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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

#571

Post by api »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #553
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…

> I pay for the service so I don’t want to be the product. I think this is worth thinking about for a bit. The trope is that if you're not paying then you're the product. But it doesn't follow that if you are paying you are not the product. That depends entirely on business decisions that customers have little visibility into. For any product you pay for, there may eventually be a decision to extract additional reven…

The trope is backwards. If a business doesn't charge they have no choice but to make the user the product. If the user pays they have the option.

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

#572

Post by swalls »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #42

Microsoft is clearly taking moves that enable "PC as a service". I imagine the end game is something like you pay Microsoft so much a month on a subscription, receive hardware that is preconfigured with and tied to your Microsoft account details or your company's Azure AD configuration and locked down with InTune, unhackable with properly implemented Class 3+ UEFI and Secure Boot, etc. You then purchase additional so…

I see the potential for a future (and the tech is getting there, with Stadia, etc) where OEMs only sell to cloud operators and instead the consumer is sold essentially a graphics card and network card as a streambox. At that point, we can say goodbye to open source ideals, when [[Cloud Provider]] can charge for installing whatever software they want and keep it locked down otherwise.

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

#573

Post by commoner »

dlphn___xyz wrote: post #316

are there any decent ms office alternatives for linux (not libreoffice)?

Yes, there are several. All three of the following are free of charge on Linux.

OnlyOffice is an open source office suite that has native support for Microsoft Office formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). There is a desktop version that works offline and an online version that integrates with Nextcloud. There are also mobile apps (closed source).

Home page: https://www.onlyoffice.com

Download: https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop.aspx

GitHub: https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/DesktopEditors

WPS Office (previously known as Kingsoft Office) is a closed source office suite that works on Linux. The software is quite popular in China, and the Android app has over 100 million downloads on the Play Store.

Homepage: https://www.wps.com/office/linux

Download: http://wps-community.org/downloads

Flatpak: https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.wps.Office

FreeOffice is another closed source office suite for Linux.

Homepage: https://www.freeoffice.com/en

Download: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/download/applications

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

#574

Post by thothamon »

Kuinox wrote: post #491
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…

They didn't removed it. The title is misleading, The button is still there, but they renamed the button. It's under "Domain Join Instead" https://i.imgur.com/tA9fo1R.png And there you can create an offline account: https://i.imgur.com/eBLi5cv.png

First of all, I would have had no idea that's what "domain join" meant. But second, I love how the option is down there with "terms of use" and other things you're very unlikely to ever read or look at. And third, it's cute how even if you somehow find your way to this option, they have the "but even better, use the online account!" Oh my god.

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

#575

Post by commoner »

xtracto wrote: post #250
cwojno wrote: post #203

I've switched to Linux + Mint in part because I don't want to be using Windows any more. Many of my games work with Steam on Linux now, actually. With Google's docs/drive, everything works cross platform. I really have no productivity loss by not using Windows any more.

> With Google's docs/drive, everything works cross platform What do you use instead of Google Backup and Sync client? I haven't found something that works like that. The "best" thing I've found is the FUSE Ocaml filesystem ( https://github.com/astrada/google-drive-ocamlfuse ) but still it is a "mounted" over network filesystem and not a sync-on-change solution. I tried InSync but could not make it work and it is not…

Mega is source-available, and works perfectly under Linux. It's end-to-end encrypted, and the free plan includes 15 GB of storage. Mega supports syncing multiple folders.

https://mega.nz

https://github.com/meganz/MEGAsync

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

#576

Post by zarkov99 »

I don't get why people who have a choice keep taking this abuse. Stockholm Syndrome perhaps? I switched from Windows to Linux about 6 years ago and my computing experience went from having to deal with soul crushing bullshit every day, to feeling productive and in control of my environment again. Sure, there is the initial pain of having to learn a new environment and admittedly the GUI experience is a bit less polished, but jeez, how can any one take the inexorable, insidious, malevolent take over of their computing experience by this bullshit? Just bite the bullet, install Kubuntu on hardware known to work and move on. You will be in pain for about 2 weeks and happy from point on.

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

#577

Post by JackeJR »

moontear wrote: post #455
currysausage wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing about this. This is what’s keeping me from upgrading to 1903, as I find disabling Bing Search absolutely essential. So, have you followed the advice in the support document? Did it help?

So far, no. I have reset search index, reindexed and tried the PowerShell commands from the KB article. Search in Windows Explorer works just fine - only Start menu doesn’t. Troubleshooter says incorrect permissions for search directories but I haven’t fiddled with those. Tried repairing permissions and giving everyone permission but doesn’t help :-(

The first time Windows update created the spike in CPU, the "fix" was to restore the cache used by Cortana at "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalCache"

Come the 2nd update that borked the start menu, I suspected that it might be because I restored the cache and so the "fix" was not applying correctly. I then proceeded to wipe the cache altogether and it simply rebuilt itself.

Protip: If trying to delete files using windows built in tools throw up errors (mostly permissions related. this will not help you delete a file whose file handle is locked though.), trying using rm from cygwin. Works every single time.

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

#578

Post by diydsp »

panpanna wrote: post #417
bsder wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Linux is _by far_ the best platform for embedded development. Vscode is available as an official snap (on Windows you need to download and update it manually), Segger tools and openocd are fully supported. GCC cross-compiler and even some flashing tools are part of the distro and just an apt-get away. This also means that everyone get the same tools (same version, same bugs). Which makes collaboration much easier.

is there any debugger as good as the Keil IDE in Linux?

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

#579

Post by mcny »

proc0 wrote: post #556
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…

Games is literally the only reason keeping me installing Windows. Hoping this changes with some viable alternative.

> Games is literally the only reason keeping me installing Windows. Hoping this changes with some viable alternative.

If you have the money and the space for a second computer, use the computer with Windows for that specialized task and use a real* computer for everything else? We've been whining about this nonsense for over two years now and I think we need to take a hint.

* that does not force you to restart at its whims

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