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 convinced Microsoft cares about the Windows market share in consumer PCs or the small amount of money they make from selling Windows licenses to regular consumers. If they did, Windows wouldn't be so usable unactivated and the MassGravel activation stuff would have been patched already. They built up their almost-monopoly when it mattered in the 90s and the 2000s, and now their market position is basically se…
Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
511–520 of 1001 posts
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#512Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linux is the better OS. Windows 11 just forces people to evaluate other OS's to experience the latest Linux for themselves. I didn't have the time as a working Adult for distro hopping and Gentoo compiles, but the thought of having to live with Windows 11 made me try out modern linux again, glad I did.
Linux is now the better OS, after the other one got significantly worse than it used to be, and even that is close call depending on what you need Linux to do.
It has been the better OS server-side and for appliance applications (routers, media players, …) for a long time, Windows may be drawing equal but does that count if some of it is due to WSL?
It has been the better OS, or often just the equal OS for a lot of desktop users for a fair while also, particularly non-gamers who don't need other specific tools that don't have a sufficiently compatible Linux offering/alternative. Many use it because the cost is hidden and might use something else given a properly informed choice.
I wouldn't put it in front of my Dad, even though pretty much all he does is no different on Windows than Linux and has been for years, because of compatibility concerns with printers/scanners and because there are others in the family able+willing to support Windows so he isn't stuck waiting for me if he ever has trouble while I'm difficult to contact.
I don't run Linux on my main desktop due to inertia (games are largely what kept me with Windows long enough to have to make the 8->10 transition) but that is not enough any more, partly because it just isn't really there (lack of things keeping me on Windows because they don't work well easily elsewhere, and irritations with Win11 applying a noticeable retrograde force) and partly because my use patterns have changed (modern games are not a thing in my life ATM, my hobbies have changed considerably in the last decade). That machine will be switching over to Linux when I get around to it, or it might just be shut off (almost all data is on Linux on the little house server, and off-site copies, already anyway) in which case the laptop will just gain a dock so it can better use the big screens & whatnot.
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[1] I might also take issue with significantly, as that might imply the change is sudden and due specifically to the Win10 EOL. Windows, both 11 & 10 and 8 before them, has been going downhill slowly enough that each extra irritation has faded into something that people put up with before the next one comes along. Recent changes (more ads etc) are generally small² but are the final straw.
[2] Recall (and the justified consternation it creates) is the one recent change that I would call significant in its own right. As irritating as the other AI stuff nagging us to give it something to do is to those of use that don't want it, in many places it just feels like an evolution of Cortana's presence from a UX PoV more than a revolution in its own right, and doesn't feel nearly as invasive overall as the Recall subset does on its own.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am confused. What "Linux"? There are many distributions. There is the kernel (many versions). Maybe even today they are some distributions that are as you described, used in certain companies or states or whatever. But you can choose another one and you will still be fine.
Yes and no. There are many distros, but they all use the same components. If outside entities only allow you to run specific distros or configs, you're done. Some examples: * My jobs VPN only runs on Ubuntu. There is code in there that checks your OS. * My bank wants the chrome browser. Messing with headers makes it work on firefox. But that's for now and needs me spending time fighting them. * sssd is starting some…
You can fake the data via eBPF.
> But that's for now and needs me spending time fighting them.
As with anything else.
> sssd is starting some light GPO enforcement on my laptop.
Could be avoided via namespaces.
> systemd slowly moves ...
Could be thrown out of the system, unless you're happy RH user.
> Android is also theoretically multi distro
That is out of scope because I'm fine without it's HAL and other parts.
Sad state of affairs, their mobile version worked fine even in lynx.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#514Earlier quoted context omitted.
I daily drive Ubuntu, the user experience is comparable (in many cases better) to Windows 11. The only sticking point for me is display drivers. HDR on Wayland is barely functional (in my experience), and getting things like hardware accelerated AV1 encoding, full Vulkan API support etc to work has been extremely difficult. Every time I login using a Wayland desktop, only my main monitor is detected and it defaults t…
> Every time I login using a Wayland desktop, only my main monitor is detected and it defaults to 60hz. I have to go through a whole process of unplugging the "undetected" monitors and plugging them back in. Are you using GNOME? mutter has this problem where it does not retry commit on the next CRTC: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/3833 . If this is actually what's happening on your system, switching t…
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#515Question out of curiosity: On todays hardware, it should be possible to run Windows in a VirtualBox on a Linux System, or am I wrong? Thinking about this to be my next setup for the next machine (in 1 or 2 years) Im mainly using corp & office software and MS dev tools - those should be useable in a virtualized Windows? Any experience?
Windows can live in a VM no problem. But, depends on your use case. For GPU heavy usage, you can do GPU passthrough, and that needs a dedicated video card exclusive for the VM. If you only have light usage, like office tools, you can get by the mostly default settings. I suggest that you just try - it's a couple of hours to install Linux and install Windows in a VM. You can try Linux dual-booting, so, no need to impa…
And can I also use MSSQL server? (which I could ditch anyway then, I guess, since we are using mainly ORM and no database-specific features)
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#516Question out of curiosity: On todays hardware, it should be possible to run Windows in a VirtualBox on a Linux System, or am I wrong? Thinking about this to be my next setup for the next machine (in 1 or 2 years) Im mainly using corp & office software and MS dev tools - those should be useable in a virtualized Windows? Any experience?
> Any experience? Yes. As you transition to using Windows less and less, you'll get reminded more and more about how much of a pain it is to use, and how much of a Stockholm Syndrome you've developed over years of abuse. To the point that you'll be avoid Windows as much as you can. You'll be booting your system infrequently enough, that, at every boot, Windows will be unresponsively slow, hogging your CPU and your ba…
One thing I always see when using this machine - this version at least has some problem with the memory manager: Very often the system comes up from hibernation mode and does not stop swapping whatever stuff to disk, making it unusable until I reboot completely - this at least works on Windows :-D
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#517Not 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 convinced Microsoft cares about the Windows market share in consumer PCs or the small amount of money they make from selling Windows licenses to regular consumers. If they did, Windows wouldn't be so usable unactivated and the MassGravel activation stuff would have been patched already. They built up their almost-monopoly when it mattered in the 90s and the 2000s, and now their market position is basically se…
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#518The biggest issue I have with Windows insisting that I use a Microsoft Account to log in is that I have a long and complex password set up for the account which is stored in a password manager. I don't want to dumb down that password, I don't want to use biometrics, I don't want to use a passcode or pin to log in as that is arguably less secure. I just want a local account which I can set up a convenient password for…
I was the same as you, believing that using a passcode/pin as Microsoft is pushing is less secure. So I digged into it, and changed my opinion - Microsoft is right, for the Microsoft Account, using a password locally instead of a PIN is LESS secure. TL;DR: if you want to allow offline login, you need to keep the hash/token to the Microsoft Account locally, and this is dangerous, some malware could steal that, and imp…
I'm not following. I thought the whole issue is that users _do not_ want to use microsoft account locally and that microsoft fights that.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and gaming on linux is rapidly becoming usable. I hate Microsoft and Windows just as much as the next self-respecting nerd, but this is no less a lol right now than it was 20 years ago. It’s like Linux users all play the same 15 titles that have Linux support and think those 15 games reflect broad ecosystem support.
Except for games with anti cheats, can you quote from your head three games the last 10-15 years that aren’t running perfectly on Linux ? Because from my ~1 500 titles steam library, I can think of one game that I had issues with. And even this particular game (which is Tomb Raider 2013, btw) worked perfectly fine after a little hack. And ironically the "hack" was checking a checkbox in Steam to force using the Windo…
Halo Wars 2
Crackdown 3
Gears of War 4
The reason is that these are UWP-only games which are only available through the Microsoft store. Which means they will likely never run on Linux.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#520here's what you can do:
First, make sure you unplug your ethernet cable or turn off WiFi before you start installing Windows. This way your computer isn't connected to the internet during setup.
When you get to that screen where it's asking you to sign in with a Microsoft account (you know, the annoying one from the post), here's the trick: press SHIFT and F10 at the same time. This opens up a command prompt window.
Then just type this command: start ms-cxh:localonly and press Enter. It should bring up an option to make a local account instead! Just fill in a username and password like the old days.
After you finish the setup and get to your desktop, you can connect back to the internet and download all the updates.