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Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

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Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#131

Post by bluedino »

nickjj wrote: post #81
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am certainly open to the idea of being surprised by this -- there very well could be more developers using Microsoft as the operating system they use for their development machine, however I do wonder if the population of Stack Overflow users is a good, un-skewed sample of all developers.

I don't think too many people would be using Windows if it were really bad for Linux based development. I sure as heck wouldn't be. In an ideal world I would be running native Linux but I had trouble with some audio gear not working and my favorite video editing tool doesn't run in Linux, nor do some of the games I play -- so I use Windows because that's what's available. As much as I hate to say it, Windows is a pre…

WSL is one workaround after another

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#132

Post by bootlooped »

greggman2 wrote: post #88
HenryKissinger wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows remains the most convenient OS for video games, and given HN's userbase (mostly young men), I think a lot of people here use Windows.

Windows is also the arguably the domain of GPU related dev. I see lots of Razer laptops. They are small and same weight as a MBP but you can get a 2080 RTX (previously 1060 GTX). Even the newest MBA's GPU is not 1/2 as fast as the 3 year old Razer (and its peers)

Are people really using these for work instead of just spinning up a cloud instance or using a desktop? I've always thought they were a horrible deal for gaming, and it seems like they'd still be a horrible deal for ML work or whatever.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#133

Post by krilly »

craftyguy wrote: post #123
mastazi wrote: post #63

This is incredibly bad. In general I have a positive opinion about what MS is doing lately, but Windows is a glaring exception, it’s getting worse and worse at an alarming rate. In the last two months we had two consecutive updates that broke basic functionality for users who disabled web results in Windows Search (which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy) https://www.zdnet.com/article/window…

> which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy Sorry, but if you use microsoft products you either do not actually care about privacy, or do not understand how microsoft is not taking your privacy seriously.

So people can either care about privacy as much as you do, or not at all? There is an in between you know

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#134

Post by userbinator »

runn1ng wrote: post #122
userbinator wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to pirate, might as well pirate Windows Server, which is basically the same kernel with a far less offensive (and bloated) userland configuration.

Isn’t LTSC better as a desktop? It’s just Windows 10 without the user hostile crap. But I have never run Windows Server

I'm not sure, I've not tried LTSC --- but the fact that I've met a few Microsoft employees who run the Server version on their company desktops and even laptops (because as an employee, they can get legit licenses for basically free) speaks volumes about what they think of Win10...

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#135

Post by nvrspyx »

userbinator wrote: post #120
xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote: post #41

I don't understand why so many people on HN praise Satya Nadella. I guess good PR is worth much more than actions. Before Nadella, Windows wasn't nearly as user-hostile as it is now. There was no mandatory telemetry, there were no forced updates, end users weren't treated as betatesters and QA wasn't non-existent. And now they are taking away the ability to use Windows without Microsoft Account. Of course there are a…

there were no forced updates I have attempted to disable those "for real", and the lengths that MS has gone to in an attempt to stop people from doing it is extremely disturbing; there's half a dozen different services and scheduled tasks with various names which are involved, and if you don't disable all of it quickly, it all comes back . This Hydra-like persistence is something that hitherto was only seen in malwar…

You can get very close to the Windows GUI with pretty much any of the popular desktop environments: KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE, and even GNOME

KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, and MATE will get you close right off the bat.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#136

Post by caconym_ »

In theory I have two Microsoft accounts but I think there was a botched DB migration at some point because they've been merged somehow into a weird broken state that shows info from both.

I tried to contact Microsoft support to get this fixed but they were totally useless, and that's when I gave up. Not going back.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#137

Post by fortran77 »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #44
xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote: post #41

I don't understand why so many people on HN praise Satya Nadella. I guess good PR is worth much more than actions. Before Nadella, Windows wasn't nearly as user-hostile as it is now. There was no mandatory telemetry, there were no forced updates, end users weren't treated as betatesters and QA wasn't non-existent. And now they are taking away the ability to use Windows without Microsoft Account. Of course there are a…

Most people on HN, I would postulate, don't use Windows. We might use VS Code, we might use Azure, but we aren't using Microsoft's operating system.

I run Windows 10. I'm running it now. It works well, and I don't want to cut my nose off to spite my face by worrying about Satya Nadella seeing my internet searches. I'm not that important that I have to worry about these things.

I tend to run it on the "Happy Path" only make a few changes to keep some notifications from bothering me. And I don't buy machines from vendors that try to "add value" by putting crapware or shovelware on the machine. (I buy Supermicro-based boxes from Thinkmate, and use Surface Book notebooks.)

I write software all day long in Erlang, F#, and CUDA/C++ and have to write software that works with popular film and audio production software (which runs on Windows platforms)

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#138

Post by t-writescode »

craftyguy wrote: post #123
mastazi wrote: post #63

This is incredibly bad. In general I have a positive opinion about what MS is doing lately, but Windows is a glaring exception, it’s getting worse and worse at an alarming rate. In the last two months we had two consecutive updates that broke basic functionality for users who disabled web results in Windows Search (which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy) https://www.zdnet.com/article/window…

> which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy Sorry, but if you use microsoft products you either do not actually care about privacy, or do not understand how microsoft is not taking your privacy seriously.

Or you could use a pihole to block their telemetry collection practices.

Or you could prefer to play games and recognize there’s only one real option for playing the new ones

Or you could hate them, but you work at a Windows shop.

Please don’t assume everyone forced to use Windows enjoy Microsoft’s practices.

Do you eat Nestle food? Are you aware of the evils of that company? Are you in support of those evils, despite being a consumer?

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#140

Post by anonytrary »

I really dislike this online-only trend. It feels like a step backwards in usability design. If anything, every app should strive to be offline-first.

Microsoft is turning everyone's PCs into internet nodes that collect data and stats. It's a way for them to get more social and behavioral data on their incredibly large market.

I sure miss Windows 7. Microsoft ruined things with Vista, which 7 fixed. They ruined 7 with 8 and 9, which 10 sort of fixed. They're ruining 10 by including all of these "modern" features like an AI assistant, and having an "account" on their backend.

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