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Comment by jojobas | Hacker News Reader

Why do you even need an account? It's a display after all, I don't need an account to use my external monitor, keyboard or anything else.

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Oculus has an app store, and Quest is a standalone device (mobile phone hardware on your face).

It's understandable to need an account for these things, but of course this being an FB account is creepy.

I can understand the store aspect (even though in a perfect world you could buy apps and games without DRM and having to log in), but why would you need an account because something is a standalone device? What's the difference if there is a cable attached?

Quest is not a screen. It's a computer with a built-in screen. iMac for your face. Quest with a link cable is still not a screen, but a computer running a kind of "remote desktop" software.

The computer part needs an account. Virtually all software for it is paid, and it is genuinely helpful for non-technical users to have a "cloud" account that ensures they won't lose their games even if they sell or break the device.

If IBM was able to pull this off with their PC/AT/PS/2 family, we'd still be in stone age.

Anybody with more than 2 brain cells should demand open standard hardware to be used with software of choice.

The situation where you need different headsets for different apps/games is perverse. Imagine having to have an app store per monitor brand.

Game developers should invest in an open standard and take away the leverage from air merchants.

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