Live data from Hacker News

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

reddit.com

711–720 of 800 posts

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

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could go the hackintosh route. Though I haven’t tried it in a decade or more, I’ve seen some people with pretty cool setups. Certainly more work to maintain than just Linux or an official Mac.

Recently hackintoshed a XPS 15 9550, and holy shit it became the best laptop I’ve used so far. Everything (including bluetooth and wifi) works, no butterfly keyboard shenanigans, still decent performance, lots of ports (including hdmi and usb 3), the touchpad works perfectly (with all multitouch gestures).

Any problems along the way with updates, performance issues or anything?

I’m interested in a new XPS 15 but prefer Mac OS.

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

#712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone running Windows PCs at work is in an enterprise environment with in-house IT specialists. Remember, most businesses are small businesses.

“Administered”. If you don’t have IT specialists you don’t have people administering your PCs professionally. I’m not talking about people who happen to use Windows in a professional setting. I’m talking specifically about people whose main job responsibilities include Windows administration.

If you don’t have IT specialists you don’t have people administering your PCs professionally.

Given that your stated alternative was home users, you seem to have excluded just about the entire world of small businesses with that definition. They might not have dedicated IT staff, but they still need to be able to administer their systems and in many cases a designated person will still be responsible for doing so. They just need to be able to do that as well as fulfilling whatever obligations they have in their primary role. Issues like privacy and security apply just as much in this context as in a large enterprise deployment with a whole department of dedicated staff to run it, but they need simple, transparent mechanisms for setting up the office network, deploying updates to the OS and installed software, etc.

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

#713
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is bad, but I do not think you are stuck. But there are two fronts -- business offerings are going the same way. There is lots of pressure to use almost exclusively MS hosted services. And, in that market, not everything has a good replacement.

The reason why I feel like I’m stuck is based on my personal use case. Basically I need two things: A. Being able to use some proprietary software not available on Linux B. Being able to self build so I can select the HW that works for me With Linux I lose A and with Mac I would lose B. I’m thinking that a combo Mac Mini + Tower PC with Linux could work, but using two OSes at the same time, even with shared NAS, KVM…

I use the combo Mac Mini and PC tower at home. The crucial piece of software that makes this work for me is Synergy. It allows you to share a keyboard and mouse across Linux, Mac and Windows (and support cut-n-paste of text across all three). It works like a charm.

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

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you deal with Broadcom WiFi drivers?

You unscrew the small screw that keeps the mPCIe wifi card in place lift it out and throw it in the fish tank where it becomes part of the amusing detritus of social commentary and landscape art you've been contributing to. Now pop in the $18 Intel card you ordered last night and landed a hour ago. Your done ! Oh wait ! NOOB, you forgot to replace the screw !

And then you throw the entire laptop after the card, because your new Intel WiFi card isn't on the whitelist.

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

#715

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux? Basically everything an average user does is in the browser.

Install Gentoo. Everybody should Install Gentoo.

not gentoo haiku

it's nearly out of beta

i think it has games

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

#716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else is any average user going to switch to exactly?

Linux? Basically everything an average user does is in the browser.

You'd be surprised how many non-average users you find in most companies then.

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

#718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really though Look no further than TV manufacturers, the moment one of them decided to substitute below market prices with selling people’s data the others had to follow to stay competitive!

I still wonder how true this really is. Every time this subject comes up, all I seem to find are people who just want a good screen, and often who don't mind paying a higher price for it. Presumably there are also people who are sufficiently price-sensitive when buying a large flat-screen TV that the reduction from having bundled junkware makes a difference, but as far as I know, I have yet to meet one. If anything,…

I think this is only true for a small subset of tech-savvy people. Anecdotally, everyone I know that doesn't work in tech loves their smart TV—it's way more convenient for them than having a separate device connected to the TV, and they don't really care (or even know) about the privacy implications. And I suspect that this must be true more generally, otherwise companies would continue to make higher-cost "dumb" TVs to cater to that audience.

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

#720
post #98
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since I’ve migrated to web IDEs, my daily driver has become a Chromebook. Privacy concerns apart, it gets the job done and the battery life is over 14 hours. I’ve migrated from Linux, which is also pretty good as a desktop, but feels a little less polished than ChromeOS.

Which web IDEs?

For now, AWS Cloud9. It’s pretty good for Python and JavaScript. Go support is subpar, but usable. Besides that, you have access to terminals, so you can use Vim and Emacs in text mode as well.

However, I’m evaluating using that new IDE from Eclipse (I think it’s called Dirigible), because it seems to have more mature Go support.

Post reply on HN