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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

#171

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

fortran77 wrote: post #137
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I don't want to cut my nose off to spite my face

I have trouble understanding this perspective since it's hard to see what critical functionality Windows provides, that you can't get with Mac OS or Linux. If they wouldn't be materially different experiences, the metaphor doesn't hold water.

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

#172

Post by GoodGOYIM »

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…

why do you hate minorities?

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

#173

Post by thrower123 »

withaplomb wrote: post #162
thrower123 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm almost certain that you were not talking to a real Microsoft employee. Most Fortune 500s have their helpdesks and customer service outsourced to the Tatas and Wipros, Cognizants and HCLs of the world, who may or may not further subcontract the actual bodies filling the roles. Quite frankly, first-level support is useless and ignorant; at best they have scripts for common issues, but to do anything you need to def…

Even people who are bad at their jobs are real people. We can’t assume that everyone of low intelligence or motivation is sub human. Just say agency and authority, that made your point.

In the context of their jobs, they are a meat-based chatbot.

This is no reflection on them personally, this is by design of their job role. They have metrics hanging over them to close calls as quickly as possible, without escalating. They are expected to handle dozens or hundreds of calls a day. There is no slack to actually try to resolve the user's problems in any way that requires more creativity than sticking to the SOP script, and moreover, they are usually mandated to stick to a very standardized procedure, with defined suggestions and language that they have to use, in a specific order. A good first-level support person would spoon-feed you the right incantations to get escalated, in a way that their cutthroat metrics aren't negatively impacted.

It's a fucked up system, but this is how call-centers work.

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

#174

Post by stOneskull »

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…

If you love features, KDE Plasma is fantastic, the environment with Kubuntu or KDE Neon. I think it has more features than Windows. And then there is like antiX or MX Linux where it runs so quick and smooth, using minimal resources, like Windows 2000 with its services disabled. Linux is great and everyone can find the distro that suits them well.. even if it might take a few tries to find it, ha.

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

#176

Post by paulcole »

weka wrote: post #158
tapirl wrote: post #153

As a happy Win8 user, that's exactly the reason why I switched from Win10 to Linux. Many offline functions need online to perform. It is sad.

And I refuse to kowtow to a company who thinks its okay to purchase a stand for $1,000 for another piece of hardware you've additionally paid for.

What company are you talking about?

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

#177

Post by G4E »

bsder wrote: post #160
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…

> 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. Ayup. Win10 finally broke the camel's back and I started the process of figuring out how to transfer as much as we can to Linux. The hardest part is that our embedded development stuff is all Windows. :( I've been trying to get VSCode, Segger, and embedded boards…

As a fellow embedded software engineer, I made the migration from Windows to Linux some time ago. You'll see that except for old targets (or highly proprietary ones like fpga) most if not all tools used today are actually open source ones (ide based on eclipse, gcc toolchain, jtag debugger...). Once you understand how they all play together you'll see that it's actually easier to work on Linux, as those tools are in their primary element, not half bad ports to Windows !

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

#178

Post by everyone »

@Everyone 'Windows 10 LTSB' is the true user-focused version of Windows 10.

Its become one of my favourite OSes.

It doesnt come with any shit on it (windows store, xboxlive, cortana etc etc.) MS have also promised It will not receive any updates that change its functionality but will receive security updates, for 10 years. You can only get it if u buy in bulk tho. Or, u can just get it from tpb.. Considering MS are intentionally not selling by far the most user-respecting version of their OS to regular folks, it behooves us to pirate it.

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

#179

Post by viraptor »

mastazi wrote: post #89
snagglegaggle wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is bad, but I do not think you are stuck. But there are two fronts -- business offerings are going the same way. There is lots of pressure to use almost exclusively MS hosted services. And, in that market, not everything has a good replacement.

The reason why I feel like I’m stuck is based on my personal use case. Basically I need two things: A. Being able to use some proprietary software not available on Linux B. Being able to self build so I can select the HW that works for me With Linux I lose A and with Mac I would lose B. I’m thinking that a combo Mac Mini + Tower PC with Linux could work, but using two OSes at the same time, even with shared NAS, KVM…

What about C: use Linux for the main desktop, use Wine for things that require Windows, use a VM with windows exclusively to launch that one annoying app which won't work under wine?

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

#180

Post by noodlesUK »

Is this true even on more enterprisey versions of windows? I tend to use py-kms to activate licenses when I rarely need them (such as on VMs), and I generally stick to workstation or LTSB versions of windows. LTSB is actually pretty nice.
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