Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

windowscentral.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 640 posts

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#251

Post by exographicskip »

everdrive wrote: post #116

I hope they succeed, and this is from someone who loves Linux and hate Windows. I want as many positive general purpose computing platforms as possible. No, this won't make Windows perfect, but every step in the right direction is crucial. Much like politics, you want sane, healthy competitors. Microsoft enshittifying as much as possible might bump up the Linux numbers in the short term, but I think it would be unhea…

> I think it would be unhealthy for Linux in the long term

Mostly agree until this line. MS enshittifying their ecosystem is the resting state and if you believe in the free market (I don't btw), customers voting with their money or data (since they're the product) should be applauded.

TBF Apple does this too on macOS and arguably iOS. I think a lot of their longstanding pushes to merge the two OSes is hostile to their user base who want stronger separations of concerns; a desktop OS has different requirements and capabilities than a phone or a tablet.

Would love to have a Neo with Sequoia which in itself is a step back from Sonoma, but I haven't truly loved any of their OSes since Mountain Lion.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#252

Post by danaris »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #222
sidkshatriya wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decline often happens slowly, gradually and then suddenly. Could anybody imagine Intel where it is now ? This could happen to Microsoft and is probably already happening as we speak.

Wait, I'm confused, are you calling moving from Windows to Linux a "decline"? Because I can agree with that ;)

"Decline" in people's trust in a particular platform, in this case. Or the decline of the platform or company itself.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#253

Post by exographicskip »

observationist wrote: post #178

No, they should leave it. Make it as onerous and tedious and annoying as possible to set up a new computer. 2026 is the year of the Linux desktop. It's time - Linux has never been better or easier to use than it is right now.

Chaos agent hahaha

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#254

Post by exographicskip »

smithcoin wrote: post #52

I posted something similar the other day, but at this point it is too little too late. Using windows feels like actively submitting to a hostile user experience. I look back fondly to the time I had using my Dell XPS when WSL first came out, they had me hooked. I've been using MacBook Pro for about a decade now and I can't even fathom going back to windows. Every time I open the start menu I feel personally attacked.…

I remember the OG XPS 13 had what Dell called "project sputnik". To my knowledge, it was the first time a Dell laptop shipped with Ubuntu, if not Linux.

Really wanted one, but was a poor recent college grad at the time.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#255

Post by ryandrake »

Rapzid wrote: post #64
grujicd wrote: post #12

This "make Windows better" push is far more political than technological. It's a fight with other divisions about using Windows as a marketing and sales channel for other products and services. It has to be a decision from the very top. I hope they realize that Windows is in significant danger, the majority market share for Desktop OS is not guaranteed anymore. It's not just 10% of revenue, it's a foundation for how…

As someone with a sizeable background in Linux system engineering.. I prefer Windows to MacOS. It's IMHO a better desktop now with the edge snap tile layout and etc. Excellent device compatibility. And I get my linux environment needs satisfied via WSL2 these days. But damn if they don't get in their own way. I have my own Pro licenses, and even with Pro turning off ads and features is text book whack-a-mole: * Frequ…

This might be obvious, but all of those things have a single common denominator: Microsoft, over you, getting to decide what your computer is doing. This is the biggest generalized danger in computing today: That OS (and device) manufacturers have gotten it in their heads that it's OK for them to have a strong say in what your computer runs. User doesn't want X, Y, or Z running on his computer? TOUGH. We are going to run it and make it really hard or impossible for user to turn it off. As a user, I no longer feel like I'm driving the car--I'm just a passenger. "Where do you want to go today?" has turned into "You're going here today, whether you want to or not!"

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#256

Post by Krssst »

guilamu wrote: post #107
Rapzid wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone with a sizeable background in Linux system engineering.. I prefer Windows to MacOS. It's IMHO a better desktop now with the edge snap tile layout and etc. Excellent device compatibility. And I get my linux environment needs satisfied via WSL2 these days. But damn if they don't get in their own way. I have my own Pro licenses, and even with Pro turning off ads and features is text book whack-a-mole: * Frequ…

Use LTSC. It'll fix all the issues you are mentioning here.

LTSC cannot be bought as a regular customer unfortunately. Legally, regular customers are only allowed to use the enshittified version.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#257

Post by Krssst »

Someone1234 wrote: post #188
varispeed wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the search that doesn't work. You have app "X" installed? You type X and it doesn't find it, but gives you irrelevant results about X.

Windows' search has been broken for multiple generations now. Some people inside Microsoft seemingly even know , that's why the PowerToys team created "PowerToys Run." A Windows Search that actually basically functions correctly. People act like it sudden was broken in Windows 11 when in reality it never worked correctly in 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 either. Instead of fixing it, they've only made it worse. It seems like nobod…

As far as I remember it was working well in 7 and 8 (deterministic and shows programs that you expect it to show). From 10 it started behaving erratically (same time it got binged but maybe unrelated).

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#258

Post by Arainach »

tapia wrote: post #181
Arainach wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is arguably philosophically user-hostile. Anyone who's ever tried to get support online with a question about Linux will quickly meet *actual* user hostility as they're asked why they didn't know to check for the config file in the filing cabinet in the basement behind a locked door saying beware of leopard, how dumb they are, etc.

Not my experience at least. You can go to the forum of archlinux and see the replies. They tend to be quite useful and in a good tone.

Within the last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47463982

"But, a Raspberry Pi isn't supposed to be a replacement for your desktop; it is meant as a device for experimentation."

"why couldn't you read the self-contradicting docs and pick the right option?" (paraphrased)

"just because you don't know how to follow the instructions, doesn't make the OS bad."

" By now, you should see that years of experience != knowing how to use things."

"Yeah. Maybe just stop using Linux. You'll never be happy with it anyway. Most its-never-my-fault people aren't."

This has been my experience with the Linux community for 26 years.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#259

Post by Helmut10001 »

exographicskip wrote: post #239
ooterness wrote: post #3

Too little, too late. I switched to Linux and I'm never looking back. Good riddance, Microsoft.

The only two moats MS has for desktop OS usage are: 1) Kernel-level DRM for multiplayer games (looking at you, Marathon) 2) Intentionally nerfed MSO 365 apps on web and macOS You could make a strong case that MDM (which InTune uses as well) negates the AD + GPO advantages of the past 20+ years in enterprise.

I found virtual files support also somewhat critical. This is not really stable on Linux yet and makes using Nextcloud with 8TB and Million of files pretty difficult.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#260

Post by tombert »

pipes wrote: post #19
ooterness wrote: post #3

Too little, too late. I switched to Linux and I'm never looking back. Good riddance, Microsoft.

I've done this several times over the last 18 years or so. The most recent was a few months a go. And my steamdeck persuaded me. Unfortunately I ran into the same WiFi networking issue I've never managed to resolve. Even on different hardware. Pings to my default gateway are ridiculously slow compared to windows. I spent countless hours trying to resolve. I gave up and have gone with windows 11 ltsc.

Interesting; I haven't had wi-fi issues in Linux for more than a decade, but admittedly I sort of selection-bias towards laptops that are known to work fine with Linux.
Post reply on HN