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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

#571

Post by culopatin »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #466
TheDong wrote: post #171

Are people inside apple fighting to drop the mandatory apple account for iOS and various core apple features? I can buy a thinkpad and install linux on it without once creating a microsoft account. I can buy an android phone supported by GrapheneOS, and use it as a perfectly fine phone without ever creating a google account. I cannot buy an iPhone without creating an apple account, without getting ads shoved in my fa…

> I cannot buy an iPhone without creating an apple account You can both buy and use an iPhone without creating an Apple account. You are limited to the built-in apps, but those built-in apps cover most common use-cases. Most people wouldn't want to do this, of course. But you can.

I know the logic on what I’m about to say is not that tight, but… For some reason, creating an account with Apple doesn’t feel like opening a can of worms like it does with Microsoft.

I know exactly what I’m getting when I open the one with Apple, and I have visibility into it from the settings of every device, feels secure and I never get emails or spam associated to it.

The Microsoft account is another story. It’s a black box, I don’t know what they are collecting, I know that even if it looks like a square today, it’ll be a hexagon tomorrow, and a triangle the next day. They’ll change the product name, merge with some other crap, etc. to access it, you’ll have to remember what the service was when you created it. Live? Hotmail? Outlook? Are they the same as my windows account? Who knows.

It’s just not trust worthy IME. I don’t have an issue with creating an account, I have an issue not knowing why I need it or what I get from it.

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

#573

Post by culopatin »

SirMaster wrote: post #78
dpark wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does not tie the local account to the cloud account the same way. On a Mac you create a local account and you can (and almost certainly will) create a cloud account to link to it. But they are separate accounts. In fact I’m pretty sure Apple blocks you from setting the passwords the same on both, presumably with the intent of reminding you that they are not the same entity.

But what about our phones? Why are people so OK with an online account for their phone or tablet but not laptop?

Because I get benefits from it. With Apple I get a way of managing my devices, seeing location, remote erase, sharing services with family, storage, all integrated in a way that is there if I need it, out of my sight if I don’t.

What benefits am I getting from a Windows account? Syncing my profile picture? OneDrive is a mess I rather not have, is never happy.

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

#574

Post by culopatin »

TuringNYC wrote: post #429

Ss it just me or did Microsoft never actually fix/figure out their account merge? I found that anyone who had a legacy skype/hotmail account basically got locked out once Skype/Hotmail/Outlook.com all merged. Multiple frustrated message threads online complained about this and from my personal experience it never got fixed. Basically two out of three accounts became inaccessable. That was when I completely left that…

For a long time I used my Gmail account as my Microsoft account somehow. So my login ended in Gmail.com. At some point like 2015 I realized it had been merged with outlook or something and now I had an outlook mailbox that had a Gmail domain, along with my actual Gmail mailbox. I got locked out once and it took me days to figure it out. Got so confused about it I decided to close that MS account and get an outlook one. I don’t even know if it’s active or what it was for anymore.

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

#575

Post by noisy_boy »

ano-ther wrote: post #2

That would improve things. Over the weekend, a family member could not log into their laptop any longer. Turned out to be “a problem with Teams” that required an unscheduled update which was marked as optional. Needless to say that they never used Teams on that machine. When the login worked partially, their files weren’t accessible because they accidentally saved it on OneDrive which now defaults to storing online o…

On Linux, I have my backup script that syncs the data to two local disks + Cloudflare R2. I run it when I want to even though I can schedule it to run automatically. I also use Syncthing which syncs the important files between my main computer and phone. So I have 4 copies of the data and I'm paying only for R2 (which I deliberately opted for). The setup works exactly as per my wishes and my needs. I am so grateful that Linux has given me that freedom.

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

#576

Post by legacynl »

brookst wrote: post #548
jojobas wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean Activation Lock Server Check.

As someone who had a brand new M1 MBP stolen from a San Jose coworking space. I am 100% in favor of the this having at best some parts and not a working computer.

I do hope you understand that 'bad thing X happened to me, therefore any measure to prevent X is good' is a logical fallacy?

"As someone who had a brand new mbp stolen from me, I'm personally 100% in favor of the remote-c4 installed in every mbp. Just imagine if he could have accessed my banking information?"

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

#577

Post by TuringNYC »

culopatin wrote: post #574
TuringNYC wrote: post #429

Ss it just me or did Microsoft never actually fix/figure out their account merge? I found that anyone who had a legacy skype/hotmail account basically got locked out once Skype/Hotmail/Outlook.com all merged. Multiple frustrated message threads online complained about this and from my personal experience it never got fixed. Basically two out of three accounts became inaccessable. That was when I completely left that…

For a long time I used my Gmail account as my Microsoft account somehow. So my login ended in Gmail.com. At some point like 2015 I realized it had been merged with outlook or something and now I had an outlook mailbox that had a Gmail domain, along with my actual Gmail mailbox. I got locked out once and it took me days to figure it out. Got so confused about it I decided to close that MS account and get an outlook on…

Well you are lucky if you were able to dump the account. For me, I had Skype credit, monthly billings, and tons of contacts -- all gone in a botched post-merger integration. Definitely makes me never go back to that ecosystem ever again.

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

#578

Post by noisy_boy »

spandrew wrote: post #13

I would never advise anyone buy a Microsoft Windows laptop these days — between the forced updates, the account and service-fee thirst, ads, and consumer unfriendly product release process (forced opt-in). Guess what? With Apple's new Neo laptop the price is also way way wayyy out to lunch. If MSFT gives a business a huge bulk discount to buy their laptops + Office360 + Teams... OK? But as a "consumer" it really suck…

> I would never advise anyone buy a Microsoft Windows laptop these days — between the forced updates, the account and service-fee thirst, ads, and consumer unfriendly product release process (forced opt-in).

Buying a Windows laptop is a default even for a lot of Linux users because the alternatives are mostly too US-centric. In Asia, Framework only delivers to Taiwan - which is astounding given the technically advanced population of consumers in South East Asia. I'm not aware of System76 etc having any sales channels and after sales service setup in Asia either.

Until Asahi becomes a stable choice on Macs, if you want to run Linux on a laptop of a reputable brand, a Windows laptop is basically the only option (even though you may just wipe it). I kept mine dual boot not because I actually use Windows at home but because I paid for the bloody license, even though against my wishes.

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

#579

Post by culopatin »

My 30000+ person Windows centric company has discovered that Macs are not only cheaper to order (than the 2.5k HP laptops they’ve been fed) but people don’t complain about the fans as much, batteries last longer, speakers are better and screens are brighter, so there has been a massive wave of Windows to Mac transition.

It went from web devs and designers to now HR, admins, anyone. I don’t think we’ll swap Active Directory just yet but I would’ve never thought we’d do this. We’re an old school slow red tape wrapped industry.

Cloud too, Azure could not secure our business even though we’ve been Microsoft everything. We’re in AWS.

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

#580

Post by noisy_boy »

exographicskip wrote: post #239
ooterness wrote: post #3

Too little, too late. I switched to Linux and I'm never looking back. Good riddance, Microsoft.

The only two moats MS has for desktop OS usage are: 1) Kernel-level DRM for multiplayer games (looking at you, Marathon) 2) Intentionally nerfed MSO 365 apps on web and macOS You could make a strong case that MDM (which InTune uses as well) negates the AD + GPO advantages of the past 20+ years in enterprise.

> Intentionally nerfed MSO 365 apps on web

Don't get me started on that. Outlook PWA is so stupid that I can't delete invitations without sending a decline response. Run all rules on the inbox? Tough luck, no such option. I use a Linux VM at work and the only Microsoft thing I am forced to run on my Windows PC is Outlook. That PC is basically the VM launcher at this point because everything else I need to run is on KDE inside the VM and I couldn't be happier that I get to use KDE both at office and home. Microsoft deserves every ounce of hate that it gets and much more.

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