Quite cheeky for a website that asked to send me notifications and wants to no my location.
I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
461–470 of 657 posts
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
Phone numbers have become the new SSN tied to your physical identity. In most cases you have provide extremely detailed personal info to get a working phone number. There are probably still some ways crafty folks can get a working phone number without it being tied to your physical identity, but you must go way out of your way to do so. Privacy and freedom of speech are dead, long live the constitution.
It's frustrating for sure but the reason that they want a phone number is because it's an excellent key to join lots of independent records about you. The companies who ask for your phone number don't care if the phone company knows where you live. They don't even need to ask the phone company, all they have to do is join up with a vendor who you did disclose your address to. You can at least do yourself a mild favor…
It's at least an excellent key that they can provide to country authorities if they request one.
That's also an excellent way to ensure the user juridiction based on the IP address and phone number country code for 99% of users.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just installed Windows 10 on a laptop for my mom. On the account setup screen there's a little skip button to create a local account without a Microsoft account.
Your computer was connected to the internet and you're using relatively recent install media? I'm asking because I haven't seen that behavior in years.
They've removed it from Home but it's still there for Pro.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your monitor has software, as does basically everything built lately significantly more complicated than a fan.
The topic is around stickiness of software. What does your monitor have that make it sticky?
Television screens do have sticky features, my rule applies there too.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#465Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#466Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny anecdote, I installed Ubuntu on my own laptop to improve my minecraft FPS when I was 9 (~9 years ago). I googled something like "how to get more fps in minecraft" and the first result was a minecraft forum post to which the only response was "install Ubuntu". At the time, Ubuntu had a .exe installer, so I thought it was just like any other program and installed it to my C: drive along with everything else. I th…
Indeed funny! What happened after you installed the .exe Ubuntu? You clicked the icon and then ..? I'm just past the 'stage' you're in now, I recently deleted my partition running Windows (kept it for GTA5). Only Ubuntu now.
I bet this was with Wubi which made a Windows file with whole install and booted into that.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your monitor has software, as does basically everything built lately significantly more complicated than a fan.
The topic is around stickiness of software. What does your monitor have that make it sticky?
To clarify this: Closed Source Proprietary software is fine as long as it is easily interchangeable/inter-operable with similar competing software.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a few years, until that version stops getting security updates. E.g., about three years for Debian. [0] [0] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases
Debian Stable typically gets ~3 years of official security updates, but then in reality the LTS project is excellent and probably gives you two more years, and now there's also the ELTS project that might give you two more beyond that. Which major commercial OS has a realistic expectation today of getting security updates for so long without being forced to change other parts of your system that you like as they are?…
MacOS averages 3-4 years too. My point was just that if you want a user experience that never changes and only gets security updates, Linux isn’t the answer either (as the great-grandparent comment implied). At most, if you luckily sync up with an LTS version, you get a couple more years.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft really is one of the worst examples in the dark pattern department that I've ever seen. Same with their email service, where you can register an account without issues and after a few weeks of use I was presented with an unskippable input field for my phone number. Don't want to give MS your phone number? Too bad, better hope you don't need those emails anymore.
This makes Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn a good fit as another master of dark patterns.
Linkedin used to ask you to pay them to view public profiles if you were logged in, but if you logged out you could see the profile just fine since it was public. And there was no limit to that either, didn't need to get there from google etc. Not sure if they still do that.
Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC
#470Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Non-technical users want a stable system that doesn't constantly change. ...and you're recommending Linux Desktop for that? An operating system famous for breaking compatibility with itself every 2 years or so? Not to mention between distros. I mean, I suppose you can just leave them on some arbitrary un-updated version of Ubuntu forever, but the same could be said for Windows 2000.
I just set up Ubuntu 20.04 with Unity which is still there, and it looks exactly the same as the 14.04 it replaced. Might not be there in 22.04, who knows. But even switching to Ubuntu Gnome is less of a difference than the Win7 -> Win8 -> Win10 transition I had to guide some older family members through.
> Ubuntu 20.04 with Unity which is still there, and it looks exactly the same as the 14.04 it replaced
That's not what users aged about 80 think. From direct observation, a print icon moving or a menu bar disappearing are just enough to make them crazy.
I know someone who keeps the old computer from 2008 around because "I prefer how Gimp is organized there".