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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

#631

Post by Redster »

I know that there are enterprises and individuals who need Windows. I also know that I had been on Windows my whole computing life and made the switch late in 2023 and there's never been a better time to switch to Linux. I could have switched much sooner!

I have found my Windows apps for everything work (or have equivalent or better Linux versions) and will soon be switching my non-technical wife over to Linux to avoid Windows 10.

For her, I've looked at her workflows and setup a configuration that I can use on her new machine that will setup all of her apps and menu settings so it's as seamless a transition as possible. She rarely needs to update her computer or apps, the latest Debian 13 "Trixie" release is what I'm going to try for her.

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

#632

Post by citizenpaul »

This is really going to screw over small places that still do manual setups on their PC/Laptops because they don't have the resources for a full automated setup.

They gotta make back those hundreds of billions they lit on fire to chase the dream of eliminating all their employees with AI. This will force a lot of places to pay for Azure Endpoint to setup their stuff if you really can no longer sign in without an online account.

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

#633

Post by MarcelOlsz »

logifail wrote: post #625
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #619

Rufus and Massgravel still function as a pressure release valve to prevent too much outrage from building up, but Microsoft is working hard to direct more and more of the flow into the channels that get them the most revenue. If HN readers want to set up a machine without any of the bloatware, with all the "developer-mode" switches turned on, without a Microsoft account, there are still ways to get it done. I actuall…

I've been using Win10 LTSC since it first shipped, but the pain of it just keeps on increasing (not being able to load the latest .Net; Teams and more and more other apps refuse to run despite the OS still being "in support" now and for many years to come). Any tips for moving to Win11 LTSC? (I've been avoiding Win11 for as long as I can...)

We're so screwed. Tahoe sucks so my Sonoma days are numbered. Win11 sucks and win10 days are numbered. On the other hand the rails guy released Omarchy linux which is pretty great but it will take months to make it usable.

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

#634

Post by paxys »

imglorp wrote: post #584

Notice all the potential revenue operations for Windows: exfil your data, show you ads, sell your data, sell you cloud services. All these things require you to have an identity. Windows is not the product any more.

Considering they are selling it for $140 it is very much the product.

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

#635

Post by Krssst »

josefritzishere wrote: post #593

Microsoft is so hostile to their users, it's genuinely surprising they maintain market share.

Compatibility.

Anticheats makes multiplayer games hard to run on Linux (still sad that Apex walked back on Linux), and hardware may have sometime random issues on Linux (for some reason my mic was not working well on Discord (did not investigate, suspecting something on the software side since I could hear myself well when testing but my friends couldn't); I cannot use multiple screens with my current video card without my text editor dropping to 10FPS for some reason).

Plus Microsoft Office for people that prefer the ribbon over menus (but the browser version probably works well enough).

Though I feel that sleep is more reliable on Linux than on Windows today with "modern" sleep.

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

#636

Post by pixl97 »

josefritzishere wrote: post #593

Microsoft is so hostile to their users, it's genuinely surprising they maintain market share.

What are the users choices?

Mac is an option, but Apple is plenty hostile to their users, and you're tied to their hardware.

Linux is an option, but good luck getting that business software you absolutely need that only runs on windows working.

Running everything online in a SaaS is an option, but at the end of the day those services aren't generally any less hostile than MS.

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

#637

Post by mindslight »

jeroenhd wrote: post #341
mindslight wrote: post #4

Is there a worry that torrent packagers won't be able to work around these, or what's the actual concern here? I mean if you're using Windows for anything beyond a VM binary compatibility layer for some software you must use, aren't you kind of asking to be abused at this point?

I don't get why you'd want to get your OS images over torrents. You can download Windows for free from Microsoft's website. You don't even need to buy a key if you know how to set up a KMS server on a pihole or something. There are trusted tools out there, like Rufus, that will enable workarounds for you if you tell them to create bootable media. Tools with developers you can look up, rather than anonymous pirates.

My only point of installing Windows is to run some other proprietary software, right? So even if I trust Microsoft (which seems like a poor idea given their arc), then I still have to trust all the dodgy software I'm needing to use. So the only real solution is to cut the whole system off from any Internet access before it touches personal data, regardless of how it's installed.

As far as installation process:

If I go to the site of any libre project that doesn't install through nix/apt/etc, it will have a focused list of directions that I need to do to install it.

If I go to Microsoft's site and search for how to install Windows, I will be greeted with a deluge of articles I need to read and understand all of the various different methods and scenarios (after avoiding the links to BUY BUY BUY. I already have plenty of Windows licenses that were anticompetitively bundled with every old laptop I have sitting around, thank you). And then since I want to avoid their consumer install methods that insist on holding victims' wrists, I will likely need to go an eNtErPrIsE route - meaning even more reading between the lines of overwrought bullshit.

Whereas if I download a torrent of Windows, it will come with a focused list of directions that I need to do to install it.

BTW doesn't Rufus only run on Windows? That's kind of pointless for me. My workflow is virt-install --cdrom /path/to.iso

Perhaps I will look into setting up a "KMS server" next time I need to reinstall, but I would guess it's a bunch of admin tinkering for not much gain. The kind of admin work that will have fallen apart in the few years before I need it again.

... doing a quick look it seems like "KMS server" only runs on Windows itself? And there is a libre reimplementation for Linux, but it doesn't seem to be in nixpkgs, and requires setting up a heavyweight "Domain" with Samba? A few lines in smb.conf or nixos config and I'd be game, but no, it looks just as bad as I thought it would be. Please correct me if I'm missing some way that is actually straightforward and simple, but this doesn't seem to be the case!

So yeah in short, that's why.

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

#638

Post by Redster »

Redster wrote: post #631

I know that there are enterprises and individuals who need Windows. I also know that I had been on Windows my whole computing life and made the switch late in 2023 and there's never been a better time to switch to Linux. I could have switched much sooner! I have found my Windows apps for everything work (or have equivalent or better Linux versions) and will soon be switching my non-technical wife over to Linux to avo…

Also, I have found for tweaking and customizing my own Linux machine, tools like Claude Code allowed me to be much more adventurous and fast at making my machine exactly how I want it to be. I don't bork my machine because I have my machine's configuration (I'm on NixOS, but this could apply on Arch or elsewhere) versioned in git and things tend to build correctly or they don't.

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

#639

Post by fnordsensei »

Redster wrote: post #631

I know that there are enterprises and individuals who need Windows. I also know that I had been on Windows my whole computing life and made the switch late in 2023 and there's never been a better time to switch to Linux. I could have switched much sooner! I have found my Windows apps for everything work (or have equivalent or better Linux versions) and will soon be switching my non-technical wife over to Linux to avo…

Gaming seems to have been improving massively as well, in no small part due to Valves efforts if I’m to understand correctly.

Other than that, there’s literally nothing I need from Microsoft currently.

MS is little more than a rent seeker to me.

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

#640

Post by tombert »

time0ut wrote: post #614
tombert wrote: post #585

I doubt it’s going to happen, but a part of me prays that people will eventually get sick Microsoft’s increasing bullshit and it really can become the Year of the Linux Desktop. Gnome has genuinely gotten pretty great in the last couple years, and I think a lot of former Windows would genuinely like it if they gave it a chance, and virtually any Linux you install will have less tracking bullshit than Windows. I suspe…

I have been a Linux desktop user for 20+ years. It is incredible how far it has come. There is nothing Microsoft can do that will drive the normies away though. Microsoft knows this and that is why we are where we are.

> It is incredible how far it has come

No argument on my end.

I have been running Linux since 2011, and so much more stuff is in the “Just Works” category, especially if you have AMD graphics. When I installed NixOS on my Thinkpad about a year ago, it was almost comical how easy it was for me; I had gotten used to having to waste an entire day messing with drivers and fixing issues in 2012-2015, so it felt kind of weird for stuff to work as expected immediately.

I am trying very hard to get my parents to use something like Linux Mint because the Windows 11 auto-update on my mom’s computer actually prevented it from booting (making me waste an entire day remotely having them flash a live USB so I could rsync over her files to me…thanks MS!), so this might be enough of a final straw for them.

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