Submitted 3 weeks ago by 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.world
Linux is this way, guys.
This is the dumbest decision for one reason alone: some laptops and desktops that lack updated drivers cannot connect to the internet.
It literally happened to me with a lenovo laptop, where I had to find a way to bypass the internet requirement or else I’d have a $800 paperweight.
If I didn’t need Windows for a specific reason I’d be on Linux, believe me. But this decision is ridiculous.
I don’t see how this particular thing is an issue. You don’t need to activate Windows during the setup. You can skip activation, update the driver, and then activate windows afterwards
I think the real problem is setting up Windows without a Microsoft account?
or use your phone or any other device to get the activation key.
Activation scripts can be put onto a USB drive, so if nothing else, there’s always a way to keep using the hardware you paid for (assuming you want to stay hostage to these fucks)
Remember when you activated something with the key on the back of the CD case?
I remember key generators… :)
Never had any luck with those to say the least…
those had the BEST music for some reason.
I never used the one on the CD case, I just used all ones. Or 123451234512345, etc. for Windows 98.
Dear Microsoft,
Could you please squeeze your users a little harder yet.
We’re eager for the year of the linux desktop.
Microslop*
microsoft kills official
was gettin excited there
To all Linux users. Help out the new ones, explain calmly and make them feel welcome so that they can contribute back later too.
This garbage makes me so glad I switched to Linux Mint. Gaming has been just fine. Sure there have been a few hurdles, but they were well-worth spending time on as Microsoft continues this foolishness.
I’ve been perfectly happy on Mint since switching over a year ago. The few games I play run just fine (FO4, FOLON, Portal, and such), and the other apps work too, GIMP, Inkscape, LibreOffice, Blender, etc.
In spite of the recent post about which Linux distro to recommend, and seeing many no longer recommend Mint, I’ll stick with Mint. It just works.
+1 for running Mint.
Tried Pop_OS and the audio drivers were hot garbage. Went to Mint and it worked fine.
Couldn’t you theoretically download an ISO for an older version of Win 11, install that offline without an account, then update it to the latest version?
Well…here’s the thing. Step 1 of your plan is to install windows 11.
In the words of Manny Calavera:
“I don’t really want to do that…”
I’ve installed aore recent version of Win11 without network and local account was still working. I also recent found that the IoT Enterprise version cuts out Copilot AND the Windows store in the base install. So IoT + Massgrave ftw.
Probably. I think the update will ask for your account at some point though (I don’t really use windows though, so you probably want a second opinion on that).
I believe they get weird about local accounts on recent versions of 11, even ones that already existed. I’m not going to verify, but yeah I think the point is they’re moving towards them basically not existing.
If something is beneficial to the side with more negotiating power and is practical to do, it happens.
It wasn’t plausible when Internet connectivity for accounts on local machines wasn’t a given always everywhere.
And it wasn’t that important for them.
Now both have changed enough.
Also I think all stable continuous changes of mass where single person doesn’t change much are predictable, similarly to Asimov’s Foundation (except there it was presented as something a virtuous genius does to help humanity, not quite how life works).
So expecting Microsoft and others to break their dicks is infantile. I think they’ll succeed fully inside their strategic definition, their model, one can say.
Where anything divergent and interesting can happen is the fringes. Like Reticulum, Briar, hobbyist weak hardware, technologies that will emerge occasionally without mass economic pressure. Toys and jokes.
Yeah, I bet you could. Good thinking.
When I recently set up my laptop there was an rays command I was able to do to add the option back to use a local account
I moved three Win 10 boxes to linux mint cinnamon this week. Twenty more and I’ll have made good progress on my little nonprofit. But I’m probably at least a decade from being able to go 100% away from windows and Mac’s. Fuck em both.
Good on ya.
“What else can we do that’s hostile to our customers?”
The next move will be bringing back Clippy and then a full-screen ad that you have to dismiss every ten seconds.
They did bring back clippy, they just renamed him to Copilot and sold his soul to the devil for “better” functionality.
It was only a matter of time. Surprised it took this long.
My last Windows will officially be the Win10 IOT I have installed in a Virtual Box, just so I can run a couple of little programs that aren’t available for Linux, and don’t work in Wine.
look fuck microsoft, but - who is trying to activate windows without any internet access at all?
Sorry souls who don’t want to create a MS account if they just need to reimage a PC or only need a local account. Such a blatant attempt at locking folks into their ecosystem. Same as Apple.
this isn’t about microsoft accounts or local accounts on OC. this is just about activating the OS which you can do on a provided website (without an account).
Well, I’ve never done it because it’s not part of my tasks, but for example industrial PCs used for SCADA usually run Windows, and they are never allowed on the internet, so…
Nah, they’re run by the laziest chucklefucks you’ve ever met - they’re plugged right into a broadband modem with no firewall running bog standard teamviewer or RDP awaiting any connection (no filtering) because the people setting up and using these systems have no concept of infosec. They know how to set up their industrial system, plug it into the ‘computer thingy’, and hand it off the the municipal water dude who is a flat earth, anti-fluoride, moon-landing hoax, J6-denialist who knows nothing about technology, but wants to run the town’s water treatment from his cell phone.
(not that I’m jaded by small town dynamics or anything)
We have our clients switch to Linux now. Ignition works well enough and it’s so much cheaper. It has drawbacks compared to wonderware, or the Siemens stack though. But I’ll take those issues over logging into their systems still running on winXP.
me
People who live in third world countries like the US who don’t have Internet at home/internet isn’t available to them because it’s not profitable for the company providing for that area.
Some years ago, I was using an ancient (even then) Dell laptop that I took with me to my grandparents summer camp for two weeks vacation. Northern Vermont, landline phone service only. My dad had sent me Win 7 Ultimate and I installed it sitting on the camp deck. I called in the activation.
Not Windows, but I’ve reinstalled my Mac laptop OSes many times when I’ve swapped out a SSD. Also at camp. I did a full - unsupported no less! - install of Mojave macOS on an ancient MacPro that my aunt and uncle used to run their music and movies on. They had no internet and rented DVDs and ripped their own CDs. Once I showed my Uncle how to edit the track info in iTunes, he was off and running.
I know lots of people - older mostly - with computers that only have internet access on their phones. FFS, my mom only has text on her flip phone, (her phone provider switched over to 4G and they sent her a smartphone of some kind which she could not use, so she sent it back and they got her a 4g enabled flip phone) and I’ll mail her big USB sticks with movies and tv shows on them so she uses her laptop. No internet, no electricity even, unless it’s from their solar panels.
Pretty much anyone off the grid would phone in activation or roll with an OS that doesn’t require it (like macOS and Linux).
I know lots of people - older mostly - with computers that only have internet access on their phones.
exactly. you can use your phone to go to the windows activation site. you don’t need the PC you’re activating to have internet.
Owning a summer camp, but ripping CDs?
Me.
10s of nerds on a Linux forum who definitely were messing with Windows 🙄
You’re asking the wrong question. You should be asking “who is trying to use Windows without any Internet access at all?”
Which is definitely some people/situations. It’s not the standard user-centric use case that Microsoft expects, but it does exist.
no, that’s not the question. you can still use windows without internet access, you just need some other device to get to the activation website. like a phone or another computer.
I’m not, but unless I call the phone support I can’t get my windows to activate.
I had a copy of windows Xp that I used to call to get activated.
The moment I needed Microsoft’s permission to use my computer after installing a graphics card, I made an image of the drive, wiped it and installed a Linux distribution. That was 2008, and I’ve been a very happy computer user since.
I know not everyone can make that switch, but it’s easier than ever before, and Valve has really changed the calculus with Proton. Gaming was the biggest thing holding back Linux adoption (IMO).
I’ve gone back and forth between Linux and Windows as my daily driver- biggest problem for me was and still is lack of Adobe Creative Cloud support/good photo editors. Wound up switching to Mac for work stuff but use a SteamDeck and run Bazzite on a gaming rig hooked up to TV.
And with that any chance I’ll ever buy a Microsoft product ever again.
I’d switch off windows but most of the games I play won’t work on Linux due to “anti cheat”.
Gta, bf6, rainbow 6, cod, none of these run because the game studios hate giving linix users anything and its not worth their time.
Most of them are made by horrible companies we shouldn’t be supporting anyways.
Not judging, just curious.
What games are those? In the last 12 months I tried 151 games on Linux. All of them worked, only 6 required tinkering.
The fact they mentioned “anti cheat”, it’s going to be your modern online multiplayer games. It’s going to be games like Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty, Battlefield, etc.
You must not play most of the top 5 fps games then lol.
Literally everything a “normal” gamer plays is not supported on linux.
I recently found a neat list of games that don’t work due to Anti-Cheat:
So it’s probably one of the ~700 games.
Not the original commenter, but for me it’s Arc Raiders. I’m a fan of extraction shooters and have been messing with the idea of fully switching to Linux and ditching microslop completely, aaaaaaand then Arc Raiders was released
I’ve come to terms with the fact that i just won’t play those games. There are just too many wonderful games out there that do run perfectly well under linux. Does help that most of my gaming buddies think the same. Definitely a challenge when your entire friend group is hooked in those kinda games
You could always just install Linux Mint and then install the Mint XP theme. No Microsoft Account required.
There are offline environments that cannot do it online, this is bullshit. Working with critical infrastructure in OT networks, Microsoft is basically saying that Windows should not be used anymore in those.
Problem is that OT is full of legacy shit, so switching to Linux is more easily said than done.
Good thing I am no longer on it. Going forward if I ever get a new laptop I am going to setup linux mint (or another distro) on it right away, thus activating it without it. Being connected to the internet in the first place.
To hell with Microslop.
People need to have some dignity. When an OS becomes an ant-privacy ad serving platform first and foremost, it’s time to ditch it!
My newest computer came with Windows 11. I ran it for a few weeks and wiped it and installed Bazzite Linux. I have had virtually no issues and honestly it’s been a fantastic experience.
I do have an older laptop running Win 10 for a handful of programs that I haven’t figured out how to get to work under Linux yet, but it’s just a matter of time.
FUCK MICROSOFT
I just moved my main PC to CachyOS like two weeks ago. It’s been quite nice so far actually. Minor hiccup when trying to play The Guild 2 (had to use Protontricks to download DirectPlay)
“official”
I installed Mint on my main computer yesterday. ^_^ Super done with Windows! Now I just have to convince my husband to let me install it on his computer, too. 🤔
Such a fucking PITA, as a small IT shop, I don’t want to have to full on fucking go enterprise to keep my users from needing to make Microsoft accounts.
Who was calling MS in the first place?! If you want it activated with a local account, do the OBE\\bypassnro thing. Who would this really affect?
SteamOS Desktop can’t come fast enough. Cachy will do if I need to jump ship, but I would like to only make one distro hop and be done with that for at least a decade.
Been using Mint since last April. Haven’t missed a thing.
myplacedk@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This alone is enough for me, to consider Windows a bad choise.
I’ve said that line so many times.
1984@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
For me its that and the other 20 reasons. :)
artyom@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Only 20?
BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would note that every single time I’ve tried to reactivate windows after a mobo or CPU upgrade, it has failed.
I guess it’s supposed to work better if you sign into your Microsoft account ever, which I don’t, because I see literally no reason they would need me to expect to advance spyware and adware.
The phone activation is the only thing that has worked. Good thing I’ve been dual booting a Ubuntu fork for the past six months. I guess after my next hardware upgrade I’ll be Linux only.
oftenawake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Who wants a computer which might not work after an upgrade and not because there’s an actual problem but because a corporation says no? It’s more stress and more work out of nowhere. Corporations should never be allowed to brick devices, but since they are, I choose “not corporation” as my permanent fix. It’s a good move!
dukemirage@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I‘ll stay with 10 until I figured out Bitwig.
defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
What’s your current DAW of choice?
oftenawake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Bitwig on Linux is amazing and was the final thing which let me ditch Windows for good after years of using Linux for everything else.
You won’t regret it!