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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

#71

Post by sturadnidge »

iso1631 wrote: post #35
thelibrarian wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is not. Apple does encourage setting up/associating an Apple ID account, it is not a requirement.

I don't know about windows, but the comment you're replying to says microsoft encourages you to set up a online account (which I suspect most people outside of a domain would actually want), but allows you to set up a local account. Yes it's a Dark UI pattern, but I have a feeling Apple do the same thing (I haven't set an apple laptop up for 8 years so my memory is vague) Is that incorrect?

According the article, come Windows 11 that will be incorrect.

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

#72

Post by swiley »

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…

> bought something from a shop with no stickiness

If you want this you can still have it, you just need to follow a simple rule:

Absolutely no non-free non community maintained software ever period.

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

#73

Post by brushfoot »

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head:

- Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away.

- No detection of tablet mode.

- No auto screen rotation.

- Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to select Nvidia vs. integrated graphics.

- MS Teams shared my desktop as a giant blur.

- LibreOffice is still bad and incompatible with what my company does in Office, though that may matter less with Office Online.

Is there a distro that Just Works more so than Ubuntu? I'm sure I could have solved all of the above with enough time and effort, but I'm not in a good position to do that right now.

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

#74

Post by blendergeek »

fsloth wrote: post #57
addicted wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I think it’s as simple as it being a better experience for the type of people who would buy the Home edition. Forcing them to log in with a MS account allows MS to provide a lot of the services people expect using Android or iOS as their primary devices. For one thing, both those devices pretty much require an online account as well. And they contain far more sensitive data. But more importantly, they a…

"I think it’s as simple as it being a better experience for the type of people who would buy the Home edition. ... allows MS to provide a lot of the services people expect using Android or iOS as their primary devices. This. 100 times. The main compute device people as a population are familiar with is the cellphone/tablet, and usage patterns that differ from this are becoming the odd man out. Consumer tech. Commodit…

Android devices give the users this choice. Android devices are definitely made for regular consumers.

Already, on Windows 10, all normal users used an MS account. The only way to get around it was to set up a computer without internet and then click some non obvious buttons while the computer begged for an MS account. If the goal was making it easy for normal users to have an MS account, Windows 10 succeeded.

The change here is that power users no longer have the choice to not use a cloud account. This change provides no benefit to the average user.

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

#75

Post by hawthornio »

brushfoot wrote: post #73

This makes me want to move back to Linux, but last time I tried Ubuntu (2020) there were lots of little annoyances. Off the top of my head: - Screen tearing. I Googled around and installed the Nvidia drivers for my laptop, but it never went away. - No detection of tablet mode. - No auto screen rotation. - Slow Blender rendering. Probably a PEBKAC with my driver setup, but it just worked in Windows and it was easy to…

Elementary OS is positioning itself a Linux distro that Just Works TM, but I haven’t used it anywhere near as much as Ubuntu/Gnome so I can’t definitively say.

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

#76

Post by LAC-Tech »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #70
BatteryMountain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, PopOS, Manjaro/Arch. Spend the time to get acquainted, soon you will see you can do almost everything you need on linux (and more) that you can on Windows/macOS, but with less mental overhead (after you are used to linux, it really is simpler).

I feel like comments like this gloss over the many UX issues many Linux distros have. For example the file picker. When you open a new file from the web browser (Firefox usually) you navigate to your file and pick it. Now if you open up another file, it forgot your last opened directory and takes you back to your home or default. On windows and Mac I believe it remembers your last directory. Also saving files in Debi…

Right but your comment glosses over the many UX issues windows has. For example, virtual desktops are associated with all your screens, not with individual screens. Never had this issue in any linux distro.

(I'm all ears on how to solve that file picker problem though, that is mildly annoying).

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

#77

Post by craftinator »

tssva wrote: post #29
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workaround is to use Linux :)

Great. The workaround is much worse battery usage, screen tearing and a horrible trackpad experience.

It's funny, I've been using Linux pretty much my entire adult life, and out of the issues you've pointed out, the only ones I've experienced have been with Windows; always reminds me to do a full wipe, not a dual boot.

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

#78

Post by emouryto »

romanovcode wrote: post #13
GekkePrutser wrote: post #6

This is really a dealbreaker for me, much more than the TPM and recent processor stuff. There must be some workaround :( Edit: Thanks @yourusername, I had missed the part where it's only for the home edition. I'm glad there is still a way.

It was never a requirement. It uses dark UI patterns (You have to click cancel, then there is a tiny link at the bottom that allows you to create local pc admin account with no MS attachment). Media likes to overblow things.

Haha, how can you defend Microsoft like this.

Imagine McDonald's applying such dark UI patterns: maybe forget part of your order, put your change on the table under a napkin so you don't notice it, only offer you the free ice cream the 3rd time you ask, etc. People would be up in arms!

But Microsoft?! Well, they are the darling of the tech world now so it must only be a prank no?

No evil to see here, sir!

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

#79

Post by w4rh4wk5 »

Fun fact, password for my Microsoft account sits in my password manager. If I can't log into my PC, I can't access that password.

And no, I am not going to remember that, or change it to something simpler. (Yes I know about entropy and correct horse battery staple!)

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

#80

Post by BBC-vs-neolibs »

salamandersauce wrote: post #49
Ducki wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you don't need an iCloud account to use a mac. Neither do you in order to use an iPhone.

But you do lose a lot of functionality. Especially on the iPhone as there is no real way to add apps without it.

This is an uncelebrated (accidental) security feature. One of the most secure "burner" devices there are, is an iPhone or iPad with no iCloud configuration.

Good for semi-anonymous browsing for instance, also because fingerprinting of the browser looks the same as a bunch of other iOS devices.

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