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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

#31

This seems like it is preparatory to removing it entirely. It wouldn't be shocking if in 10 years you need a Microsoft account to use windows on a computer you don't have root access to that isn't allowed to run a non ms os or to distribute software that ms gets a 30% cut. If it isn't so it will be because they don't think they can get away with it.

> to use windows on a computer you don't have root access to that isn't allowed to run a non ms os or to distribute software that ms gets a 30% cut.

That's basically how the SurfaceRT worked, isn't it? So they've already attempted this once.

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

#32
post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

why do people still use windows? It's stupid and naive to ask that, but I keep wondering why devs aren't successful in getting changes made at their companies.

I don't know why people don't.

I don't want Mac for I prefer cheaper handpicked hardware.

I want to believe in Linux, so every now and then I get fresh Ubuntu installed.

Now last time with 18.04 it would get blank screen immediately after logging in, which I was only able to fix by manually adding NVidia apt sources, and installing the latest driver from command line (which you have to google how to do on another device).

Second thing I faced is trouble getting a tiling window manager (oh irony: I made my own for Windows after reading articles about Linux's ones). Turns out, when you are trying to use, say, Awesome, it replaces the whole desktop environment. Which in default configuration makes desktop work like shit (personal opinion): you are no longer able to use Win key to search like in Gnome, window buttons are non-existent or look terrible, and window managing is actually very much non-intuitive (if it supports mouse resizing/moving at all? you could not tell without reading manual). On Windows custom managers rarely replace the (perhaps not ideal but intuitive) default behavior completely, so are much easier to use. There was a mode of Awesome, which was supposed to replace only Gnome's WM with it, but I was unable to make it work, and gave up.

Finally, JetBrains Rider still turned out to be worse, than Visual Studio for debugging. Which I could probably live without if not for the other two.

Basically, I want to work, and not waste my time on debugging the OS core components.

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

#34

This seems like it is preparatory to removing it entirely. It wouldn't be shocking if in 10 years you need a Microsoft account to use windows on a computer you don't have root access to that isn't allowed to run a non ms os or to distribute software that ms gets a 30% cut. If it isn't so it will be because they don't think they can get away with it.

Absolutely. They are starting to give away a year or two of Microsoft 365 (Office + Azure AD + other crap) to trap corporate identity.

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

#35

The online account is crap. I converted my offline account recently to the online one, just to see what's the difference. The difference is that I cannot even set a password, it asks me to set up a PIN number to log in. Of course you can set it to accept letters in your PIN, so it can function as a regular password. But what the hell is the point? (In fact, I didn't set any PIN the first time and at the next reboot I…

I can't even get into my Microsoft account. When I go to reset it, Microsoft claims that there is insufficient information to reset and unlock the account. Meanwhile I can't log in to the account (because it's locked) and still receive notifications about the account (click here to unlock it)

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

#36
post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

why do people still use windows? It's stupid and naive to ask that, but I keep wondering why devs aren't successful in getting changes made at their companies.

What kind of change would devs successfully push for?

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

#37
post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

why do people still use windows? It's stupid and naive to ask that, but I keep wondering why devs aren't successful in getting changes made at their companies.

I have windows 7 on virtualbox, because our software depends on a vendor who only provides a COM interface to their API. Thus we need some windows glue.

Also, there is some really neat software built for windows and it comes pre-installed on virtually any computer you intend to buy for an office that people keep it as their main OS. So if you intend to write a service that runs on a client's computer, it almost certainly has to be usable on windows.

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

#38
post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

I use a symlink for that so I can type the path I'm used to and old program configs still worked transfering over

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

#39
post #27
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it will end up being used by fewer people, after which their telemetry will indicate that fewer than X % of people are using the feature thus they will claim it's justified to remove it.

Yes, and I bet that data is what provoked them to start doing this already. Even before this change you have to navigate out of your way to pick an offline account. It would be easy to think "oh, a large percent of users don't want local accounts" just looking at the telemetry data. When really that's a given because the option is only going to be found by someone who knows beforehand that they want an offline accoun…

Silver lining: WSL2 and vscode make Linux evermore competitive when it comes to developer tools by being the standard.

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

#40
post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

why do people still use windows? It's stupid and naive to ask that, but I keep wondering why devs aren't successful in getting changes made at their companies.

Developing on windows really isnt that bad. Install scoop. Learn powershell and youll be fine.
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