years of windows use without me even overtly noticing. Think MS is in for a rough ride on Windows. Short of corporate world - Excel/Sharpoint/AD - there is just no moat. Browsers work fine on all platforms, dev work is better on…

It will depend on if gaming studios continue to invest in a Linux Desktop experience. It's common to run your game server on Linux, but MS, partially through DRM support to the big media companies, creates an environment very strongly suited towards shipping your game binary to a hostile environment. This is partially why major (effective) anti-cheats have migrated to the Kernel. Windows allows the big-budget games,…

The gaming is the only reason that keeps me buying computer with windows

Regarding this article here, when you said about competitive gaming, I imagined a competition of that sort. I wonder how does a windows installation look in a big gaming competition that many players attend. It's never "BYOD" rather they get the windows preinstalled onto great gaming PC.

Do the players need to login to their Microsoft account? And Download their cloud cotents to someone else's computer? Or maybe there is a loophole for gaming contests that allow installation without cloud login?

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

#270

Post by avhception »

lucb1e wrote: post #48
typpilol wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've been saying this for years now. The problem is there's no real alternative. Your grandma is not going to use Linux. So the choice is between windows and mac.. and the truth is a lot of apps people use are windows only. I don't see windows losing desktop share anytime soon.

Have you tried it? I see where you're coming from but don't think it would work out that 'no grandma can use it' My plan for years has been to install Linux Mint + Cinnamon for my grandma when she next needs a new laptop... but she still hasn't needed one :(. And she's slowly getting too old for any new computer Every Windows upgrade was a big change again. The UI would change each time, Windows Live Mail got discont…

The last Windows versions my parents actually used was Windows XP, maybe they encountered Vista somewhere for a brief moment. In my capacity as the family sysadmin, I've switched them to Linux around this time. Ubuntu first, now Debian. XFCE back in the day, Gnome3 since a few years. I think they'd hardly recognize a modern windows installation any more. Gnome3 has it's warts, but I really hope it's here to stay, at least in the broad strokes of the UI paradigm.
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