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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

#391

Post by roenxi »

ctoth wrote: post #319
ryandrake wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be obvious, but all of those things have a single common denominator: Microsoft, over you, getting to decide what your computer is doing. This is the biggest generalized danger in computing today: That OS (and device) manufacturers have gotten it in their heads that it's OK for them to have a strong say in what your computer runs. User doesn't want X, Y, or Z running on his computer? TOUGH. We are going to…

All true, and yet: Windows accessibility actually works. I use a screen reader daily. Linux a11y is complete dogshit — AT-SPI2 is unreliable, Orca is barely maintained, Wayland broke what little existed. I need something that actually works. When Linux goes off and decides it'll rewrite its working desktop stack and it's still, ten years later, not useable? ADHD-Driven development might be fine if you can see your sy…

> When Linux goes off and decides it'll rewrite its working desktop stack and it's still, ten years later, not useable?

In fairness it wasn't just the rewrite that was the problem, but it looks for all the world like there was a large faction in the Linux UI world around Wayland that believes accessibility is insecure and designed the new systems to make it impossible. It has been an interesting if unfortunate situation that seems to be slowly being fixed.

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

#392

Post by fsflover »

zadikian wrote: post #209
taeric wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundamentally, I think you are driving at a legitimate complaint and it should be a concern with Apple products. The direct answer, though, is largely one of execution. Microsoft isn't just pushing this heavily. They are doing so poorly.

Mac doesn't require an Apple ID to use. iPhone only needs one for installing apps, and my only complaint is it's the strictest auth check on the entire phone besides disabling the account. Shouldn't need to input the Apple ID password just to install a free app, shouldn't even ask for passcode.

> iPhone only needs one for installing apps

So you can't have Firefox, Organic Maps, good ad blocker, popular chat and video apps and numerous other things without it. Do you consider that normal?

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

#393

Post by weaksauce »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #307
weaksauce wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reading all these comments about windows having better shortcuts and window management features makes me feel like i'm taking crazy pills. windows for me was hands down the worst experience in ux. the shortcuts in macos are so well thought out and consistent. now i'm using kde in linux land and it's the best and most customizable experience. I can't imagine going back to windows ever and would be missing a lot from l…

I give you a well thought out macos shortcut for example. Ok, it is for a niche feature people rarely use... Screenshots, put straight to the clipboard. On windows you have 2 options, bot pretty unintuitive: 1. You can either press PrintScreen button... (OK boomer, who uses a full size keyboard? My RGB clicky-keys 57% keyboard doesn't even have backspace, return, escape or delete, I don't even know when I saw a keybo…

there's good reason the equivalent shift-command-s isn't bound to screenshot by default... it's the command to save a file and there's no good way to do partial screenshot and full screen screenshot with just command-shift-s + option if you want the option to put it into memory instead of a file. they chose command-shift-3 for full screen screenshot. command shift 4 for partial screenshot and add option to do either of those into memory which is a very common paradigm in macos shortcuts. the option key does something slightly different to the original shortcut in system shortcuts. in any event windows didn't get the non-printscreen version of a screenshot tool until very late in the game and osx had it in for a long time.

that issue isn't even an issue if you really want screenshots to be something else. you can change basically any shortcut in one place in macos. same with kde.

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

#394

Post by alpaca128 »

BeetleB wrote: post #234
varispeed wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the search that doesn't work. You have app "X" installed? You type X and it doesn't find it, but gives you irrelevant results about X.

Same problem on MacOS.

As someone who uses both that's news to me. For some reason its AI based image recognition doesn't seem to work anymore but it actually finds files based on their name, something that hasn't worked in Windows since at least Windows 10.

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

#396

Post by kstrauser »

grujicd wrote: post #380
kstrauser wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Eh, I dunno. I played piano, so I'm not allergic to pressing 10 keys and a couple of foot pedals at once if needed. Here, that means I rarely consciously think about what chord I'm pressing to select from here to the beginning of the word/line/document.

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

#397

Post by nmstoker »

My "favourite" with this is the new Windows app (terrible new name for the remote desktop app). You now have to sign in to use the app but then as soon as you connect to any corporate resources (ie remote PCs/Cloud PCs), you have to sign in again! It seems like the perfect opportunity to SAVE the user some hassle but instead it's adding it.

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

#398

Post by zadikian »

fsflover wrote: post #392
zadikian wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac doesn't require an Apple ID to use. iPhone only needs one for installing apps, and my only complaint is it's the strictest auth check on the entire phone besides disabling the account. Shouldn't need to input the Apple ID password just to install a free app, shouldn't even ask for passcode.

> iPhone only needs one for installing apps So you can't have Firefox, Organic Maps, good ad blocker, popular chat and video apps and numerous other things without it. Do you consider that normal?

Yes. Considering that Apple created the smartphone as we know it, and it had this limitation from the start, seems normal even though I don't really like it. This wouldn't be acceptable on a PC or tablet (hence why iPads suck).

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

#399

Post by zadikian »

TheDong wrote: post #263
zadikian wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does iOS truly require it? I thought that was only if you wanted to use the store.

Being unable to install an alternate app store or sideload my own apps means I need an apple ID to use the computer I purchased. Again, android phones with GrapheneOS or windows machines with linux let me use my hardware fully without creating any advertising-ridden-evil-corporate-company's account, including building and running my own apps. I can't even build my own code for iOS, let alone run it, without an apple…

Ok, that's all I meant, you can use the phone without logging in. Yeah you need it for the App Store. Well even if the App Store let you download as guest, the real problem would be that the phone doesn't let you download from elsewhere (mostly).

There is also the ability to build code on your Mac and run on your phone without paying, but pretty sure at least one step in that requires a free account. Guess you could download, build, and run open-source apps that way.

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