19 ms·
Upcoming Windows 11 builds cannot install without internet and Microsoft Account
- userbinator 2y ago"Challenge accepted." Much like with the TPM "requirement" and the others, I don't expect this one to stay undefeated for long.
- chii 2y agothe true victory is to move to linux. unfortunately, that's been harder than it needed to be, and it's mostly due to inertia of old software and network effect of windows.
- BrenBarn 2y agoI've made the switch, but there are still occasional things for which I need to boot into a Windows VM.
- Tepix 2y agoWhy fight a piece of software with other motives hen you can choose one that is aligned with yours instead?
- userbinator 2y agoNo software is perfect, and people might not want to "fight" with Linux either. Besides, it's a good challenge; this site is called Hacker News, after all.
- miles 2y ago> "We're removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11." .·°՞(˃ ᗜ ˂)՞°·.
- yoyohello13 2y ago“Security”
- mhuffman 2y ago>security and user experience This is corporate speak for advertisements and telemetry
- isoprophlex 2y agoOh daddy MS please enhance my user experience OH YES enhance me uhhnnnnn I couldn't face my own reflection in the mirror if my job was justifying obviously user hostile crap like this.
- avgd 2y agoIt's quite ironic they call it enhance security to tie their software to their cloud considering their cloud infrastructure is one of the most hacked of the big corpos. Data breaches happen all the damn time. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/hackers-could-read-non-corporate-outlook-comhotmail-for-six-months/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/hackers-could-read-n... https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/in-major-gaffe-hacked-microsoft-test-account-was-assigned-admin-privileges/ https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/in-major-gaffe-hack... Something that doesn't happen much, if at all, with Google or Amazon. Microsoft is one of the most incompetent and impotent corpo out there and considering how much critical infrastructure relies on their software it would do good for the world if the government intervened like they should have back in the antitrust lawsuit days. Break them up. Separate the cloud, windows and office businesses. Make them stand on their own merits.
- nokeya 2y agoGaslighting at its finest.
- JoshTriplett 2y agoAccording to the linked discussion, the underlying setting that the script set still exists, so this simply makes it less convenient. It should absolutely be taken as a warning sign, though. Seriously, if at this point you're installing Windows and relying on the existence of that setting, you should be seeking alternatives.
- technion 2y agoI've been saying the writing was on the wall for a long time. Any time someone says how easy it is to simply avoid MS account registration I've argued that it's not going to last much longer. Even Microsoft's current Storage Spaces Direct won't let you start a locally hosted Hyper-V VM without an Azure connection.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoWhat if there's an outage or somewhere you don't have reliable internet?
- Teever 2y agoThen this isn't the operating system for you.
- mhuffman 2y ago>Fuck people that live in very rural areas! -Microsoft, apparently
- Springtime 2y agoReminds me back at the Xbox One launch where notoriously an employee arrogantly said that always online DRM is fine and defended it when pressed by saying why would anyone want to live in an area with unreliable internet. He left Microsoft after the backlash.
- 2y ago
- 0dayz 2y agoThat Xbox employee that was smugly and fanatically defending the always online fiasco way back (who ended up getting fired for defending the sales pitch) must be screaming.
- defrost 2y agoEarlier on HN: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account (theverge.com) 139 points | 5 hours ago | 125 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43511073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43511073
- bsdetector 2y agoIn October when Windows 10 support ends it'll finally be the year of desktop linux.
- nullify88 2y agoWell, those that are on the Windows 10 IoT LTSC builds will enjoy updates until 2032. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2021 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows...
- zakki 2y agoDo you know where to buy it?
- ugjka 2y agomas
- orthoxerox 2y agosgrave
- throwaway48476 2y agodot dev
- mkl 2y agoIt's hard to find information about it, but this post has quite a bit (some may be out of date): https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/bbof9s/windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_what_are_the_purchase/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/bbof9s/windows_10...
- nullify88 2y agoAs far as I know you need to sail across the high seas.
- soraminazuki 2y agoIt's such an absurd lie. If Microsoft's idea of security is to force its users to authenticate online for a local account, they should never be allowed in the software industry at all. They're needlessly and dramatically increasing the attack surface of one of the most security critical software running on user devices.
- CrossVR 2y agoAnd for what? Make number go up? If it's just another data collection scheme the at least I could understand why.
- bboygravity 2y agoBecause the NSA pays them to. Why did they do to Skype what they did (first turn it from p2p to centralized and spyable and then just ignore it and let it die)? Same reason.
- ashoeafoot 2y agoi wonder if some Estonian could justvrerelease the p2p originals . After all as america deteriorates its own influence , at some point the lawyers of the big 4 will be seen as barely disguised tendril of a hostile power in Europe . Who cares about your sales contracts if the president goes for Greenland . We might see a SkyEarthFireWater-Open source re-release one day. Just another tradewar anecdote .
- bboygravity 2y agoAmerica deteriorates its own influence? wut? The big 4 will be seen as a hostile power within Europe? The big 4 ARE (mostly) European. What are you talking about? Sales contracts? What do you mean in what context? I agree that it would be cool if the original p2p Skype somehow resurfaces, but I can't make any sense of the rest of your post or what it has to do with the subject at hand?
- 2y ago
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43511073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43511073
- bentt 2y agoSave us SteamOS
- ohgr 2y agoI give it a week before someone patches it. I’m using LTSC. That’s fine. I suspect that’ll never require a Microsoft account. Edit: come on EU. Step up here. Tell them they need to give the users choice.
- bigstrat2003 2y agoDo you still need an enterprise agreement to get a license for LTSC? That used to be the case for 10, anyways... kinda puts it out of the reach of most users.
- miles 2y agoIt was/is just a few hundred dollars and well within reach of anyone able to pay that price (though the required volume license agreement, while "free", may well be off-putting to some): https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html https://tinyapps.org/blog/201811300700_windows_10_ltsc.html
- ohgr 2y agoNo you just steal it and pretend it’s ok because the machine came with windows 11. Tech companies taught me it’s ok to steal and do things without permission.
- throwaway48476 2y agoIts not stealing if you don't seed.
- miles 2y agoAdding for posterity: Meta claims torrenting pirated books isn’t illegal without proof of seeding https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/meta-defends-its-vast-book-torrenting-were-just-a-leech-no-proof-of-seeding/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/meta-defends-its...
- sirwhinesalot 2y ago
- sshine 2y agoWindows is the first thing that gets deleted on a new PC. An acquaintance of mine works for Microsoft. Every time I meet him, he always tells me how much money hey makes. I'm sure it's double of what I earn when I have a good year. A big part of me wants to earn that money, too. But an unwavering part of me knows, I could never work for Microsoft. At this point it is not just bitterness from their anti-Linux, anti-FOSS FUD days: http://web.archive.org/web/20010201090600/http://www.dot-lies.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20010201090600/http://www.dot-lie... It is knowing that I don't align with their philosophies, at all. I can feel it every time I try to use one of their broken, unloved UIs.
- userbinator 2y agoA big part of me wants to earn that money, too. But an unwavering part of me knows, I could never work for Microsoft. Big Tech and big money is not just Microsoft --- there's Apple and Google too, but if you don't want to work for MS, then the latter two might be "same but different".
- JFingleton 2y agoThe thing is, Microsoft does make good software: Excel, Visual Studio, VSCode, Xbox. I don't believe the problem is the engineers, the leadership of Windows fails to understand what the OS is meant for: getting out of the way so you can access the apps.
- sshine 2y agoC# is god software, too. Yeah, Microsoft is a big place. I heard the Acquired podcast episode on Microsoft, and I can’t pretend that their business strategies failed; they didn’t, and arguably it is the most successful company in history. I have a lot of respect for the business side. And the things that rub me the wrong way are part of their success, e.g. embedding WWW into the OS early on. The main reason I can’t work for them is their Vogon aesthetics. They’re like a square pair of shoes: not meant for you.
- hilbert42 2y ago"OS is meant for: getting out of the way so you can access the apps." When I first got into computers an operating system was primarily known as a file-loader — a way or mechanism to load one's apps. Take CP/M as an example.
- southernplaces7 2y agocough, https://massgrave.dev/genuine-installation-media https://massgrave.dev/genuine-installation-media cough
- mythz 2y agoAll these user hostile behavior finally tipped me over the edge last year after I started to get Windows 10 EOL popups. No way I was going to "upgrade" to a ad/spyware/subscription ridden MS marketing platform and be constantly nagged at to try out more of their services. Moved to a Fedora Desktop, liberating to move back to an conflict-free OS whose primary focus is to serve its users, imagine that.
- atemerev 2y agoWindows is a launcher for games, there is no other use for this system (correction: it still runs some specialized professional software that is too expensive to port). And now, even most of the games work on Linux too.
- Ylpertnodi 2y agoI have lots of windows (mainly music) software that I need, let alone outright purchased, and isn't available on Linux.
- atemerev 2y agoIt is usually available on Macs. Of course, there is still some specialized software for Windows, e.g. many CADs. But all these things are now marginal. If you are a software engineer and use Windows for your work, you are now a minority.
- herbst 2y agoI got into music production again recently. To my surprise most recommended new software is either Linux native or properly ported. See reaper for example. Many years ago music on Linux was hard, and years behind. Software was limited and the audio driver situation was a mess. But now you get professional software directly in the package manager and choose between several very reliable sound systems and even use the far majority of VST Plugins.
- rekoil 2y agoI was looking to move to Linux for my gaming PC, just about pulled the plug when Respawn decided that all cheaters in Apex Legends were supposedly using Linux and decided to block Linux users from playing...
- nikhil 2y agoFuck Microsoft
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- brokegrammer 2y agoA while ago, I needed to get into safe mode to rescue a laptop that wouldn't boot. Since it uses Windows 11, I originally logged in using my Microsoft Account and a Windows Hello pin. Safe mode doesn't load wifi drivers and the laptop didn't have an ethernet port, so I couldn't log in to my Microsoft Account to get into Windows safe mode. Didn't have a dongle with ethernet port at that time, so I had to backup the drive and reinstall Windows instead. That's why I use Linux these days.
- Szpadel 2y agowait, you need internet connection to even login? this means root cannot use computer when you do not have internet connection for any reason?
- vishnugupta 2y agoI’m not in Windows ecosystem for more than 25 years now. But I had to buy couple of windows laptops for sales team at my business. I tried very hard but windows wouldn’t allow me to set it up without first creating Microsoft Account online. I’m in Apple ecosystem, not that they are significantly different but they atleast allow me to use the system albeit in limited capacity. I’m seriously considering going back to Linux for my next work setup.
- Aaron2222 2y ago> I’m in Apple ecosystem, not that they are significantly different but they atleast allow me to use the system albeit in limited capacity. Define "limited capacity". Other than Apple Services like iCloud, FaceTime, iMessage, Apple Music/TV, etc, it should just be the App Store that's unavailable without an Apple ID (which _is_ crippling on iOS, but not so much on macOS).
- yonatan8070 2y agoThere was a trick to bypass the online account requirement. You press Shift+F10, which launches a command prompt, then use `oobe\bypassnro`. This reboots the system and adds a button to set up offline.
- sarcasmatwork 2y agoCould you create a slipstream ISO using nlite, create a user and then it's bypassed?
- tharos47 2y agoThe simplest way imho would be to use Windows configuration designer. It generates a file that automate windows oobe when put on a USB key connected to the pc during setup. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provision-pcs-for-initial-deployment https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/prov...
- defrost 2y agoEasy way to create custom Win11 iso is using microwin from the Chris Titus win util suite https://christitustech.github.io/winutil/userguide/ https://christitustech.github.io/winutil/userguide/ https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil https://christitus.com/windows-utility-improved/ https://christitus.com/windows-utility-improved/ It's an open source textGUI powershell suite with hyperlinks to all the toggle tweaks, maintained by one talented MS engineer and contributed to and eyeballed by a hundred odd contibuters.
- chneu 2y agoThere are builds of win11 like Ghost Spectre that strip a lot of this crap out.
- throwaway48476 2y agoWhy not IoT?
- janwillemb 2y agoIt is very hard to use Android without a Google account. Most people accept that. They must have learnt from that.
- qrobit 2y agoIs it? I use Android without Google account (with services though). No app forces account on me, there's always option to sign in through other platform or directly via email.
- bakugo 2y ago> No app forces account on me What apps? You can't use Google Play to download apps without an account.
- jakeogh 2y agoNo google acct here, I use fdroid and the Aurora store. I have no doubt though that google is working on killing the Aurora store. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41773781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41773781
- potemkinhr 2y agoDo banking apps work normally if downloaded from the aurora store? I'd very much like to fully degoogle my next phone when I get to replacing it, and it's the last stumbling stone
- aboringusername 2y agoAbsolutely. You should check out the list [1] to see what banking apps are verified working with GrapheneOS. It's worth noting if your banking app isn't on this list it does not mean it will not work. [1]: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/ https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...
- notepad0x90 2y agoThere are a lot of "workstation" type enterprise deployments where by policy, internet access is forbidden. Microsoft knows this, at least for professional and enterprise editions of Windows, I find it hard to believe an internet connection would be required, like ever. I would also say the same about require either a live.com or M365/EntraId account for local login on AD joined systems' installations. Unless of course they require you to setup a base-image with an internet connection and then convert accounts to local-only post-install, which sounds like a typical Microsoft approach.
- Kab1r 2y agoIs there a good reason (other than licensing and Linux as an alternative) I shouldn't use Windows Server 202X as a Desktop OS?
- sgjohnson 2y agoYou don’t need to use the Server SKU. LTSC exists. It’s basically the Server version, but without any of the Server stuff.
- 3np 2y agoIDK about today but back when I hard work that required Windows that's how I stayed sane.
- Cyphase 2y agoI've heard tell that some software out there will refuse to operate on Windows Server because of licensing, like perhaps they want you to get a business license. I have no evidence at hand, but something to look into.
- zahllos 2y agoI worked at a software vendor where we would check the type of product and yes you needed our server product to run on their server product, whether or not you used the server as a server. Not all software does this but I also don't recall it being unusual.
- 2y ago
- samiv 2y agoI'm also 100% convinced Microsoft will introduce mandatory code signing at some point and make it so that you can only ever install software from Windows Store. They are envious of the Google and Apple walled gardens/cashcows and are now determined to turn Windows into one. Windows is no longer a product for users, the users of Windows are the product for Microsoft to be shoved into the Azure sales funnel.
- agilob 2y agoThat's the main reason why Valve is investing in Linux and Steam Deck.
- eru 2y agoApropos, running Steam on my Archlinux Desktop with Windows compatibility turned on works really, really well. Much better than what I remembered from the bad old days of trying to get stuff running in Wine.
- tmikaeld 2y agoI second that, everything "just works" as you'd expect it to. If StreamOS can get widespread and they start to introduce desktop apps to the store, I think they can take some market share.
- herbst 2y agoImo just works is an understatement. Many games work better than ever.
- throwaway48476 2y agoOn low power hardware many games run better because they not strangled by windows bloat.
- 2y ago
- chneu 2y agoI recently bought a new computer for the first time in ~5 years. I had to boot into windows 11. What a garbage shit show that OS has become. It took nearly an hour for updates, then it constantly dogged me to sign up for free trials of all kinds of crap. It required logging into Microsoft. It made me back things up. At no point was any of this really optional. And when it was they made it difficult to find the option to skip.
- ungreased0675 2y agoWindows 11 is the reason I’ve returned to Linux after a decade away. Microsoft doesn’t seem to be concerned about killing the golden goose. I wonder if they have data on just how much hostility users are willing to put up with?
- atemerev 2y agoThe golden goose is now Azure. Windows is (or will be soon) a free complementary OS to make more people use Azure services.
- sagolikasoppor 2y agoThe only issue with that is when you switch to Linux, alternatives to Azure is much more compelling. I would never use Azure services unless I'm on Windows.
- atemerev 2y agoWell, I do. I still like Outlook, and it works good enough as a web app. Same for OneNote. Azure as the development platform is crazy, of course. But I also have a friend who I respect much, and who is probably a better engineer than me, who likes Azure and completely unproductive with AWS, so _maybe_ that's a matter of taste. Just like tabs and spaces. I prefer spaces, but whatever.
- herbst 2y agoI prefer managing my own hardware and find both Azure and AWS very unproductive for anything else than huge, big traffic, projects. Not sure if that has to do anything with my OS choice.
- sys_64738 2y ago> I still like Outlook, and it works good enough as a web app. Same for OneNote. This I find baffling. Outlook and One Note are some of the worst applications known to man. Clunky interfaces and confusing messes to navigate.
- mindslight 2y agoI assume that any version one might actually use will have this patched out by the torrent packager.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mjmas 2y agoPerhaps they could actually ship some wifi/ethernet drivers with their installer then.
- yonatan8070 2y agoAccorsing to the first comment under the OP the script just runs: reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f So presumably the removal of the script won't impact bypass methods used by the likes of Rufus and Ventoy. Either way, I've been happily on Fedora for a while now, with very minimal "fuck I can't do that here"
- nottorp 2y agoBTW is there still a way to disable the stupid pin login on windows 10 and/or 11? One that works this week, what I found online did not help.
- squarefoot 2y agoWhen you're forced online, you become less resistant to products and services being fed from the cloud, then computers can be produced cheaply with less storage and resources, and almost everyone will end up running dumb terminals. It doesn't happen overnight, but more and more people would rather buy a 150 bucks PC plus pay per use services rather than a 250 one that can host and run installed software, then the market would do the rest by making real computers more expensive as they transition to niche products. I'd rather start familiarizing with open and less intrusive operating systems.
- codedokode 2y agoWhat happens if your online Windows account gets banned? How do you log in?
- hulitu 2y ago> What happens if your online Windows account gets banned? How do you log in? Tough, isn't it ? Your security is very important _for us_. Your privacy is very important _for us_. See PayPal, Stripe, Google and other "services" for examples. To directly answer: I have a Win 10 without MS account. Disk got corrupted, chkdsk cannot repair, cannot boot. Checking messages on screen was something like "online chkdsk failed". Unplugging the ethernet cable "fixed" the issue.
- DeathArrow 2y agoAll the computers are connected to the Internet? Can you still buy something without having to register and without that software always be communicating to home servers? Can you still buy a software product and do whatever you wish with it, for as long as you want and without having to pay subscriptions or be forced to upgrade?
- hulitu 2y ago> All the computers are connected to the Internet? no > Can you still buy something without having to register and without that software always be communicating to home servers? yes Can you still buy a software product and do whatever you wish with it, for as long as you want and without having to pay subscriptions or be forced to upgrade? yes
- khaledh 2y agoMicrosoft knew they were losing the client device market to iPhone and Android (after their Windows Phone flopped). So they essentially gave up on improving Windows, and decided to turn it into a thin client for Microsoft cloud services. For this model to work well, they need to force users to have a stable identification, aka Microsoft account, in order to login to the thin client. Windows is over. I moved to Apple silicon a while ago and never looked back. Even though macOS has its warts, it's not hostile to its users.
- throwaway48476 2y agoMacOS is less hostile but still very hostile.
- hnlmorg 2y agoI remember an interview with Bill Gates around 2000 (maybe even late 90s) where Gates said that the future of software was online subscription. He even stated back then that he’s have Office run over the internet if he could. Another example of this is how Xbox Live has been a thing since the original Xbox. Long before iOS and Android. And more recently, Xbox Live has become more than just a subscription service but a full on streaming platform. Let’s also not forget that traditionally enterprise licenses for Windows would be billed annually. By this, I don’t mean someone purchasing Windows Server for their home lab, but actual data centre use. (I’m pretty sure this was the case, been a long long time since I’ve gone through a Microsoft audit, let alone been purchasing data center licenses, some someone do correct me if I’m misremembering here). So I don’t think any of this is a knee jerk reaction to Apple and Google eating their market. I think it’s always been their long term strategy but it’s just taken this long for the wider industry to align. Now with the gaming market being increasingly subscription based, other software vendors switching pricing format (eg Adobe) and the internet being far more accessible than ever, MS are in the best place they’ve ever been to press home the final missing piece: Windows Home.
- daveoc64 2y ago>Windows is over. I moved to Apple silicon a while ago and never looked back. Even though macOS has its warts, it's not hostile to its users. It's also very naggy about signing up to iCloud and using an Apple Account. It doesn't force you - but it's still annoying.
- aboringusername 2y agoDoes anyone have an idea if you were to enable wifi and register a MS account exactly what data is being sent to them? Do they send your MAC address? Obviously your IP address and I assume during account creation they would want your phone number/alt email? I can see Windows not being accessible as some places genuinely don't have internet, and if they do, it's heavily restricted. I've also heard if you enter something like "a@a.com" or a banned email during setup it can let you through? Obviously this is a way of 'legitimizing' consent to data collection and it would be very interesting to see a breakdown of every byte of data MS gets sent (even file explorer communicates with a US IP address). I genuinely think the EU needs to take a look at this, I would be very surprised it this wasn't abusing their monopoly-like position for mandatory data collection (although, they probably welcome it!).
- tpolm 2y agoDoes oobe trick no longer work?
- delfinom 2y agoI keep installing without Microsoft accounts just fine. People keep not realizing there is literally a option for this in the installer still, it's just not named "skip microsoft account". LOL
- throwaway48476 2y agoThe existence of work around does not excuse user hostile behavior.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- zkmon 2y agoGood old days - when the software was a box full of floppy disks or CDs which you buy at a store and bring them home and modify registry settings etc. Software is no longer a product like a chair and table which you can just buy and move it from the store to your home. It is more like a managed service like a utility connection. It is available for use only as long as the vendor allows it. You buy a subscription and play nice. The buyer might also not have the admin user privileges on the software they bought with their money. The same might happen to cars and all other smart devices as well. Cars might always be connected to the car company, which might have some remote control over the car. Phones are already like this. It is a matter of time, all your home appliances are partly controlled by the companies who sold them.
- briHass 2y agoManaging Windows devices at work using the online-first paradigm makes it clear what MS is trying to achieve here, but it's poorly communicated, as usual. In the M365/Entra world, the big benefit is having cloud Active Directory (Entra/AzureAD) and automated deployment (Intune/Autopilot) all integrated. For home users, you get bits and pieces of this, but it feels unnecessarily limited. What MS wants (from a charitable interpretation), is the ability to encourage/enforce full disk encryption (Bitlocker), TPM-based MFA and TPM-backed passkeys (Windows Hello), as well as tight integration with their product suite (Office/OneDrive) and browser (Edge). Syncing settings, apps and other things between devices (or on setup) is also a win, though it's pretty basic right now. Though silly to a technical crowd like HN, FDE for regular users requires a way to not lose all their data if they forget their password or some other issue happens with secure boot or the device. Non-technical users aren't going to understand the importance of backing up their Bitlocker recovery key, and without it, they're hosed. During online setup, MS stores this key online to the MS account, so it is recoverable. MS isn't going to limit the integration and security they can provide by adhering to a local-only OS concept. It's not what most users actually want, and their competition (Apple, Android) does the same thing, so users are used to it. I just wish they had a light (inexpensive) version of the Entra/Intune package for home users that want to be able to manage multiple devices and get the real advantages of the online link.
- jimjimwii 2y agoI'm surprised that they're doing this now, with how strained international relations are. I'm sure their timing will help motivate serious non-us customers to look at linux for desktop use.
- jofla_net 2y agoI really doubt that if it was, say, the early 90s (with millions of people yet unfamiliar to computing) and MS and Linux was in its current state of development, that the masses wouldn't have found it much more frictionless just to use linux. MS is literally running on hot air, hubris, and lock-in the likes of which I don't think many others cant match, devil incarnate not withstanding.
- shepherdjerred 2y agoThere's always Windows 11 LTSC https://massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links https://massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links
- 3eb7988a1663 2y agoHow does this work for secure environments which are supposed to be air-gapped? Does Microsoft offer a special on-premise licensing server? I cannot image they just throw up their hands for such clients and suggest an alternative OS.
- nipperkinfeet 2y agoAnything above Windows 11 pro can join domains.
- CatWChainsaw 2y agoThey want everyone using Microsoft accounts so they can turn computer usage into a subscription service, plus with Recall you get perfect telemetry. Panopticon is here and you pay for the pleasure.
- more_corn 2y agoEvery day I am more glad not to be part of the windows ecosystem.
- danielktdoranie 2y agoI avoid Microsoft products at any cost, and have done so since I began using computers in the 1980s. I suggest others do the same. The company and its practices are unethical and morally bankrupt: and those products don’t even work well. The more people who stop using Windows the less they will have control of gaming.
- sys_64738 2y agoI haven't had Windows on a computer I own since 2009. I only use it on the work computer as it's the garbage they install and lockdown. The best thing you can do for your life is go Microsoft-Free. Don't do drugs, don't do MICROS~1.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y agoWhy does Microsoft continue to publish a Windows 10 ISO. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10I... Does MS try to force an automated upgrade on anyone who installs it.