Windows 11 to require an online account for ALL installations (including Pro)

Just now, gwain said:

udb runs fine on wine for me It even works with custom builder textures

 

For native support maybe fork UDB and remove the .NET Framework from everything and replace it with GTK or Qt, and then you can compile it.

6 minutes ago, Solmyr said:

I guess i'll stick to Windows 7 and 10 for now.

win7 is a good choice I have an archived version of win7 iso on a thumb drive because mircosoft took it down after the last update

so in 20 years when Disney owns linux I will always have the option

Just now, gwain said:

win7 is a good choice I have an archived version of win7 iso on a thumb drive because mircosoft took it down after the last update

so in 20 years when Disney owns linux I will always have the option

i dont though, i used to have 7 but switched to linux, but my drivers arent on linux so my only option was windows 8.1 with classic shell.

11 minutes ago, gwain said:

so in 20 years when Disney owns linux I will always have the option

Where would you get a system still capable of running Windows 7 then? Even today's hardware can't because there's no drivers for these systems.

@gwain Make sure to check on your thumb drive from time to time, thumb drives could last 10 years at best and there's also the thing about it needing some ammount of charge to keep stored data, if you let it unused for too long (lets say a year) you might find your Windows 7 ISO gone, forever. 

1 minute ago, Graf Zahl said:

 

Where would you get a system still capable of running Windows 7 then? Even today's hardware can't because there's no drivers for these systems.

 

*laughs in poor*

5 hours ago, MFG38 said:

Yeah, and that's what kinda concerns me. The average Windows user arguably sticks to Windows because It Just Works™ for them and they either don't know about or outright ignore the warning signs that Microsoft keeps giving.

Here's the problem though. It does just work more than not, and Linux doesn't. I have tried to install distros for customers in the last 18 months and both had problems. One relatively minor - a laptop refusing to boot when not plugged in - and the other major - a myriad of lockups and crashes trying to install to an M.2 card forcing me to eventually switch to a SATA SSD as a last ditch roll of the dice after hours of experimenting with various suggested settings. Tried both Mint and Ubuntu. Same problem. 

When an OS won't even install onto a build using common parts from well known manufacturers, it absolutely is not prime time ready. The idea inexperienced and not confident Windows users will just mass migrate to Linux is a complete fantasy.

I have an outlook account I use to sign in all my customer pcs. Then i sign out of it when the setups done. No activation issues afterwards as it's tied to the computer. Awkward but workable. 

1 hour ago, gwain said:

win7 is a good choice I have an archived version of win7 iso on a thumb drive because mircosoft took it down after the last update

so in 20 years when Disney owns linux I will always have the option

No you won't. You'll be looking for a 30 year old computer. As Graf said, even now doing a Windows 7 build new is nearly impossible due to lack of drivers.

Just now, Murdoch said:

 

No you won't. The driver support won't be there. You'll be looking for a 30 year old computer. As Graf said, even now doing a Windows 7 build new is nearly impossible due to lack of drivers.

my current pc came with win7 because its old and I'm not really in need of a new pc so meh

11 minutes ago, gwain said:

my current pc came with win7 because its old and I'm not really in need of a new pc so meh

PCs do not last forever. 

6 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

PCs do not last forever. 

it was a joke Disney inst going to own the Linux kernal in 20 years I just have the win7 iso

23 minutes ago, gwain said:

it was a joke Disney inst going to own the Linux kernal in 20 years I just have the win7 iso

Don't give the idea

They may be watching 👀

You can lose sleep over this stuff, or accept that it's unavoidable. How many people complaining about required accounts for Win11 have a smartphone with a "required" (unless you only sideload and use stuff like F-Droid) Google account that they accept as a "necessary evil"? Or an iPhone and all of its interconnected services? Even if you're on Linux, what is your web browser relaying about you? What about GNOME trying to push its online accounts manager? What about the time Ubuntu tried to default to having your Unity search queries tied to web searches? The list goes on and on.

4 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Linux still being an impossibly unfriendly

The first time I switched to Linux it took me like 10 minutes to get used to it and learn how to do things. Nowadays I use a Win10 machine but man, you have no idea how much I miss Linux...

Quote

Like, really, why every fucking time that the stupid Win 10 needs to upgrade, my computer starts running like shit? I don't get it

22 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

the UI changes in every Windows iteration after 7 make me want to puke,

...and all the OEM kickback money funneled back to Redmond makes Satya Nadella want to {redacted}

2 hours ago, gwain said:

when Disney owns linux

There will be one distribution, called "Goofy OS"

44 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Oh also

I think you need to see a doctor.

47 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

 

• having to update my machine soon and lose compatibility with 50-60% of the Doom modding tools I use daily makes me want to fart, 

I don't think you would lose compatibility with most of your tools if you upgraded to Windows 10. From my experience, Windows' built-in compatibility options work very well since Microsoft is pretty hellbent on making everything that was in Windows like 30 years ago, still able to run today. I was even able to get an ancient build of ZDoom from 1999 to run on the latest version of Windows 10, by simply changing the compatibility mode for the program to Windows XP.

Never though I'd see the day I'd actually prefer Windows 10, but here we are. :l

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

• the UI changes in every Windows iteration after 7 make me want to puke,
• having to update my machine soon and lose compatibility with 50-60% of the Doom modding tools I use daily makes me want to fart, 
• having to be online to install the new Windows OS makes me want to shit,
• Linux still being an impossibly unfriendly to use glorified version of all those green symbols flying around in the Matrix makes me want to pee.

when I went from win 7 to linux I puked farted peed and shat because I would have remake my custom win7 gui

7 hours ago, AndrewB said:

I ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ my Windows 7

I miss it dearly, I've put a lot of effort into trimming and modifying Windows 10 to make it more like 7 on my new machine, and did the same with my last one. I've edited the registry value to make sure I wont ever have 11 foisted or tricked on me. I hope that it'll be enough at least for now.

7 hours ago, MFG38 said:

Yeah, and that's what kinda concerns me. The average Windows user arguably sticks to Windows because It Just Works™ for them and they either don't know about or outright ignore the warning signs that Microsoft keeps giving. Granted, there's bound to be some relearning of things even between versions of Windows, but fundamentally, the core Windows experience has stayed the same (with the exception of Win8). But putting that aside, the fact that Windows is still the world's most installed OS despite having turned into what's essentially Microsoft spyware is a pretty clear indicator of widespread ignorance among the majority of the computer-using population. Or maybe they do know about all of that but still stick to Windows because, once again, It Just Works™.

Fundamentally, it's because Mac is too different from what people know of Windows (and Apple have their own dirty business), while Linux has a largely justified reputation of not being anywhere close to userfriendly enough for the layman.

Mac and Linux are not seen as satisfactory or viable options, people are between a rock and a hard place.

7 hours ago, MFG38 said:

Now that it occurs to me, I'd be curious to know if any schools anywhere tackle this subject at all. I know it's not a thing in Finnish schools - I should, I am Finnish - but I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to add some teaching about the three "big" OSs to school curriculums across the globe. If nothing else, it'd serve as a way to let students know that Windows isn't the only OS in the world and that there's a less intrusive alternative.

Perhaps you're right.

I don't think anti-piracy is the main motivation for this.  Microsoft has been on a general spree of trying to nudge Windows users into compliance with Microsoft's default settings recently, as part of trying to maximise take-up of the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365, Microsoft Edge with Microsoft Bing search, etc.)  There's been a lot of controversy recently over their use of the compulsory Windows updates as a weapon to push Edge with Bing as the recommended default browser for Windows.

Forcing Windows users to log in with Microsoft accounts makes it easier for Microsoft to push users into their ecosystem with targeted ads.

Anti-piracy can be cited as a reason for this, but I'm reminded here of the EdgeDeflector fiasco, where Microsoft cited security reasons for blocking it, but it seems likely to me and many others that the primary reason was to stop users from opening various links from within Windows using browsers other than Edge, especially in response to Firefox proposing an update which would give Firefox EdgeDeflector-type functionality and potentially erode the market share of Microsoft Edge.

Of course, it's not just Microsoft that is doing this sort of thing - Google, Apple etc. are every bit as keen to push everyone into using their ecosystems.  I am generally concerned about the way the industry is going here, where, instead of being able to choose between purchasing individual competing products, users are increasingly sucked into having to choose between subscription based "all in one" packages.  

Overall, I don't think of compulsory Microsoft accounts as a huge step that will result in me switching to Linux, but I see it as a part of a concerning incremental shift towards the big companies gaining more control over end users, mainly in the interest of maximising market share and profits, and citing security reasons so as to make it difficult to argue against the general trend.

1 hour ago, Lol 6 said:

 

Like, really, why every fucking time that the stupid Win 10 needs to upgrade, my computer starts running like shit? I don't get it

probably wipes some of the files that makes remember all the common stuff you do and your ram has to relearn what your doing

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

having to update my machine soon and lose compatibility with 50-60% of the Doom modding tools I use daily

this line isn't real, this specific line was generated by a robot

Looks like i'm staying on Windows 10 for the rest of my life

Hopefully they get rid of this and then rename Win11 to Windows for Casuals while Win10 becomes Windows Gaming Edition 

4 hours ago, inkoalawetrust said:

I don't think you would lose compatibility with most of your tools if you upgraded to Windows 10. From my experience, Windows' built-in compatibility options work very well since Microsoft is pretty hellbent on making everything that was in Windows like 30 years ago, still able to run today. I was even able to get an ancient build of ZDoom from 1999 to run on the latest version of Windows 10, by simply changing the compatibility mode for the program to Windows XP.

I ran DoomCad5.1 the other week on my PC running win10 / 64bit. I didn't expect it to run and I'm pretty sure I tried about 4 years ago and it was a no go. Not sure wtf changed in that time. haha.

18 hours ago, northivanastan said:

Every time Microsoft does something that would justify a mass Linux migration, it doesn't happen. There's maybe a few Mac and Linux migrants, but not enough of the latter to increase Linux's marketshare significantly, or enough of the former to discourage Microsoft.

Bought an underpowered 32 Bit Netbook with atom CPU and 2 gb Ram to test around with Linux Mint.

What i like so far:

- Runs pretty great.

- I Like the Start Menu.

- "Store" makes it easy to find and install some additional Software, as Choclate Doom

- Could even start Warcraft 2 Battle.Net Edition with Playonlinux (wine based, Battle.net edition is the Windows Version of Warcraft 2).

- Dosbox runs great.

- QMMP runs Winamp Skins :P

- I actually have Accsess to all Folders, (even if only the User one is structured in a logical Way)

What i do not like so far:

- Installing Software manually needs every time to use the Console, only two commands, but why no double Click or even a right Click and Point in the Context Menu?

- Maybe i am doing something wrong, but afterwards i have to give the Standard User Permition to the Folder.

- The Way Software installs itselfs is a Wild West. Dosbox for Example put the Config File in a Folder, but that one it actually used in another one. Gave me a lot unneeded Headage :P

- I am afraid that some Programs will be harder to have Accsess to (editing config Files and else, Modding).

Sadly, i couldn't test Steam, as it doesn't recognize the CPU and thinks it is older than a Pentium 4 :P

As Windows is heading to a Way more dumb System, for Example you can't accsess the App Folders nor delete it, you have no Control over the Files.

It is taking Options away or hiding them.

The Upgrades and Updates change your Settings, you have to tame Windows again and again.

Windows 11 wants to put Advertisment into the File Explorer and Start Menu.

It has this smartphony News Segment on the left.

I liked the Startmenu from 8 and 10, you could structure your Stuff so well, the new one is a let down for everyone.

More and more Stuff is marching into Webservices aka Cloud.

Nah, i will use 10 until it dies and than change to Linux.

Even that crappy Netbook can run Games through "Wine", so am pretty sure i will be Happy satisfied with Proton and Playonlinux on my main PC.

*dabs on Win11 users from behind his Samsung R518*

Losers.

IMO wet dream of users actively migrating from Windows to Linux is possible, but to achieve this Microsoft would need to basically annihilate all physical and digital distributives of their pre-newest Windows, along with forcing everyone to upgrade to their newest OS by all possible and impossible means and then massively shitting it up.