Upcoming Windows 11 builds cannot install without internet and Microsoft Account

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268 points tech234a | 2 comments | 29 Mar 25 04:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source

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khaledh ◴[29 Mar 25 09:23 UTC] No.43514041[source]▶

Microsoft 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.

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1. disqard ◴[29 Mar 25 15:36 UTC] No.43516336[source]▶

>>43514041 #

I don't know why you were downvoted.

This really appears to be the simplest explanation -- turn every desktop into a thin client, served by walled-garden apps, and with Azure integration/dependencies.

Then charge subscription fees to turn all computer owners into renters. Oh, and show ads too, while you're at it.

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2. khaledh ◴[29 Mar 25 16:52 UTC] No.43516839[source]▶

>>43516336 (TP) #

Thanks. The subscription model is now almost the default for everything. Investors like the steady stream, which makes sense financially. But unfortunately it has resulted in much lower software quality, because software shops now don't have to make a high quality, solid version that they sell once; they can just ship MVPs with bugs or missing features and tell you that we'll work on fixing/adding those features, just keep your subscription and you'll get it.

I miss the days when you bought a high quality version of something that you kept using for years.

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