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I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

extremetech.com

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Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#611

Post by kinjba11 »

patrick451 wrote: post #607
pradn wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows just works. I can't remember the last time I had a driver issue with wifi or had an issue with new hardware working. Every game targets Windows first, so they all work without any extra work. My computer is a tool, and I don't want to spend any of my free time configuring things, like I have when running Linux in the past. I spent enough of my time at work doing that!

Every time I install windows, I spend easily half a day hunting down drivers. All of this is installed automatically with linux, and especially Ubuntu installs. The last time I installed windows, I got two black strips on either side of the display. No amount of GPU driver shenanigans would fix it. It worked first try on linux.

Anecdotal of course, but I've had the opposite experience. When I install Windows, the first thing I do is let Windows Update take care of everything. You could say it's "installed automatically". The only drivers I've needed to install in the past 5 years was Nvidia drivers for graphics cards or the odd printer driver. And downloading these drivers is super easy taking 5 minutes at most - the first search result for "nvidia download drivers" is the correct one.

Maybe I'm just unlucky, but every time I've installed Linux something with the drivers always breaks - video playback is choppy, wireless drops randomly, audio breaks, the fingerprint reader doesn't work. Using WSL2 or a VM is much easier when I want Linux.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#612

Post by collinmanderson »

DrBazza wrote: post #284

If it's true that Windows 11 (home or pro) requires me to create an online account, then I'm finally done with Windows at home. I really hope that it isn't, but it does seem like this has been coming since Windows 10. I can understand from a company perspective that this kind of thing reduces piracy (and losses for a $2tn company), potentially improves the Windows upgrade route in future, and has minor benefits to so…

Windows 11 Pro won't require an account.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#613

Post by 1337turtle »

fouric wrote: post #218
1337turtle wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you have a more complex 2in1 setup. Linux isn't great for those since those system are heavily designed to be used with Windows and will require the Linux community to play catchup and implement the correct drivers for Linux to play nice on it. Recommend a simpler laptop that is well known to work well with Linux. There are resources out there to determine how well Linux will run on it before purchase.

If someone asks for a software/OS recommendation, "get better hardware" is generally not the right advice.

Correction, I'm saying get worse hardware. :)

I just worry about people swearing off Linux forever when they can't successfully install Linux on their Microsoft Duo Surface that just released a month ago, and then they post about the horrible time they had with Linux. In the past decade I have never had any troubles installing Ubuntu on any computer I've owned. It is plug and play most of the time! But nobody talks about when things work just fine :)

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#614

Post by kinjba11 »

maxk42 wrote: post #538
HumblyTossed wrote: post #269

> I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC Yes, you will. Eventually. They'll continue to beat you down until you submit. Because, here's the secret. Even though you built the machine from the ground up, hand selecting all the parts, once you install Windows, the machine belongs to Microsoft. No, really, it does. They certainly think so. And they're a rich powerful organization, so it must be so.

This kind of behavior inspired me to finally make the switch to full-time Linux eight years ago. I've tried Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, and a handful of smaller distros. But with the Cinnamon desktop environment my day to day computing experience is truly enjoyable next to the constant slew of confirmation dialogs and dark patterns a Microsoft experience provides. However - you're right. Whenever I want to play a video gam…

> who knows intuitively this is wrong

I think you're vastly overestimating the average computer user here :) Most will make no meaningful distinction between a local account and an online one. If they could sign into Windows with their Facebook account they probably would.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#615

Post by hda2 »

naikrovek wrote: post #552
sm4rk0 wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've deleted my LinkedIn account the same day I found my data and trust were sold out to MS without my consent. And I don't feel I'm missing anything.

you may be shocked to learn that your consent is not required in order for one company to buy another.

For transferring his data, it should be. It's his data not theirs to leak.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#616

Post by hnick »

donmcronald wrote: post #553
lbriner wrote: post #34

It is sadly part of a dark pattern called "stickiness". You can dress it up as functionally useful or even important but ultimately it is about companies wanting to create enough of a dependency that you have to continue using them, which is anti-competitive. Gone are the days where you bought something from a shop with no stickiness other than good service brought you back. Now there are far too many Marketing Manag…

I've always called it adhesive ToS. I hate it and I think it should be illegal. You set up an account and all you need is an email address. Then, all of a sudden, they need your phone number "for security." Then your name and DoB "for the security of your account." Soon it'll be a credit card for age verification. And the whole time you better give them accurate information because if they ever lock your account you'…

I know someone who uses Facebook for work. Her account login stopped working, it always said she put the wrong token number even though she used their own token generator from the phone app.

It's my pet theory they just randomly lock accounts without ID on file so you have to upload ID to unlock it, which is apparently now required for new accounts. Because that's the only thing that worked because they have no support.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#617

Post by int_19h »

tssva wrote: post #518
int_19h wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trackpad is silky smooth on Star Labs laptops.

It isn't whether it is smooth or not. The issue is the mess that is multitouch gesture support on Linux.

What kind of gestures do you have in mind? Scrolling and zooming seems to work fine for me.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#618

Post by fart32 »

w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #595
fart32 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing few of them? I use fingerprint reader on my phone and laptop, is there a reason I shouldn't? Face recognition is something I have a problem with. I don't like cameras, especially those you cannot unplug.

For biometrics in general, there's a huge list, starting from cannot change and therefore rely on the implementation, all the way down to hard to deny that I have access. While I can say, no, I don't have a password to this random device you are showing me, with biometrics, you can just wave it in front of my face and it unlocks. Maybe even when I am asleep / unconscious. For the specific case here, about my laptop:…

I see. I don't find the lack of ability to share a device as a problem, but I can understand your first point.

On a side note, I was thinking about using both - password/PIN (something I know and must be conscious to provide) AND a fingerprint. Sadly, Windows Hello can't be configured this way.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#619

Post by teekert »

wiredfool wrote: post #261
teekert wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need Windows? Our family laptop runs Linux, it does Teams for school, MineCraft, Netflix. You could do Office365 from a browser, although I admit, it is less than ideal. But it seems like you are almost at the emotional state make the jump... what's holding you back? I bought a Dell Latitude E5450 for 350 eur about 2 years back. It was used but looked new. It came with Win 10 Pro, which sits on my NAS a…

You're probably not going to be able to use that bit for bit copy later. I did something similar with my last linux laptop, and none of the workarounds to put the partitions back worked when I needed a quick windows test machine.

I think the problem would be the partitions, perhaps try the whole drive end to end next time?

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#620

Post by mackrevinack »

fart32 wrote: post #618
w4rh4wk5 wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For biometrics in general, there's a huge list, starting from cannot change and therefore rely on the implementation, all the way down to hard to deny that I have access. While I can say, no, I don't have a password to this random device you are showing me, with biometrics, you can just wave it in front of my face and it unlocks. Maybe even when I am asleep / unconscious. For the specific case here, about my laptop:…

I see. I don't find the lack of ability to share a device as a problem, but I can understand your first point. On a side note, I was thinking about using both - password/PIN (something I know and must be conscious to provide) AND a fingerprint. Sadly, Windows Hello can't be configured this way.

yea its a real shame that combining them isn't more common.

i would also like more granular control. like a pin+fingerprint when im connected to my home network and full passphrase when not, ie when im travelling or whatever. if i know I'm going to be home for the evening and nobody else is around it would be nice to not have to use anything at all

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