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

I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

extremetech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 657 posts

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#141

Post by [deleted] »

swiley wrote: post #72
lbriner wrote: post #34

It is sadly part of a dark pattern called "stickiness". You can dress it up as functionally useful or even important but ultimately it is about companies wanting to create enough of a dependency that you have to continue using them, which is anti-competitive. Gone are the days where you bought something from a shop with no stickiness other than good service brought you back. Now there are far too many Marketing Manag…

> bought something from a shop with no stickiness If you want this you can still have it, you just need to follow a simple rule: Absolutely no non-free non community maintained software ever period.

[deleted]

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#143

Post by mkr-hn »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #46
GekkePrutser wrote: post #6

This is really a dealbreaker for me, much more than the TPM and recent processor stuff. There must be some workaround :( Edit: Thanks @yourusername, I had missed the part where it's only for the home edition. I'm glad there is still a way.

Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, PopOS, Manjaro/Arch. Spend the time to get acquainted, soon you will see you can do almost everything you need on linux (and more) that you can on Windows/macOS, but with less mental overhead (after you are used to linux, it really is simpler).

None of the tools I use run in any of the Windows compatibility gadgets for Linux. The open source options are probably great if you can't access the good proprietary tools, but they're not remotely close. Some of them I used extensively before switching, so I speak from experience.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#144

Post by kijin »

cmiles74 wrote: post #85
addicted wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I think it’s as simple as it being a better experience for the type of people who would buy the Home edition. Forcing them to log in with a MS account allows MS to provide a lot of the services people expect using Android or iOS as their primary devices. For one thing, both those devices pretty much require an online account as well. And they contain far more sensitive data. But more importantly, they a…

Password recovery seems like another big reason to push this. Many consumers don't really have any tech support, aside from vendors like Dell or HP. With an MS account, Microsoft can manage this process.

Most consumers buy their PCs from big box vendors who can help with password recovery and whatnot. Microsoft might do it better, sure, but why would they want to pick up the cost of doing it themselves when they've been outsourcing it to OEMs for so long?

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#145

Post by pschastain »

swiley wrote: post #92
bostonpete wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rule is simple to state, but damn near impossible to actually execute. I can't imagine the hoops you'd have to jump through to have a cell phone following this simple rule. I appreciate the push towards open source -- obviously a lot of good has come of it, but I'll happily take stickiness for convenience in many situations.

> I can't imagine the hoops you'd have to jump through to have a cell phone following this simple rule. It was hard, thankfully pine64 exists and it's no longer any more difficult than following on the desktop.

Plenty of community-maintained software for it?

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#146

Post by Tepix »

nickjj wrote: post #117

I know the post is about Windows 11 but I installed Windows 10 for someone on a laptop about 2 months ago and it had the most crazy dark pattern I've ever seen to be able to proceed past the installation screen without a Microsoft account. Short of not connecting to the internet first the only way I saw where it was possible to create an offline account was to first attempt to sign in using an incorrect password with…

Indeed, a few months ago Microsoft changed Windows 10 so that the only way to install it with a local account is to disconnect the LAN cable

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#147

Post by eddieroger »

I agree with the sentiment of the article and many of the comments here, but what really struck me as the expectation of online availability, and the memory of a time when the Internet was something you connect to, not something that is always there. I definitely remember the days of a AOL dial-up or when we played with the local ISP, and you had to actively, deliberately tell your computer it was time to connect. Of course, I type this on my always-connected work computer, and enjoy my always-connected mobile devices, but I wonder how things would be different (maybe better) if the Internet wasn't just always there.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#148

Post by Arwill »

streamofdigits wrote: post #100

the confusion and distress starts with assuming its "your own pc". for at least a decade now the winning and profitable design pattern wants user devices turning into thin clients. the chromebook-ification of computing if you wish, or its X-terminalization [0] for somewhat older people [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_terminal

Windows is my offline desktop OS. I keep it around specifically because i want it to be that way. I'm fine with a locked down Android phone, as that is a different use-case. Microsoft already failed with its locked-down ARM Windows version once. If the users wanted such an Windows OS, it would have not failed.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#149

Post by alpaca128 »

nickjj wrote: post #117

I know the post is about Windows 11 but I installed Windows 10 for someone on a laptop about 2 months ago and it had the most crazy dark pattern I've ever seen to be able to proceed past the installation screen without a Microsoft account. Short of not connecting to the internet first the only way I saw where it was possible to create an offline account was to first attempt to sign in using an incorrect password with…

Microsoft really is one of the worst examples in the dark pattern department that I've ever seen.

Same with their email service, where you can register an account without issues and after a few weeks of use I was presented with an unskippable input field for my phone number. Don't want to give MS your phone number? Too bad, better hope you don't need those emails anymore.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#150

Post by advael »

skinkestek wrote: post #83
SamuelAdams wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like comments like this gloss over the many UX issues many Linux distros have. For example the file picker. When you open a new file from the web browser (Firefox usually) you navigate to your file and pick it. Now if you open up another file, it forgot your last opened directory and takes you back to your home or default. On windows and Mac I believe it remembers your last directory. Also saving files in Debi…

I find that compared to the the UX issues of Windows it is fantastic. Obviously this varies from person to person but I have verified already a more than a decade ago that it worked very well with ordinary users as long as they didn't need MS Office or anything like it. And true: Netflix doesn't work but for that I use my phone/tablet that I cast to my TV. You may say: not everyone has a PC and a phone but as far as…

The netflix complaint is a pretty confusing one. The last time I used windows was back when Netflix was a DVD rental service, and while there was a time when you had to go get Google Chrome to stream via Netflix on linux, even that hasn't been the case for quite a long time. I swear half the people in these threads tried like one distro ten years ago, ran into one issue, and sees this as a knockdown argument that normal computer users can't tolerate a single learning curve. Meanwhile, any time some acquaintance tries to do a simple task they've never done before on the OS they claim is easy to use (whether this be windows or macOS), it ends up being a huge hassle anyway, and sometimes there is simply no solution to the problem they want to solve

Like, yes, most things have a learning curve. I have yet to encounter any evidence that Windows having a particularly easy one for anything is more than propaganda

Post reply on HN