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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : MS closes ALL private activation methods.....(you WILL do it OUR way!)
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9827 |
.......while they continue to ram their malware right down your throat in the form of W11. MS Double-down on W11 resistance.... Man, they REALLY hate the users at this point. All the cash is in the subscriber model, so that is what they are pushing. But along with that push, they are also pushing users to Linux or MAC in a way I have NEVER seen before. Linux and MAC adoption from Windoze users, is ASTRONOMICAL at this point, and every move that MS make, just make it WORSE for them. Seems like "You WILL do it OUR way, OR ELSE!!!!!".......is not really working for them at this point, and I would go so far as to say that it is costing them MILLIONS of users worldwide, as people DROP the W11 malware, for the freedom of Linux or even MAC at this point. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, MS. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Mixtel90 Guru  Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8439 |
MS are not interested in the domestic market and haven't been for a long time now. Their income is from mid-large business. Much of that *wants* stuff to be cloud-based as IT departments are seen as expensive and don't help the bottom line. What we see as nasty lock-in is usually stuff that helps businesses. The only major problem is the cost of replacing old hardware, which most businesses of any size do on a rolling system. Eventually that problem will more or less go away (apart from legacy systems that are bound to specific hardware). The total income from all domestic users of Windows in the world is worth less to Microsoft than that from one large multinational company. They are selling continual support, upgrades and software to them in huge amounts. Domestic users are a dead end in that respect. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9827 |
Well then, with that in mind.......EVERYONE should ABANDON W11 totally. Many already have at this point. Hit them where it hurts - in their wallet. It's interesting though, that several governments have ALSO dropped W11 now, cos of it's security risks - MS collects WAY too much information, to the point that governments no longer trust it, or are willing to run it. W11 is MALWARE at this point. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10851 |
Grogster I assume you don't have and Android or Apple phone. I assume you don't use paypal. I assume you don't have any credit cards etc. That ship has sailed and to think Microsoft is in some way worse that any of the other services you use is crazy. You may be able to install Linux without a "Linux" account but you can't do anything it unless you are not internet connected and use it purely offline. As soon as you interact with the world online you are being logged and profiled. |
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LeoNicolas Guru Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 558 |
I’ve been using Linux since 2005, and I am very happy with it. The maturity of Linux distributions has increased significantly in recent years. The available desktops are super nice, fast, and stable, and the package management systems (APT, DNF, etc.) are excellent. I am now happier than ever with this choice, especially seeing the countless YouTube videos of people complaining about Windows 11. I also have a MacBook Pro that will soon run Linux (Asahi Linux). I’ve used macOS at work for years, but it never felt as good to me as the Linux desktop and terminal. Many drivers for M1, M2, and M3 MacBooks are already in the mainstream Linux kernel; this means that soon, any distribution with a recent kernel version will run on Apple Silicon. The only driver holding me back from flipping the switch was DisplayPort support, which is needed for a second monitor. To my surprise, I was watching a talk by one of the Asahi Linux developers, and he was using a MacBook to present his slides via DisplayPort. He discusses this specifically at the 27:40 mark. If you’re interested, you can watch his presentation here: Asahi Linux - Porting Linux to Apple Silicon |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4199 |
Yes you are to a lesser or greater extent logged/profiled. You can control it somewhat if you wish. I think his point is about what MS are doing / have done with Windows, which is different. Well, MS may still be getting ("processing" for GDPR etc) private data, but it will limited and you're not forced into all manner of things that I gather he doesn't want (as I gave MS up years ago I don't really know what it's like now but I've no reasons to find out). The nearest I came (a while back) to Windows was arranging a dual-boot Linux/Windows laptop for my mum in case she found some unsolvable Linux issue or couldn't cope or something, but that never happened. I've also set up a small number of dual-boot systems for other people and they all just use Linux without issues. OTOH various people hate Windows at their work but have no choice! Time taken to login, hangs, crashes, lost data, that kind of stuff. Doesn't matter as they have no choice. I suppose their IT people at least get to keep their jobs. John |
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| bfwolf Senior Member  Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 136 |
According to the German IT magazine c't, any Microsoft account can be used for activation. The account does not need to be linked to the license and is not linked to the license during activation. Offline activation is still possible! It's simply an "internet replacement" for phone activation. German publication: https://www.heise.de/news/Microsoft-hat-telefonische-Windows-Aktivierung-deaktiviert-11135717.html?view=print In English https://www.heise.de/en/news/Microsoft-has-disabled-phone-activation-for-Windows-11135942.html?view=print Regards, bfwolf Edited 2026-01-13 22:10 by bfwolf |
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| Amnesie Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: GermanyPosts: 746 |
As much as I hate windows (still using win 7 isolated for offline usage), Please take a look at the facts, without hard feelings: Windows is still the most relevant and used OS (around 70%) And what's about the marked share and stock price for Microsoft? HUUUUUGE! 477,18 USD near the all time high! Personally, I don't see a change. Microsoft is popular and will grow much more over time. This isn't only my own personal opinion or feeling, but also most of the global investors think the same. There is an 34% upside for 2026 More facts: Look at the revenue and net margins of the past few years. They've practically exploded. As said, I hate windows - but I don't see a decline; not in total users and not in general business growth. Sources: "https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/" |
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Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5167 |
I tried the Linux option, it was better than I expected, I especially liked Fedora with the KDE interface, but still I was making to many compromises. No big issues, just lots of little annoyances. So I'm sticking with Windows while I need to use the software that earns my income. There are no alternatives in the Linux world, not even close. For me, Windows 10 just works. But I wont be switching to Windows 11 any time soon. Windows 10, a good firewall, backups, and stay vigilant, and I should last till retirement. Maybe by then Windows 12 will be out, and if the pattern of every second version of Windows is rubbish hold true, it should be good. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2486 |
how many cellphones run Windows? how many tablets run Windows? how many televisions run Windows? pretty much universally, the above all run some form of Unix or Linux. it saddens me to admit it, but the young people of today have a diminishing interest in interacting with devices that have a physical keyboard attached. as such, one could speculate that the the end is nigh for both laptops and desktop machines. once these fall from fashion, what will be left to run Windows? warships? a select few in-car entertainment systems? i can't think of much else. similarly, young people today are mostly interested in 'content', both the consumption (majority) and creation (minority) of. combine this with the rise of AI slop and one sees a sad future for this thing we call "the internet": AI slop videos, AI slop webpages, AI generated programs that are only useful for creating more AI slop. go to a search engine and try looking for anything... all you will get back is an AI slop reply that may (if you are lucky) be 50% fact seamlessly combined with 50% fantasy slop. cheers, rob :-) |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6427 |
The good news is, you don't HAVE to use Windows. But don't be fooled into thinking that you Linux powered consumer item will not be doing the same data mining already or will be soon. My TV did an update the other day 1GB download. Next time I turned it on, there was an agreement to acknowledge they wanted to monitor my TV watching practices to "better serve me crap content suggestions" I could defer but not ignore the request. At least with a PC, you have the choice of operating system and the choice of programs to run. Enjoy your freedom and allow others to do the same. Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2001 |
I have a Win11-PRO VM with all telemetry, AI, Edge Copilot etc removed, it's running on my Linux system, monitoring shows no more strange network activity or system lag. I decided to download the latest Win10-PRO ISO before it disappears, and then make a Win10-PRO Virtual machine to compare against Win-11. The install went smoothly and quickly, I then stopped unneeded tasks and removed most of the MS crap using simple registry hacks etc. I noticed there were still a few system security updates available for Win-10, so I let them install - what could possibly go wrong?  What a s#it show MS adds and warnings to upgrade to Win11 now, some random requests block the entire screen every few logins, leaving no way to dismiss or hide them, only a Next or Continue button, ALT-F4, TAB keys etc were all disabled, had to use task manager to kill it. Most previous registry hacks were reversed, popups almost demanding that you log into an MS account ASAP on the Menu, MS crap reinstalled, some basic apps won't run until you log into an MS account, and to top it off, there was now an MS Copilot icon on the taskbar. I checked online and found numerous rants about the last update rolled out to Win10 systems before users are notified that your system is no longer supported. I could have just reloaded the backup Win10 VM, but I wanted to test the same De-bloat program that I used on Win-11. It automatically removes almost every piece of MS s#it with one click, once it finished I had a clean fast Win10 VM running again. BTW the Win-VM is almost never used, I run a few old Programs I wrote years ago that I sometimes need to fix or reprogram some old equipment and test gear. The VM loads fast and runs faultlessly, especially with the latest version of Virtual Box from Oracle. NANO Inverter: Full download - Only Hex Ver 8.2Ks |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9827 |
Yes, and it is THIS EXACT ATTITUDE that pisses me off so much about MS and W11. Not so much the underlying OS - if you can get W11 to settle the hell down - but the CONSTANT nagging and pushing from MS pop-ups, to do things THEIR way. That and all the f-ing HOOP-JUMPING you have to do, just to settle the damn thing down, none of which I had to do, when I setup my Linux Mint machine, and it is my daily driver, and I do all my work on it as of now, so saying you can't run you day-to-day business on Linux, I feel is a little unfair. Using local-account workarounds or even disposable MS accounts to get W11 up and running, and all the other hacks or 3rd party programs you have to run, just to settle W11 down and stop it constantly nagging you, are hoops that you should NOT have to jump, and the very fact you have to do all that, is my point. Based on KeepIS's quote above, not happy with doing that to W11 alone, MS are now FORCING that crap on those who elect to stay on W10 for now - it's unethical IMHO, and it has annoyed me so much, that I'm done with Windoze completely, and I am damn sure I know I am not the only one!  However, each to their own, and OS choice IS very much a personal thing, and I have nothing at all against those who WANT to run W11, all I'm saying is that I am DONE with it for the reasons mentioned, and I won't be loosing hair trying to fix these problems for others if they call me with W11 problems. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4199 |
rob, you can add routers, ONT and so on to things using Linux. Do google still use Linux for their web servers? Doesn't matter, MS are doing fine extracting money from businesses and governments. Also schools. John |
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hitsware2 Guru Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 737 |
The day we find 50 % have switched to Linux , we will find Bill Gates has bought it ! .... : ) my site |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2001 |
I believe that he already has his  hands in parts of this, thankfully there are a lot of people tracking/reporting his attempts to control us.NANO Inverter: Full download - Only Hex Ver 8.2Ks |
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