People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account • Hacker News Board

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

#421

Post by Krssst » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 1:52 AM UTC

throwa356262 wrote: post #7

Serious question: why is this not a problem with apple products?

People that don't want to use Apple products are not forced to do so. They can use Android (which has alternative stores, at least for the time being). Though I guess almost everyone logs in anyaway. Generally both major OS have good support from application developers, while on PC almost every one ends up being forced to use Windows at some point (to use Office, to play games).

And phones have been little spying machines from the start, people are more used to their phone spying on them than to their PC doing the same. I don't think macbooks require an Apple account for example.

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

#422

Post by cesarb » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #255

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…

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…

> all of those things have a single common denominator: Microsoft, over you, getting to decide what your computer is doing. [...] 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.

As I've said before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44923555), in my opinion the starting point of this slide for Microsoft was WGA on Windows XP. It was the first time that they made the operating system treat the computer's administrator as hostile.

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

#423

Post by will4274 » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

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…

> Frequent "Let's finish setting up your PC" after updates

Fwiw, this one is entirely predictable. Windows shows the Second Chance Out Of Box Experience (SCOOBE - pronounced like Scooby-Doo) each time a semi-annual update is installed, i.e. once every six months.

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

#424

Post by kstrauser » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:03 AM UTC

p_ing wrote: post #417

kstrauser wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, guess I’ve never worked at a Mac shop big enough to suffer Mac-ruining software. My biggest shop only had about 15,000 employees, so maybe it’s only the large companies enduring that.

You never had GlobalProtect take a multi-Gbps connection down to <20Mbps due to all that userland processing of packets thanks to Apple's lack of vendor kext.

Indeed, I have not.

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

#425

Post by jwrallie » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:10 AM UTC

longislandguido wrote: post #33

spandrew wrote: post #13

I would never advise anyone buy a Microsoft Windows laptop these days — between the forced updates, the account and service-fee thirst, ads, and consumer unfriendly product release process (forced opt-in). Guess what? With Apple's new Neo laptop the price is also way way wayyy out to lunch. If MSFT gives a business a huge bulk discount to buy their laptops + Office360 + Teams... OK? But as a "consumer" it really suck…

The Neo costs $200 more than a comparable Windows laptop, but with half the RAM and storage as said comparable Windows laptop. They're fighting to seize the very specific market segment of "I don't like Windows and don't want to use Linux or a Chromebook, and I'm also poor, but still want to pay a premium price for an underpowered tablet with keyboard glued to it."

The internet is full of these comments that go for ages in Mac vs PC discussions, but with the Neo pricing the arguments are breaking apart. Seeing the PC arguers bring up the being poor argument against the Mac buyers is showing how disruptive the Neo actually is.

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

#426

Post by trollbridge » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:15 AM UTC

I was shocked to install Windows 11 in a VM today for some throwaway purpose I needed (specifically, proving that some piece of software that's 3 years old will absolutely not work on up-to-date Windows 11), and was not required to use a Microsoft account. Just prompted to make a local account and that was it.

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

#427

Post by chka » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:33 AM UTC

The irony of needing to fight internally for something users have been asking for since day one. Local accounts should be the default, not a hidden workaround

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

#428

Post by khuedoan » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:42 AM UTC

Even if the good people fighting for this win, Microsoft will eventually enshittify it again. It’s just what Microslop does.

There's no future for Windows. I think most people should move to Linux, or to macOS if they still need proprietary software for work.

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

#429

Post by TuringNYC » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:43 AM UTC

Ss it just me or did Microsoft never actually fix/figure out their account merge? I found that anyone who had a legacy skype/hotmail account basically got locked out once Skype/Hotmail/Outlook.com all merged. Multiple frustrated message threads online complained about this and from my personal experience it never got fixed. Basically two out of three accounts became inaccessable.

That was when I completely left that ecosystem, Office 365, everything. It was literally impossible to log in. Not surprisingly, the Office 365 bills continued to charge even though accounts were inaccessible. To this day, i'm far too scared to even attempt to use Azure on a personal account for this reason.

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

#430

Post by LtWorf » Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #391

ctoth wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All true, and yet: Windows accessibility actually works. I use a screen reader daily. Linux a11y is complete dogshit — AT-SPI2 is unreliable, Orca is barely maintained, Wayland broke what little existed. I need something that actually works. When Linux goes off and decides it'll rewrite its working desktop stack and it's still, ten years later, not useable? ADHD-Driven development might be fine if you can see your sy…

> When Linux goes off and decides it'll rewrite its working desktop stack and it's still, ten years later, not useable? In fairness it wasn't just the rewrite that was the problem, but it looks for all the world like there was a large faction in the Linux UI world around Wayland that believes accessibility is insecure and designed the new systems to make it impossible. It has been an interesting if unfortunate situat…

All of this in the name of being able to run proprietary malware like you do on android.