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People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account

windowscentral.com

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

#621

Post by ranger_danger »

JTbane wrote: post #583
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.

There is a definite disconnect, I cannot think of ANY scenario in which I (as a developer and power user) would want the Start menu to search the internet.

If I need to google something and I'm working in another app, it's easier for me to just type a search term into the start menu than it is to find the browser to click on, open a new tab and then enter the search terms.

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

#622

Post by jorvi »

Atlas26 wrote: post #449
jorvi wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, why are you even on Windows then? Apple is the accessibility king by far. Both Windows and Android are aeons behind.

Eh, no. My experience working in web accessibility, it seems most visually impaired individuals have a preference for windows, seemingly because it has the most mature set of accessibility/screen reader tools around largely because of how long windows has been around and how much of a requirement it is for enterprise environments.

As far as I know, accessibility has been built into macOS since the early days, and with great care. Which then propagated to application built for macOS, and later on, iOS. iOS is rather magnificent for (visually) impaired people.

In contrast, Windows has had its accessibility features bolted on, and the best ones are third-party which makes it even more bolted-on. And then you have twenty different frameworks to make Windows applications, all with varying (but usually mediocre) levels of accessibility support built in.

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

#623

Post by sombragris »

Rapzid wrote: post #64
grujicd wrote: post #12

This "make Windows better" push is far more political than technological. It's a fight with other divisions about using Windows as a marketing and sales channel for other products and services. It has to be a decision from the very top. I hope they realize that Windows is in significant danger, the majority market share for Desktop OS is not guaranteed anymore. It's not just 10% of revenue, it's a foundation for how…

As someone with a sizeable background in Linux system engineering.. I prefer Windows to MacOS. It's IMHO a better desktop now with the edge snap tile layout and etc. Excellent device compatibility. And I get my linux environment needs satisfied via WSL2 these days. But damn if they don't get in their own way. I have my own Pro licenses, and even with Pro turning off ads and features is text book whack-a-mole: * Frequ…

Easy solution: Ditch WSL, ditch Windows altogether, and use a good Linux distro with Plasma 6.6. Problem solved.

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

#624

Post by PufPufPuf »

Rapzid wrote: post #64
grujicd wrote: post #12

This "make Windows better" push is far more political than technological. It's a fight with other divisions about using Windows as a marketing and sales channel for other products and services. It has to be a decision from the very top. I hope they realize that Windows is in significant danger, the majority market share for Desktop OS is not guaranteed anymore. It's not just 10% of revenue, it's a foundation for how…

As someone with a sizeable background in Linux system engineering.. I prefer Windows to MacOS. It's IMHO a better desktop now with the edge snap tile layout and etc. Excellent device compatibility. And I get my linux environment needs satisfied via WSL2 these days. But damn if they don't get in their own way. I have my own Pro licenses, and even with Pro turning off ads and features is text book whack-a-mole: * Frequ…

FYI macOS now natively has edge snap, half-half tiling with draggable divider that resizes both windows, and even tiling options similar to Windows except a bit less options (e.g. no thirds) -- ok for a laptop screen, ultrawide monitors benefit from a free app to add more options.

And the shell environment is POSIX, with most bash scripts just being ootb compatible without WSL-like shenanigans.

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

#625

Post by yourapostasy »

fsflover wrote: post #615
yourapostasy wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Linux exclusively on the backend, a Windows laptop is usually what my clients issue to me for gigs, and I migrated years ago from macOS to a Linux laptop as my personal primary daily driver (though I still use macOS, just not where I spend 90% of my personal time). I agree with Windows having its own issues like you pointed out. To be fair however, Linux and macOS daily driver experiences are also not without t…

> not having a solution to encrypt our disks and hibernate under Secure Boot Did you consider coreboot with Heads and a hardware key instead?

Thank you Kind Internet Stranger!

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

#626

Post by nchmy »

legacynl wrote: post #589
nchmy wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from Windows to Pop_Os! 6 months ago and am generally quite happy except for the window tiling. It really is fantastic in windows.

Idk which desktop environment you're using, but window tiling on KDE Plasma is quite good.

Thanks. Though, I can't find much about it's capabilities. Does it do "automatic" tiling, where windows just snap automatically into spaces and resize? Because popos can optionally do that too, but it's not what I'm looking for.

I want Windows-like functionality where new windows are full size and then I can use windows key+ arrow keys to resize and it will then automatically prompt me to select a window to snap into the remaining space. That's what's missing in popos

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

#627

Post by fodkodrasz »

lobf wrote: post #367
fodkodrasz wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>Meanwhile on the intuitive MacOs to do this you only have to press Command+Option+Shift+4 It's command-shift-4, no option key involved.

Now got hold of a mac, and checked it:

Command+Shift+4 is area snipping, as you said, but pops up the viewer window

Command+Control+Shift+4 is snipping, but to clipboard. I mixed up the shortcuts, yet my fingers are getting used to it anyways, still I find it terrible default UX compared to other desktops.

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

#628

Post by SpaceNugget »

unleaded wrote: post #545
figmert wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, you say you prefer Windows over macOS, but it sounds to me like you're fighting your OS. MacOS has a lot of flaws, but at least I'm not fighting it. If I say to do something, it does it. It doesn't suddenly revert your decision.

My sentiment with windows (likely shared by most people here consciously using it) is that it's a good OS at heart somwhere. The core of it is very solid and has been for a while, and most of the crap parts that people complain about (see above) are "tacked on" to it and could fairly easily be removed/reverted if Microsoft wanted to (in fact they already have done, see IoT Enterprise LTSC and Windows Server), and it…

If by "conciously using it" means picking it over the alternatives and not using it while unconcious, then yes presumably that subset of people prefer it over the alternatives. That's pretty circular reasoning. Most people who actively choose to use linux also think that linux is a good os.

And I think most linux users would pretty strongly disagree that it's easier to fix windows, a user hostile, closed source operating system with far fewer options for every single user facing aspect of the OS than linux. You have that completely backwards.

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

#629

Post by antiframe »

tonymet wrote: post #355
antiframe wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care about this because I don't want to have to get permission from a third party to log into my local computer. It seems like a fundamental part of owning a computer, to me. It's really that simple. If Microsoft made the default to setup or login to a Microsoft Account but had a pretty easy way to opt-out and make a local account, I don't think anyone would care (well maybe some people would prefer the default to…

It's a fair concern. And I believe you can add local accounts once you init windows with your Microsoft account. Try to think about it from a vendor perspective. How much more difficult it is to maintain support for local accounts, now that so many activities depend on online support. It's preferrable to have a universal/ online credential you assume to be authenticated, rather than having each app test for identity.…

It's fair for them to refuse to support local accounts. And that's why I left the Windows ecosystem. I don't demand they cater to my needs, I go get my needs met elsewhere.

Its not about anonymity. It's about control. I don't want to ask permission to login to my computer. It's that simple.

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

#630

Post by chaosharmonic »

IshKebab wrote: post #526
chaosharmonic wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is maybe just that I switched to Linux years ago and haven't touched Apple hardware much, but what strikes me is how little the OS matters anymore. So much of the tooling is cross-platform now, so many of the applications are web based, and so much of the native platform can know be emulated, that part of why the market share isn't guaranteed is a level of portability that didn't exist a decade or two ago. Every…

Yeah but it's one of those cases where even if an alternative works 99% of the time, it still isn't worth it because of that 1%. Same with web browser compatible - that's why even Microsoft switched to Blink. Same with electric car range - "it covers 99% of your journeys!" isn't as persuasive as proponents would like.

I mean, relative to IE, everything else was the alternative.

Whereas in more recent years, keeping a closed-source rendering engine that was no longer competitive in implementing the spec, wasn't being used when people had a choice, and was being used as a dependency for core components of the OS, probably wasn't winning many arguments.

(Edit: yes, I know Chakra was open source. I meant Trident.)

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