It used to be one of the distinctions that made ChromeOS worse was that it required a Google account to use while a Windows device something you had more agency with.
Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
771–780 of 1001 posts
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#772I guess I'll be the contrarian in the thread: My main machine is Windows 11. I recently bought a refurbished laptop to make it a Linux torrenting machine with ProtonVPN. I first installed Fedora, which I hated. Where's the mininmize window button? Why are scrollbars practically invisible? What's with the hideous cartoonish desktop? I switched to Ubuntu, which I'm more familiar with. Installing ProtonVPN was an absolu…
Fedora is not tied to a desktop. Though I recommend Mint/cinnamon for sanity. You may have to reach into the control panel to augment the scroll bars, that is sadly a sickness endemic to the whole industry.
I've read comments like yours in the past few days about Fedora. It seems strange to me that Fedora defaults to a lousy desktop when everyone says there are better available. I can't think of any other software that has the same philosophy "We know we ship something terrible but all you have to do is install this other thing to fix it."
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#773After my recent (and dismayingly poor) experience with a new PC on Windows 11, I wonder: Windows 11 installer did not recognize my wifi card (integrated in asus motherboard), so my installation was purely offline. I had to install manufacturer's drivers via usb key to get the PC online. How is this possible in a world where MS wants installations to be online? Meanwhile, Linux installer recognized the wifi right away…
I had this happen in both of the past two machines I have built but both were installing windows 10 so I was ultimately able to just finish offline and then grab the drivers on a usb stick to get the internet up and running. The Intel NICs are notorious for not working without the intel drivers.
I still think Rufus is perfectly sufficient for avoiding these issues and/or using autounattend. Ultimately you just need to get past first install and nothing else will be an issue using a local account on Windows 11.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#774Not 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…
> When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows.
I think Windows 98 was the last user-focused Windows. At least then all the useful settings were a single right-click away, and it just worked without invading your privacy.
(WinME never worked and WinXP was the first in a long series of shareholder-focused Windows.)
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#775I 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 so badly want to jump ship entirely, but there's several things holding me back. I do music production as a hobby and Ableton Live doesn't play nice with Linux. In fact it seems anything that is resource intensive without native linux support has some issues. I'm also an MS stack developer, so things like Visual Studio Pro aren't available (although I've been using Cursor IDE more and more these days). Lastly I hav…
Switch to Rider. It takes a second to adjust, but you'll end up with a better understanding of dotnet in general.
re. Games, are you sure proton won't work? I've got ~1400 games on steam, and only a handful have serious issues with proton.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#776Earlier quoted context omitted.
Companies that cannot run their businesses responsibly at scale should not be allowed to run their business at that scale. If Microsoft can't do it, if Apple, Google, Facebook, X , OpenAI can't do it, then maybe we shouldn't allow companies to operate at scales which inevitably lead to widespread consumer harm. They should be required to provide human customer service, with some sort of legal liability to ensure thei…
Apple has customer service you can call and speak to a person.
Every time I call Apple customer service, they tell me to box up my device and send it in to be replaced. The human element is nice but it's hardly a panacea - you need trained customer support.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#777Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fedora is not tied to a desktop. Though I recommend Mint/cinnamon for sanity. You may have to reach into the control panel to augment the scroll bars, that is sadly a sickness endemic to the whole industry.
I've read comments like yours in the past few days about Fedora. It seems strange to me that Fedora defaults to a lousy desktop when everyone says there are better available. I can't think of any other software that has the same philosophy "We know we ship something terrible but all you have to do is install this other thing to fix it."
It's because Gnome is not "lousy" it's just not what you like. I love it, but you're free to use something else if you don't like it. They even have an official Fedora edition with a more traditional desktop installed.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#778There's never been a better time to switch to Linux. For the longest time I was using Windows on my personal machine (for gaming), and MacOS for work. Not sure why, but one day I decided to try out dual booting Kubuntu (KDE Plasma + Ubuntu), and haven't touched a Windows machine since. Using MacOS feels bad now. I don't see myself ever willingly installing Windows again. MacOS is unfortunately something I still have…
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Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#779I 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 think people will sooner just start hard breaking Windows ISOs just to get rid of MS's garbage (arguably already the case if you use Rufus, which customizes the OOBE setup to already reject checks and tracking if you tick the boxes. They also have a checkbox to iirc disable the TPM check that's killing a lot of older device support because there's nothing in W11 that actually relies on a TPM, it's just an artificia…
> Adobe is a permanent barrier to Linux adoption
I tried their online versions of Lightroom and Photoshop in Firefox on Linux, and I am quite happy to continue paying the subscription. It definitely takes less clicking there to remove an unwanted bird from the sky in a photo than it would take in GIMP or RawTherapee.
Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account
#780It's crazy how quickly most of this ramped up. Not that Microsoft hasn't been trying to push abusive but money-making "requirements" down users' throats for decades, but there have always been paths around them for people in the know. Now, they've changed course and are trying to clamp down hard on every little thing that's like this, make their software watertight. It would almost seem desperate if one didn't see ho…
Its kind of funny that either this change effects a really small group of people, and its just MS being weirdly vindictive about nerds not wanting to use a Microsoft account OR they have such a problem with people avoiding MS account sign on that they feel the need to do it.