Microsoft Account to local account conversion guide erased from Windows 11 guide
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Stop giving money and support to people and organizations that openly show disdain for me.
It originally came from getting tired of watching (in this case, WoW) streamers talk about how stupid and out of touch “chat” (a group that includes me) is in one breath and then ask for support/subscriptions in the next, but I started applying it to the other things that I consume as well. In this case, here we have a very clear effort by lots of people to not be tracked, and Microsoft making concerted efforts to take away the thing they want for the purpose of making more money.
It’s not feasible to be absolute in this - I still need to put gas in my car and eat, for example. But I find there’s a strangely good feeling to walking away from someone who’s making presumptions about their right to my time, attention, and money while spitting in my face, and I feel like I’m a normal enough person to be a reasonable barometer on that sentiment.
So I guess my point is, I wonder how many times a company like Microsoft can spit in their customers faces before the average person decides to not be a customer anymore.
This reminds of the dungeon scene in Monthy Python's Life of Brian.
"Prisoner: Oh, what I wouldn't give to be spat at in the face. I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of being spat at in the face. "
Streaming is a business with the goal of getting people who walk into your (virtual) shop to give you their (subscription) money, just like every other business that has ever existed. The product being sold is the streamer’s personality and ability to entertain.
If your business model involves insulting those people, I don’t think it’s really sensible or a good sign for the long term sustainability of that business to declare them weak minded when they predictably find that being insulted is not something they’d like to pay for.
Then again, I’m not a streamer. Maybe they know something I don’t.
I don't really think people who engage with this sad form of action have any cognitive load on why they are doing it.
jokes aside, it is not easy to enforce this policy with m$. very few windows or non-apple devices allow you to get it without the os. even if they do, you might still not get compensated for the subsidized rate the oem get windows for.
all you can really do is not to use their email and chat services online i suppose. good luck doing anything about it if your workplace relies on Active Directory.
Gives all of the advantages on compatibility (particularly for gaming, I even installed LTSC on my Steam Deck) with having a seriously stripped down version of Windows.
Microsoft is very careful to make it seem like LTSC is so stripped down that it really only works for kiosks or similar devices, but it is perfectly capable as a general computing device. It is possible to install things that it is missing fairly easily, like if you need the Microsoft store (windows store? don't remember the name) to use the Xbox app it will prompt you to install the missing components.
Edit:
Since I got a couple comments about the license. I should have included that here. There is a github project for activation.
Since it is perfectly viable but removes a lot of the crap that Microsoft wants to push of course they don't make it easy to get. But personally if I already have a legal copy of Windows 11 I have no moral problems with using this script to activate LTSC Version.
Getting the ISO is easy with Microsoft providing them free to download.
Edit again:
Instead of replying to every comment regarding to just switch to linux I will edit my post here explaining why I have not.
First off, is for me Windows is primarily for gaming. So compatibility and performance are my number one priority.
Proton is great but you can't beat the compatibility of just using Windows. Never need to worry about an update breaking something or a game not working. It just does. In at least a few cases performance is even better on the LTSC version compared to SteamOS on my Steam Deck.
I also don't want to be restricted to just using Steam for games or needing to jump through additional hoops to play from other stores.
I play video games to relax, that isn't a time that I want to be tinkering or messing with my computer if something goes wrong.
So when you first launch the Xbox app it will tell you that there are things that need to be installed, but it gives a button to do exactly that.
You also don't get new features that Microsoft roles out, but I don't consider that a trade off and is instead a positive. Bonus I was able to un-install copilot completely from control panel on Windows 11 LTSC.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot/iot-enterprise...
The main issue I'd see is licensing. It seems to be a completely different bucket, so would it activate with a Home or Pro license ? (OEM or not)
But personally if I already have a legal copy of Win11 I have no moral problems with reinstalling LTSC and using a script to activate it.
The more I think of it, the more licensing looks like the best representation of Microsoft's strategy for Windows.
Stable, lean and long term focused versions are locked under the most hidden of the enterprise licenses. Decent versions without the garbage ads and spyware features only ship to enterprise. "Pro" users are only blessed with virtualization and a few candies, and share the worse edition with "Home" users.
It makes a lot more sense why the enterprise machines are near 30% more expensive than their customer counterpart.
And that is very true, they have turned it into a marketing feature.
But Microsoft is very brazen about it when it comes to Windows. The more you pay the less privacy invasive crap there is. I don't know for sure what the difference between home and pro is for analytics sent back to Microsoft, but LTSC is a drastic difference. (annoyingly still not zero though)
I consider it a major breach of trust from the authors. Maybe there can be an exploit that uses the activation mechanism as a vector, and then, many of such machines will be compromised. This is a risk, and it's something that a user needs to evaluate before going into it.
I personally solve this for myself by running the activation server emulator myself. It's open source software and really easy to set up as well.
So unless you want to pirate it…
Of course it was. Just because it lets you do it, doesn't mean it's not piracy.
Somewhat absurd linguistically and morally ambiguous, yet possibly legally accurate?
I get that people really like Windows, but all these contortions just to delay the inevitable... yeesh. At some point, people either need to get onboard with the MS vision for the product, or accept that it's time to switch to something different.
And the LTSC license is an upgrade license, so the computer needs licensing for Windows already (maybe needs Pro and not Home, too).
But it ends up being a large amount of money to run wierd windows.
Windows 10 LTSC will continue to get security improvements at least until next year depending on the LTSC version you have installed and up to 2032.
As far as it not getting a new cut version after the 2021 one, I feel like that is just normal practice? Does Microsoft normally cut a new version of their LTSC version on an older OS when they are working on the next version?
Was there even a need for a new 10 LTSC after 2021?
You're ethically fine with it, but it's still a problem for many, even if purely due to legal concerns and not ethical ones.
I want to game as well, but thankfully most of what I want to run will run on Linux. GTA6 likely won't, and then I'll have to look at streaming with moonlight or something, or playing on a VM with GPU passthrough.
Qemu is making advances at allowing VMs to hide that they are VMs, so that might end up being a great solution.
The 'piracy' element is running an activation script off of GitHub.
However IMO that is Microsoft problem and not mine for not providing a legal way for a normal consumer to get LTSC. They could make it another tier and charge more if they were inclined. I hate the idea of paying for privacy, but ethically I would be compelled to do so if the option was available to me.
As said in other comments, personally ethically the way I justify it is I already have a Windows 11 License and I am just installing a different version of 11. Microsoft still got the money.
Given that there is no torrenting and it is just a script you are running, I am legitimately curious about any legal ramifications.
> but thankfully most of what I want to run will run on Linux.
For me once I hit "most" and not "all" I asked myself why I was bothering, I was dual booting SteamOS and Windows but using Windows the vast majority of the time. Been debating recently on re-imaging and continuing to dual boot but solely to have SteamOS for firmware updates.
You're modifying software against the terms of service to have functionality only offered by an entirely different license that costs substantially more.
Yeah, you're not downloading ISOs or using cracks but it is absolutely no less piracy.
> However IMO that is Microsoft problem and not mine for not providing a legal way for a normal consumer to get LTSC.
Sure, but that's their business decision and right. If you want it you can pay for it, just like if you want an expensive sportscar you have to pony up for that as well.
> Given that there is no torrenting and it is just a script you are running, I am legitimately curious about any legal ramifications.
For you individually, I'm sure you know they won't care, just as they already don't care about all the gamers with all the watermarked pirated versions of Windows.
You're more than likely absolutely safe. But it's still just as much piracy as downloading an ISO and using a crack, and you would be just as legally culpable.
> For me once I hit "most" and not "all" I asked myself why I was bothering,
Honestly it's because Windows is still your enemy. You can tame it, but you have to fight with it. Sure, you can get it pretty good, and you eliminate a lot of problems using the ltsc version, but you still don't own the software and they could still fuck with it and by extension you and one day there might not be a script to fix it.
Personally, I think it makes significantly more sense to keep windows around only to run the few games that won't work on Linux, not as a main OS. At this point, even the LTSC versions, are basically untrusted, hostile software.
Everyone's has different views on this though, balancing conveience and other needs, so it's not like there's an objective answer.
Right now on my desktop I have 10 LTSC, 11 LTSC, and 11 Pro installed and doing a bunch of benchmarks but still early on data (trying to be as thorough as possible).
I have had someone try to tell me that there is something in Windows 11 that makes it run better on newer processors, I have not been able to find any information on this.
Also theoretically at some point driver support or game support will diminish on 10.
Personally, I think if you are going to go for a new installation 11 likely may be the way to go for the best future compatibility. But 10 is still good.
Possibly they were referring to this:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16959/intel-innovation-alder-...
Will need to do some more research and benchmarks on this personally and see if it is really much of an improvement or if the improvements are lost by any decrease in performance going from 10 to 11 (even on LTSC).
>No online account needed
Because it implies that you need an online account for W11, which you don't.
When that happens, I'm going to do my damnedest to transition to Linux. I can already play the vast majority of games really well on my Steam Deck, so ideally I can recreate the same technology stack on my desktop and just have better hardware there.
For what purpose?
Not needing to worry about getting on the bad side of a developer like with Destiny 2.
Easily use stores that are not just Steam to hopefully discourage a monopoly that is currently largely on PC gaming.
If I want to run things like Discord, OBS, or whatever other thing I want running I don't have to jump through hoops.
Finally the ability to use Game Pass games natively.
Windows has become my primary driver on my Steam Deck. Does what I need it to do, play games. Some games even run better under 10LTSC compared to SteamOS.
If WSL wasn't a thing I would have formatted it by now. Linux is just such a better experience for development. I also simply cannot shake the fear that windows is leaking every keystroke back to some MS service I haven't disabled.
So for me the number one priority is performance and compatibility. Which as far as proton has come, using the LTSC version on Windows easily wins on compatibility (especially once you leave Steam) and in some cases wins on performance.
LTSC also drastically reduces the metrics sent back to Microsoft.
If you run Wireshark on any Mac you will observe the high volume of requests to Apple-owned IPs. Even when the machine is otherwise idle. It's creepy.
On the other hand, Linux machines don't default to sending telemetry. P.s. Ubuntu is an exception to this rule which is one reason I'll never use Ubuntu again (they've included telemetry and embedded ads in the past). Debian and Pop_os both work remarkably well for desktop use these days.
Eh, does it? I find it to be incredibly unintuitive, and so do many people I see try to use it with no prior PC experience.
Even while Proton is incredible - the experience with nvidia GPUs is still less than stellar. So if you want high resolution/framerate gaming - especially if you add HDR to that - you’re still stuck with windows.
I’d love to switch to Linux if I could, I use it or MacOS for everything else.
For the record it is great, they have done a very good job with proton and I am not diminishing that work.
But try to bring up this conversation on YouTube, reddit, or similar places and it becomes toxic very quickly. Even when presented with raw numbers. It has even gotten that way here a couple times.
And the Steam thing is a big sore point right now, for the average user once you leave Steam it is not as user friendly as just running Windows.
Valve's marketing also isn't helping the situation in the slightest.
The discord arrives not because they do not acknowledge the deficiencies but due to a difference in priorities, what one person values another may not.
It makes sense to me that their would be tension between people who want full control of their system & privacy in exchange for occasional performance cuts and unsupported anti cheats vs those that are comfortable completely giving up their privacy & control in exchange for occasional performance boosts and invasive anti cheats.
I agree there is nothing wrong and people advocating for their preferences, opinions, arguments, solutions, whatever.
However, when you get so attached that you need to start lying to say it's better or that the alternatives are worse, that's no longer rational and makes the people doing so no longer trustworthy.
This is true for all types of tribalism across all areas of society.
Anyone making clearly false claims, for example.
I had a recent discussion with a Linux devotee, for example, claiming gaming on Linux was basically as good as Windows and that Linux had full DirectX equivalents. Both things are false, the user knows they are false, but that user lied to themselves due to loyalty to their preferred platform.
Apple users do it so often, the term reality distortion field was invented to describe their behavior. Sony and Zboz fans do it as well. Not to mention people do it with everything, i.e. political parties.
Yes, its frustrating. But there is no competition.
Simcity 4 has issues. But i has issues on new PC's too.
GOG games seem to be harder to get working.
There are some default mods bethesda recently gave away and some DLC i bought that haven't caused on issues.
No idea about third party stuff
Another indie game "Intergalactic fishing" doesn't run for me in windows, but does run on WINE .. which is hilarious.
LTSC is likely a small but critical part to Microsoft keeping Windows in control, being able to continue to deploy Windows in places that may have otherwise moved to Linux. Once an organization starts down that path than it opens the doors for other non windows systems. It also can't have too many restrictions put on how it runs and is activated or its value plummets.
The fact is the vast majority of users won't go down this path, it will always be the power users or those with power users to manage their computers.
But frankly, even if a significant portion (like say 10%) were to start using LTSC version. That still keeps Windows in a dominate position as far as the market and developer support goes. Which is a win for Microsoft.
You are talking about the 2012 version of Microsoft's vision for Windows. In 2024, they no longer go for these install bases. In this particular case, Linux has won any new entry in the embedded market, and they're mostly keeping their current clients happy with the LTSC version. I would be 0% surprised if Microsoft starts tightening the screws on those LTSC user to move them towards their cloud offerings.
Microsoft no longer wants an install base; what it wants in 2024 is logged-in Windows users. Then they can sell them subscriptions and hoover up all their data, mostly for ad purposes, and probably for LLM training sooner rather than later.
I have not had issues with Horizon 5 or the new Forza on my steam deck under Windows 10 LTSC 2021. I believe I played both at or near launch.
That is the first I have heard of a game not working on LTSC.
Edit:
My timeline is off, I did not try Horizon 5 on my steam deck until about a year after it came out since Horizon 5 predated the steam deck.
However worth pointing out that it is one example of a game not working on LTSC vs many examples on proton so I would argue it still Wins out on compatibility.
See also: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10LTSC/wiki/incompatibility
All these little nasty anti-user bits stem directly from that.
Typing as a service, with characters billed by the keystroke.
A mixture of Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble rules apply. Vowels are free, but rare consonants or letter combinations carry a premium.
/s
They have the profits from hardware and the upgrade cycle as new versions drop old hardware. I imagine if anything we will see a program like the iPhone upgrade program come to Mac. That would better fit their existing workflow anyways.
It would also help minimize the need to try to future proof your choice. I know when I go to buy a Mac I often way over spec since I am planning for at least 3 or 4 years. That conversation is completely different if I know I am getting an upgrade in 1 or 2 years.
Meanwhile if the Mac Upgrade Program could be, idk a 2 year upgrade plan. Looking at the cheapest 16" M3 Max MBP. Right now that is $291.58 month for 12 months.
If a Mac Upgrade Plan did the same timeline as iPhone where you paid over 2 years but could upgrade after a year that would be about $147.28.
But it could likely be a 3 or 4 year timeline and be even cheaper.
If we look at the lower end it gets even cheaper with the cheapest 16" MBP could be $104 a month. The cheapest 14" MPB could be $66.5 a month.
Keeps going cheaper if you look at the Air. I feel like at that price the market very much exists when the top iPhone is $74.91 a month.
The question is if the numbers make sense on Apple's side.
While they do a lot of things very well, desiging batteries, storage, and keyboards to be practically non-replaceable and denying any upgradeability (to upsell ludicrously overpriced storage at the initial purchase) is setting an upper limit on how long the device will remain useful for.
With iPhones you can replace the battery for a small fraction of the cost of a new phone. Plenty of people are using 5+ year old phones without doing so, it really depends on how much time you spend on the device per day and if you’re recharging mid day. Deep discharges drastically shorten lifespan, but again just get a new battery.
It's the cost of being without your phone for an indeterminate period of time if you have to ship it to Apple for the battery replacement due to not living near an Apple Store.
Further, replacing a phone is itself painful so there’s no avoiding any inconvenience here.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/iphone-battery-replacement/5634...
The service rep said that newer batteries last longer because they're newer tech (I laughed internally), but it's going strong for 4 (5?) years now, and it's at 83%, so I had to eat my hat about not believing her.
Got an almost 4yr old 12 Pro that claims 85%, but doesn't feel like it's holding that much charge, feels like it's due a replacement. Would have done it myself if it was an easy screwdriver-only job rather than requiring heat and special tools.
I'm guessing that internally the capacity starts at somewhat above 100%, to ensure for example that older stock still reports 100% when sold, and the actual drop in capacity could be a fair bit more than the reported figure?
Actually yes. Because even at 83%, my iPhone can last longer than its original battery's brand-new capacity. Also, I'm using Macs for ~15 years now and Coconut Battery's battery reports (which just interfaces with macOS battery information features) were always spot-on.
> but doesn't feel like it's holding that much charge, feels like it's due a replacement.
Actually, an iPhone's daily endurance depends on two things: Network connectivity & quality, and the apps you use. WiFi uses way less battery than cellular to begin with, and some applications "performance improvements and bug fixes" means "we have improved the performance of tracking you while using the app, and fixed the bugs about misreporting usage data". Applications like Instagram are so optimized at tracking its users, it drains my battery faster and heats my phone better than some games.
> to ensure for example that older stock still reports 100% when sold...
Low self discharge batteries are borderline magic. A low-discharge Li-Ion battery sitting at ~40% can sit there for years, if the cell is good. A low discharge Ni-MH battery can sit at ~90% for a decade. I recently opened a new blister of Eneloop AA batteries which were sitting there for a couple of years. All of them were at ~95% charge.
A battery change shouldn't require heat guns, special suction/clamp tools, or adhesive-dissolving chemicals.
It also shouldn't require being without your device for an unknown period of time to send it in for service.
I've gotten battery replacements on various iPhones, iPads and Macbooks and it's a pretty straightforward processes.
Which is pretty reasonable. Giving up little bits of a control at a time is how we end up with no control at all.
Apple is a hardware company first, then an App Store rent seeker, and a software company third.
>Ads in Outlook. Want to remove? $2 a month.
>Want to use Windows productivity software? $100 a year.
>Want to use more copilot features? $20 a month.
>Want to game? Please use our subscription Xbox service.
Etc etc.
The ads in Outlook are if you're using the free @outlook.com email address. I'm using it with a Zoho email account and I haven't seen ads.
Windows productivity software? Office? Obviously, it is a paid software suite. Always has been. No surprise they're not giving it away. It is not like this is some new thing behind a paywall suddenly. Sure, back in the day it was pretty common for an average home PC to come with at least some version of Microsoft Works, but technically that was an OEM-licensed basic productivity software suite, not actually free. In the end it was just that Dell, HP, Compaq, or whoever was paying for it to put it on the list of out of the box features.
More Copilot features for $20 a month? It is essentially a custom flavor of OpenAI with some more hooks and context. It is no surprise a hosted AI service that normally costs $20/mo continues to cost $20/mo.
You don't need Xbox Game Pass to play games in Windows. Steam, GOG, etc. all still work perfectly fine without it. Game Pass is all about subscribing to a lot of games, including many AAA $60+ games. Let me know when Apple Music and Apple TV+ goes completely free.
It is like arguing "Want to listen to music on an iPhone? Gotta pay for Apple Music. Want to watch videos on your Macbook? Need to pay for Apple TV+ streaming service. Want to send an email? Gotta pay for an iCloud subscription. Want to use headphones with your Apple device? Guess you have to buy Airpods."
Not true. It’s baked into the default mail client (outlook). Outlook is now the default mail client replacing mail.
Don't let Microsoft touch your email, they're terrible at it.
>Want to use Windows productivity software? $100 a year.
Microsoft Office isn't part of Windows, and Office as a Service is a sign of the times, but OpenLibreOffice.org works ok and the price is better. People seem to like Google Docs even though it's terrible.
>Want to use more copilot features? $20 a month.
Ok, but how much for them to not ask me to use it?
>Want to game? Please use our subscription Xbox service.
You certainly don't need gamepass to game, you can just buy games instead of paying a monthly subscription for access to a selection of games. On the consoles, you need to pay for (most) online features, but not for PC. Although I don't know how many games run well on ARM Windows...
Shift+F10, OOBE\BYPASSNRO, Shift+F10, ipconfig /release, install, ipconfig /renew.
That's a lot of work for the average person and it's only a matter of time before they disable that command.
I am curious if there is a way to simulate this setup in a home network for when I need to set up my next computer.
Dont even get me started on trying to do the same with my kids accounts on the same box. I suppose group policies are probably the answer but it shouldn't be this hard, and it shouldn't be this frustrating.
When you've got a bunch of desktops and no Windows domain controller it's a good feature. Makes login and synching work pretty well. There hasn't been a visible downside compared to local logins, though not enough upsides for Microsoft to push it so hard.
I use the "Microsoft Family Safety" features for limiting application usage and daily login times. This is the only real benefit I've gotten, but it's a good one. Don't have an Xbox but I hear some nice features for that were messed up recently.
And not to mention all torch and cuda stuff works just fine.
I wrote a post about it recently: https://punkx.org/jackdoe/linux-desktop.html and using it few more months I can only say that the experience is even better. I even did dist and everything kept working. So if you are thinking of giving linux a chance, now is a good time :)
My daughter's school is a "Microsoft school", and its basically forbidden to be with non Windows laptop.. even though everything works fine on macos/linux etc, even the safe exam browser.
I have never been involved in her school's policies, but this is just ridiculous. The way Microsoft claws their ways into schools and governments is just brilliant. There is a mix of incompetence, corruptions and people's people fear of being fired, and sunk cost fallacy, and its just deadlocked.
Works really well, the only real issue is anti-cheat but I've just decided to play those games on console instead.
Getting your hardware working right is still the biggest problem. The games work great, occasionally audio/video driver issues necessitate some fiddling. (advantage to the Deck is that this goes away.)
Even if it didn't, the number of people for whom HDR support is a make or break feature is likely not very high. Non developers use linux daily with the steam deck. I set up my mom with my xps 15 with Ubuntu on it when her laptop mobo died. While she wasn't a huge fan of having to learn a new UI, she was able to use it without issue for facebook/email/netflix/taxes/online banking for a few months until a good deal on a replacement came up and I got my laptop back.
I don't think if you are objective you can call linux so far behind windows. They are on par, each has their own annoyances and strengths, but for the average person they are just web browsing machines anyway.
The Windows API is just that: an API. An interface. Who cares whether it's implemented by Windows or Linux or whatever else?
It was an explosive hit of DOS-based PC gaming market nevertheless.
It works great! And I can use the deck as a normal PC for web browsing/slack/discord etc.
There’s nothing I need windows for anymore thankfully.
The Steam client works just fine, although I do have to "force compatibility" and choose Proton. So far the games have played fine, including big games like Cyberpunk 2077.
For non-Steam, I'm using the Heroic Game Launcher, and it works great. I'm not missing any games, and I certainly don't miss the Windows BS.
[1] - https://vinegarhq.org/Home/rol_faq.html#what-alternatives-do...
You can, however, use GPU passthrough and a Windows virtual machine. Another method is by using an Android emulator, though that has significant performance and QOL sacrifices attached to it.
Otherwise this[0] link might be useful. Completely agree about it shouldn't being necessary and would be nice if it wasn't.
[0] https://forums.unraid.net/topic/90111-hide-os-vm-status/
Edit: Actually, I found some more links, these are what I have saved as soon I want to attempt making a Windows VM that doesn't know it's a VM. I hope these help:
How to Emulate a TPM 2.0 Module on LibVirt/QEMU - https://www.smoothnet.org/qemu-tpm/
How to Install virtio Drivers on KVM-QEMU Windows Virtual Machines - https://linuxhint.com/install_virtio_drivers_kvm_qemu_window...
Hiding Virtual machine status from guest operating system - https://superuser.com/a/1389159
The below are self-explanatory from the URL.
https://serverfault.com/questions/727347/solidworks-activati...
https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/System_identity_camouflage
https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/CPUID
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/VM_Fingerprinting
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Protocol-Leak-Protection_and_Fin...
My hope is that I will equip them with the knowledge to fight that battle for me
Enabled it on a private PC but a different account (a work one) owns the Office license, and now Windows knows that there is an account that owns the Windows license and a different account that owns the Office license.
Result? All kinds of fun that looks like this https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/window... and has many many recommended answers, of which none worked.
What did work, was removing the work account via Accounts > Work or School, and falling back to a local account and password for Windows. At least I can sign in to the machine again.
>the instructions on how to do the latter appeared on June 12, 2024, then disappeared on June 17, 2024.
The information was only ever published for 5 days.
If I can't make a local account, I will not use it.
Wasn't their one included in the pre-release version of Windows 11 until public outcry about the "telemetry" microsoft was phoning home with?
See also: Recall
Once Win10 stops receiving security updates, I'm unlikely to bother installiny Windows 11. I don't really need it, as most games work fine thanks to the Valve Steam efforts.
It's kind of sad, I've always had at least one Windows machine as my primary desktop since 1998.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-microsoft-windows...
Windows really does have the potential to be ideal for professionals, the things macOS does that make it better are all small but Microsoft just seems to paramount on sabotaging their operating system.
I really feel sorry for OEMs that really don't have a choice but to ship Windows and have to stomach this shit being associated with their products.
That seems like the OEMs choice? Valve doesn't seem to be struggling with marketing non Windows for a usecase that was seen as "unsupported" until they came along.
First thing I did was format them and install linux. My mom has my laptop from 2008 and it's still going strong with a lightweight mint xfce distro.
Many many games, SolidWorks CAD, QuickBooks Enterprise, Act! CRM, etc.... A small sample of things that don't run on Linux.
We have different opinions of "everything".
AreWeAntiCheat yet says:
161 games are Supported (42%)
46 games are Running (12%)
3 are planning to support Linux (1%)
147 are currently Broken (38%)
28 (only) are explicitly Denied (7%)
So, many don't but, also, many do. Not everything, not nothing.
Meanwhile, iOS games I developed in the 2012-2014 period were no longer runnable by the end of 2017 (due to the iOS transition to 64bit)
This was my plan, any solid distros that support the ARM64 silicon (M3 & M4 specifically) OOTB? I've concerns about support for the touchpad, webcam etc.
For non-gamers and lighter workloads you could easily make do with earlier models, provided they have a SSD.
No it is not. That is a very low bar.
But what's your best anyway?
My own long-term plan is to install Linux when Apple drops support for Monterey on this hardware.
MacOS is basically unusable without logging into an Apple account, your logic does not follow.
This said, MacOS seems to be slowly but surely taking over former Windows use cases both in business and homes. If I had to guess why, it's probably the consistent, coherent GUI across the entire Apple ecosystem. People use computers to get shit done, after all.
I use a Mac at my job with no Apple ID linked to it. What am I missing out on? It's not like you need to use the App Store to get software, so that's not it.
Though that was 2 years ago - has it changed?
(Homebrew also just installs it automatically now, without needing any user intervention.)
EDIT: Maybe you were put off by the insane time estimate that it presents for some reason? It quotes a multi-day installation time that ends up only taking a few minutes. Maybe Apple will fix that someday.
It depends if you mean the OS + cloud services + app store, or just having an OS to run programs. The former definitely needs the Apple ID, but the latter doesn't. When I first switched back to macOS I refused any Apple ID linkage during OOBE and it never asked again. I just used Nextcloud, Firefox, LibreOffice and FOSS utilities, everything worked.
Later I did connect it after researching Apple's privacy policies, encryption methods and on-device processing - afaik I'm getting the cloud goodness without Apple selling my data, and that was enough to sway me.
i think they lose more from this getting publicized than any losses from having this publicly available for the week or so.
For everything else, Debian is great.
I could have gone through enabling backports, but I could also have just gone Fedora and not have to mess around with things I shouldn't need to.
Pop is perfect for those coming from Windows.
God, the ubuntu one is the worst as it'll sometimes prompt multiple times for a password.
I guess Ubuntu behavior you saw might've been due to their Snap package stuff, not the normal Debian APT package stuff.
And, once no longer a newb, Debian is easily one of the best distros to be in, for many purposes, long-term.
Why not start with one of the most popular and principled distros, and see whether it just works for you?
From there, if your eye ever starts wandering towards some strange other distro, you have a well-informed good baseline to compare against.
I'm not sure about that. I think the days of assuming people who can code or do another specialized tech sill are long over.
The amount of comments from people who prefer windows or mac or ubuntu and systemd because of convenience and abstraction (i.e. handholding) are plentiful.
I need to learn how to kill them less painfully prior to cooking. And I doubt I can eat restaurant lobster in good conscience any more.
At some point, there’s a personal decision to be made as to whether the inhumanity of eating a crustacean that was alive shortly before cooking is any different than the inhumanity of predator-prey relationships in the wild.
Meanwhile Steam has to use Proton, and is nonetheless around 2%.
It is only a moot point for those "I feel good to use Linux kernel to run Windows on top" kind of feeling.
While ignoring it is still Windows games that are being written, by game studios targeting regular Windows deployments, and those same studios might even have Android games written in OpenGL ES/Vulkan, that they won't bother porting to GNU/Linux.
Have some consistency.
Proton is not an escape when it is still Windows software, using Windows APIs, written by companies targeting Windows customers.
The Steam Deck has sold millions of units (increase in audience) and now supports 89% of the top 1000 games at Silver and above (increase in use case). 2% is indeed an increase from where it started in 2018, but it goes to show how many Windows machines are out there that the % isn't higher.
I don't really understand your position. You're vehemently against any Windows code or games running at all and want to belittle, minimise or dismiss any progress that has been made. It feels like you're arguing in bad faith.
That Linux gamers are so starving for Linux native games that they have to contend with running Windows games via an API translation layer?
Not even studios that target other POSIX platforms bother targeting GNU/Linux natively.
SteamDeck sales are a drop in the ocean of Switch, Playstation, XBox, and Windows PC sales, if you feeling like going into war numbers.
But hey, enjoy your "Linux" games.
Few games actually get more fps than on Windows. What alternative runtime would you suggest and more to the point what problem would it actually solve.
If the game studio actually so much as tests on Proton (or more realistically Steam Deck) that’s great gold medal and as much targeting Linux as you can get.
Demanding anything more is not realistic given current market share, but also again what would you even gain.
The actual threat to gaming on Linux is any form of DRM.
It'll do fine. People don't want to re-buy their gaming libraries for an Xbox handheld and the OS integration for the other devices is pretty poor.
I keep reading this on the internet and I’m fully convinced that this is written by people with powerful machines.
Whenever I try to play a game that barely runs at 60 fps on windows in my basic system it invariably runs in the range of 45-55 fps on Linux.
This would be perfectly acceptable except that it eventually leads to stutters that I never experienced on windows..
Ps. Yeah I tried to troubleshoot this with everything google and ChatGPT had to offer: disable composers, different proton versions, different distros and different desktops environments. The matter of the fact is that there’s an overhead and if your system is barely running it on windows you will probably have performance headaches on Linux.
This is not a valid test. You need to compare Linux native vs. Proton rather than (Proton+Linux) vs. Windows. Otherwise you’re comparing at least three things at once.
Who the hell cares? Besides RMS I suppose, but he wouldn't want to run closed source games to begin with.
The pleasant surprise has been games. I thought I would have to abandon gaming or keep a second Windows partition, but so far all the games I have tried have run 100% -- even though it took some minimal tweaking in some cases. V-Rising, Elder Scrolls Online, New World, RimWorld... all work as well as on Windows thanks to Steam and Proton. (Rimworld required one change in the config .ini to support my super ultra wide monitor, ESO had to be manually imported into Steam. V-Rising required installing the Proton-GE version to address a problem with cut scenes). It's a bit tedious to have to address small problems like that, but more than worth it to get rid of an OS that I feel is constantly trying to attack me.
I am moving my wife to Zorin next. I can't recommend Debian to most people that just want to use a desktop. It was difficult for me and I have decades of experience in running Linux servers. I will probably stick with Debian as its working great now, but too many things were too hard to make it an option for most desktop users I would imagine. I can recommend ditching Windows for some flavor of Linux.
So I haven't found any reason to use Nvidia's installers.
And for anyone who hasn't used macOS, it's not a locked-down walled-garden like iOS is.
For me, Linux.
For my mom, Mac.
For my enemies, Windows.
I can no longer edit my comment though. Mea culpa.