lack of local accounting means its no longer your operating system, youre now using a perpetually required service from microsoft.
the walled garden is putting the last bricks in place. hope all you windows fans are ...happy... asking apple microsoft for permission to use your own hardware.
I’ve been debating for a while to switch windows to Linux and see how well it works for my games, thanks Microsoft for finally pushing me to do it!
Only thing keeping me on windows has been games (all other development use is far easier on Linux); but with the work that happened with Steam Deck, many games are now fully functional on Linux.
On a new install, before powering up, make sure you don't start it up with Ethernet plugged in, when you get to the Wi-Fi connection stage hit Ctrl+f10
Type in
oobe\bypassnro
And press enter. The computer will restart and now when you get to the Wi-Fi connection screen you'll have a like that says "I don't have internet".
Back in the day, using Windows was essentially a long series of fucking around with configurations and trying different workarounds to get things to "go". The actual using of the computer was, in a way, secondary.
Nothing has changed. Many many years ago I bought a used Apple to try it out and was just - astounded at how little I needed to mess with things to get them to do what I wanted. It was all in settings. That's it.
Watching Microsoft leap headfirst into full evil is just like watching the seasons change.
Hm. So are we all the way there to Win 11 not being installable in fully offline machines, or...? Because niche as that application is, it does sound like the start of a use case for a natively compatible Windows alternative from a third party (say, a FreeWin to go with FreeDOS). I know there are or have been some attempts, but... yeah, long term that seems like it would prompt more focus on something like that.
I suppose it's more likely that compatibility layers in other OSs would get there first and more practically, but still. Maybe it's time to move Windows applications from an ecosystem to a standard.
You can still easily bypass it with other methods, like unplugging your ethernet cable. Even if you don't have an ethernet cable you can unplug, the WiFi screen has an "I don't have internet" button on Windows 11 Pro and above. Not sure about Home, but there are other alternative ways. It's still really shitty they keep trying to force this on people.