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

extremetech.com

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

#151

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head: - Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away. - No detection of tablet mode. - No auto screen rotation. - Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to…

...try being an audio engineer on Linux.

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

#152

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head: - Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away. - No detection of tablet mode. - No auto screen rotation. - Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to…

Elementary OS is positioning itself a Linux distro that Just Works TM, but I haven’t used it anywhere near as much as Ubuntu/Gnome so I can’t definitively say.

For what it's worth, Elementary OS is really a cool OS as long as you don't expect to be able to customize it. Its UI and ergonomics are really different from the Gnome/KDE/XFCE and is really consciously designed.

The trade of is that you have to love it or hate it because you can barely change anything, but it deserves to be loved. I'm back to Windows for an undetermined span of time but I'll gladly reinstall ElementaryOS as soon as I can probably pay for it.

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

#153
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…

I'm at a small business that gets maybe 2 dozen new computers a year but line 1 on my setup list is "DO NOT PLUG IN THE ETHERNET CABLE"

I can't believe it's come to this...

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

#154

If you use Windows and assume you will have any form of privacy or control over the operating system, you are going to have a bad time. Switch to Linux or be okay with Microsoft spying on you. Those are the choices.

Or a Hackintosh.

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

#155

Microsoft has been using this dark pattern for a while now. Around 1-2 years ago, I upgraded MS Office on my Windows laptop. It asked me for my username/password-- which I didnt think strange, as I assumed it needed it to upgrade. And thats when I got a message "Good news! Your Windows machine now uses your Microsoft to login." W.T.F. I was never asked, never warned, just tricked into replacing my local login with an…

Do you really need Windows? Our family laptop runs Linux, it does Teams for school, MineCraft, Netflix. You could do Office365 from a browser, although I admit, it is less than ideal. But it seems like you are almost at the emotional state make the jump... what's holding you back?

I bought a Dell Latitude E5450 for 350 eur about 2 years back. It was used but looked new. It came with Win 10 Pro, which sits on my NAS as a gzipped bit for bit copy now.

Everything works out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04 and will continue to work until it dies far from now. I can open the thing up and replace everything I would expect I could replace (inc battery). It's all I need speed-wise. If the kids drop it I won't cry. Fun fact: When I play MineCraft with my son (I do it from my work Win 10 computer), he has has booted, started MineCraft and dug a hole to bedrock before I even get to click on the MineCraft icon. The thing is fast and snappy and remains so.

I made accounts for both kids and they can do many things themselves, perhaps because the UI looks more like an iPad than Windows does (i.e., hit the menu and a grid of icons fly in to fill the screen.)

I'm dreading the day they ask for a local install of Office365 though... Or something like Adobe's tools. So far my oldest is 8 and it hasn't happened.

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

#156
post #107

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

But if my client is thin, why would I buy hardware? I.e. this runs counter to hardware makers goals.

they switch towards selling hardware to datacenters

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

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneDrive, Edge (if you're into it) and setting sync. What do you mean it does not makes sense? I am not using MS login myself but saying it doesn't make sense is ridiculous. It's exactly same as what Apple does. As for people who say it's required on Windows: It's not. You can create local account during setup, the link is there once you cancel your online login. It's hidden at first, but it's there. You don't even h…

I can set up and sign in to MacOS without using my Apple ID though.

Correct me if i'm wrong but I think you still need to go online to finish the setup process?

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

#158

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head: - Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away. - No detection of tablet mode. - No auto screen rotation. - Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to…

This might fix screen tearing for you (it did for me anyway):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA/Troubleshooting#Avoi...

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

#159

When Windows 10 came out, the telemetry, MS account features, forced auto updates/reboots made my computer feel like it was no longer my own. Having used Microsoft OSes since DOS, this was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. After dabbling in Linux for years, this was motivation to commit 100% to using Linux as my main OS. It was mildly painful at first, but after sticking with it, I would never go back.

I am in the same boat, I dropped all Microsoft products in 2014. There is literally nothing I do with my PC for which I need Microsoft products. It's very unfortunate to keep seeing these things pop up. It's like MS does not care or value the users of the machines and their operating systems.

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

#160

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head: - Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away. - No detection of tablet mode. - No auto screen rotation. - Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to…

As a long time Windows user that tried Linux in the past with no avail, I finally found my love in Manjaro KDE. Because it is based on Arch, it is closer to cutting edge which is a good thing wrt hardware support. I especially love that you can just switch kernels from the GUI. The good thing is that it Arch with safety belts, with a wide array of curated packages. If you feel more adventurous, you can also reach out for arch packages from the same package manager.

Being on KDE means I am ahead of Windows.

Using MS Teams in ungoogled chromium for maximum privacy works.

I have no experience with Nvidea drivers, but I see a lot of hits at disabling the Nouveau driver. But again, this might be solved with running a more recent kernel.

It's not as simple as Windows, but my time investment to read the release notices is minimal. An other benefit is that your system doesn´t slow as your os install ages.

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