5 ms·

Most people here don't like having a MS account, but is it really so terrible? When I log in each day I'll use my AWS account, 2 or 3 google accounts, Amazon, F

by rb808 7y ago

Most people here don't like having a MS account, but is it really so terrible? When I log in each day I'll use my AWS account, 2 or 3 google accounts, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Slack. You can't use a phone or a tablet without a Apple/Google account, surely having a MS account to use Windows isn't such a big deal.

hurricanetc 7y ago
You absolutely can use a phone or tablet without an Apple or Google account.
zeveb 7y ago
Bruce Schneier wrote a bit about tech feudalism seven years ago: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.ht... BTW, it is entirely possible to use a smart phone without a Google or Apple account.
mlrtime 7y ago
All those things are required because they're online services. You can have a phone or computer always offline, why do you need a online account?
- tatersolid 7y ago
  How useful is a phone that is offline? What exactly do you do with it? Making phone calls is inherently an online activity.
drngdds 7y ago
I'd rather not tie something to an account (and therefore my identity) when I don't have to. I don't know what kind of information about my computer use they're associating with me. Windows always worked without an online account before and it's not like Windows 10 introduces must-have features that need one.
maeln 7y ago
> When I log in each day I'll use my AWS account, 2 or 3 google accounts, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Slack. You can't use a phone or a tablet without a Apple/Google account, surely having a MS account to use Windows isn't such a big deal. Just because the situation is already bad doesn't mean we shouldn't complain that it continue to get worse ...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
CivBase 7y ago
I frequently setup PCs for friends and family. I'm not about to start asking them for their Microsoft account credentials. A much more reasonable approach is to setup a normal Windows user profile and let them connected it later if they want. I don't encourage it, though, because there isn't much benefit unless you have multiple computers with synced personalization settings, which is very uncommon.
tcd 7y ago
> but is it really so terrible? We don't know what the future has in store for us. To me, the level of control China has over its population is scary. Data can be misused in many different ways, and one day, I suspect we'll see a catastrophic situation occur as a result of all this connectivity and mass surveillance. Only then, people might take note and realize it's a terrible idea.
bregma 7y ago
Just lie back and think of your country. It makes it so much more tolerable.
reaperducer 7y ago
You can't use a phone or a tablet without a Apple/Google account This is false. You can use any iOS device without an account. And it's not even hard, like in TFA. I think you're just conditioned to believe that having an account for everything is normal. It is now.
Yetanfou 7y ago
That's odd, I don't have any of those accounts yet I still use phones, tablets and general purpose computers and servers daily. Linux works fine without any such accounts. Android works fine without one. Windows 10 might give problems in the consumer-oriented versions but the enterprise version is yet free from such misery, configure it without the MS store and you're mostly free. Mozilla is also getting a bit pushy with their sync accounts and the lack of usable self-hosted options so I do without such functionality for now where I used to host my own sync server before the switch to the new-and-'improved' version. So yes, being pushed towards creating online accounts for general purpose computing is a problem.

by rb808 7y ago

hurricanetc 7y ago

You absolutely can use a phone or tablet without an Apple or Google account.

zeveb 7y ago

Bruce Schneier wrote a bit about tech feudalism seven years ago: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.ht... BTW, it is entirely possible to use a smart phone without a Google or Apple account.

mlrtime 7y ago

All those things are required because they're online services. You can have a phone or computer always offline, why do you need a online account?

tatersolid 7y ago
How useful is a phone that is offline? What exactly do you do with it? Making phone calls is inherently an online activity.

drngdds 7y ago

I'd rather not tie something to an account (and therefore my identity) when I don't have to. I don't know what kind of information about my computer use they're associating with me. Windows always worked without an online account before and it's not like Windows 10 introduces must-have features that need one.

maeln 7y ago

> When I log in each day I'll use my AWS account, 2 or 3 google accounts, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Slack. You can't use a phone or a tablet without a Apple/Google account, surely having a MS account to use Windows isn't such a big deal. Just because the situation is already bad doesn't mean we shouldn't complain that it continue to get worse ...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

CivBase 7y ago

I frequently setup PCs for friends and family. I'm not about to start asking them for their Microsoft account credentials. A much more reasonable approach is to setup a normal Windows user profile and let them connected it later if they want. I don't encourage it, though, because there isn't much benefit unless you have multiple computers with synced personalization settings, which is very uncommon.

tcd 7y ago

> but is it really so terrible? We don't know what the future has in store for us. To me, the level of control China has over its population is scary. Data can be misused in many different ways, and one day, I suspect we'll see a catastrophic situation occur as a result of all this connectivity and mass surveillance. Only then, people might take note and realize it's a terrible idea.

bregma 7y ago

Just lie back and think of your country. It makes it so much more tolerable.

reaperducer 7y ago

You can't use a phone or a tablet without a Apple/Google account This is false. You can use any iOS device without an account. And it's not even hard, like in TFA. I think you're just conditioned to believe that having an account for everything is normal. It is now.

Yetanfou 7y ago

That's odd, I don't have any of those accounts yet I still use phones, tablets and general purpose computers and servers daily. Linux works fine without any such accounts. Android works fine without one. Windows 10 might give problems in the consumer-oriented versions but the enterprise version is yet free from such misery, configure it without the MS store and you're mostly free. Mozilla is also getting a bit pushy with their sync accounts and the lack of usable self-hosted options so I do without such functionality for now where I used to host my own sync server before the switch to the new-and-'improved' version. So yes, being pushed towards creating online accounts for general purpose computing is a problem.