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People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

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Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#371
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't mention cross-OS shortcuts, though. I interpreted "across the operating systems" as meaning "across the various versions of Windows". Yes, Windows is more consistent with their own common shortcuts. But Macs have exceedingly consistent shortcuts across Mac applications, compared to my experience with Windows and especially Linux. I might also point out that Mac had keyboard shortcuts before Windows existe…

Apple also invented their own key “Apple” now “CMD” for operation like copy / paste to explicitly not have the issue to overload the already know escape sequences. Windows being on a system without a normalized keyboard had to reuse keys that are common to keyboards used back then. Vertical integration played into apples cards even back then.

Aren't the Apple key and the Windows key just corporate branding on a super key?

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 20 years is way too large a minimum estimate. i disagree. unless intuit is also rewriting quickbooks, dassault systèmes is rewriting solidworks, every bank is rewriting their custom windows-only software, every government branch is rewriting their custom windows-only software, etc. and every company is willing to retrain 95% of their employees on a new operating system, have increased support requirements for a few…

It's an interesting case to me. The company I work for has been shipping systems on windows since the 90's despite pretty consistent requests from customers to ship hardware on Linux. 2 years ago we started creating our own Linux distribution and this year started shipping products on it. We still ship a lot of stuff on Windows 11, but that market share is starting to shift now. 10 years from now I could see us compl…

Out of curiosity why a custom distro instead of one of the major ones?

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used macOS for years and still don't understand their windows minimize/restore logic. I'm always hunting for my minimized window. Yes, the fault probably lies with me. OTOH the Windows UI is far better well designed and intuitive. But yeah... I'd rather fumble around in macOS: Windows is always trying to upsell a service that I don't need. If I say no it will helpfully keep reminding me (my answer is never going…

macOS does not and never has had a good strategy for handling minimizing windows. Keep in mind that prior to Mac OS X, you couldn't minimize windows at all, you could only roll them up. When OS X added the dock, they made minimized windows go there. Except, the Dock is an icon grid, so there's no way to see window titles, and the windows themselves are so small that it is difficult to identify them at a glance. Makin…

Early macOS also had rollup windows. I greatly prefer that to minimized windows in macOS, which are impossible to quickly access outside of the mouse or unminimizing all windows with a key combination which I can't remember.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you disable the account online, then, or change its password? I haven't worked through this before and I'm curious about it.

password changes or deleting the account will lock out the local credential .

How, if the computer's offline?

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#375

Of all the things wrong with windows, I don't feel that having a Microsoft account is the worst of them, or the one that needs the most attention. Is the reasoning that if you don't have a Microsoft account, they'll do less of the ads nonsense which is baked into the OS? Maybe I don't get what the issue is. I've tried linux, but haven't converted (though I'm tempted), but my mac has a mac account and nobody seems to…

"Requiring an account" means leaning in the Apple/Disney direction - upselling, walled gardens and milking captive customers. Dropping the account requirement is a symbolic (and practical!) step in the other direction, towards using the product as a tool.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting case to me. The company I work for has been shipping systems on windows since the 90's despite pretty consistent requests from customers to ship hardware on Linux. 2 years ago we started creating our own Linux distribution and this year started shipping products on it. We still ship a lot of stuff on Windows 11, but that market share is starting to shift now. 10 years from now I could see us compl…

Out of curiosity why a custom distro instead of one of the major ones?

We have some special cases I can't go too much into that lend themselves well to rolling our own and stripping things down as much as possible.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#377
post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of those shortcuts already existed in macOS before they were added in Windows. Inversely, a lot of desktop Linux stuff was designed specifically to mimic the Windows behaviour. So, really, it's Microsoft that decided "we're different". Also, as somebody who sort of lives in the terminal, the lack of the Command/Ctrl distinction is one of the things that really bothers me about Windows. In default GUI application…

On the other, as a Windows desktop person I can't live without Home/End/PgUp/Pgdown, and in different combinations with Shift/Control. That's one of reason I can't fully enjoy MacBook, not to mention the incredible fact that it doesn't have a Delete key. No, it's not the same that you can use modifier key with backspace, modifier keys are used for extra functionality, i.e. to delete to begining or end of the word, et…

Macs have every one of those, just with different shortcuts: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#378
post #375

Of all the things wrong with windows, I don't feel that having a Microsoft account is the worst of them, or the one that needs the most attention. Is the reasoning that if you don't have a Microsoft account, they'll do less of the ads nonsense which is baked into the OS? Maybe I don't get what the issue is. I've tried linux, but haven't converted (though I'm tempted), but my mac has a mac account and nobody seems to…

"Requiring an account" means leaning in the Apple/Disney direction - upselling, walled gardens and milking captive customers. Dropping the account requirement is a symbolic (and practical!) step in the other direction, towards using the product as a tool.

That's fair, so is the outrage focused on Microsoft because they are a "more" open system without the app store being the default method of installing apps?

I guess I'm wondering why Apple and Google don't get the same pushback?

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That my complaints trying to install software have absolutely nothing to do with it being a Raspberry Pi and the experience is identical on any Linux machine. > Half those aren't even remotely harsh. ....and the fact that people consider this to be the case is more evidence of the Linux community's hostility. Linux is like Rick and Morty: I don't mind it, but I never want to be associated with its fans.

If you can't take the mildlest of implied criticisms without feeling offended, this isn't a Linux problem, it's a you wandered out of your safe space hugbox problem.

A community that prides itself on insults is not a welcoming or user friendly community. "Get good" and "you're holding it wrong" drive people away.

Re: People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other, as a Windows desktop person I can't live without Home/End/PgUp/Pgdown, and in different combinations with Shift/Control. That's one of reason I can't fully enjoy MacBook, not to mention the incredible fact that it doesn't have a Delete key. No, it's not the same that you can use modifier key with backspace, modifier keys are used for extra functionality, i.e. to delete to begining or end of the word, et…

Macs have every one of those, just with different shortcuts: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650

Sure, but using modifier keys. What if I want to add shift to the mix to select, let's say to the beginning of line or document? You'll need to press two modifiers. That's not optimal. And I use these all the time while editing.

And I don't consider this a MacBook flaw particularly, it's more or less general laptop flaw nowadays. If anything, other manufacturers have even more imagination to mess up keyboard layout.

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