As someone who has gone back and forth between Windows and Mac OS... if Apple would stop trying to force me to log-in to use features I don't need, they would have a more compelling case. Windows is indeed a horrific data mining operation, but Apple's own endless push to enmesh me in their ecosystem is about as irritating. And Windows has WSL, which has value to me at work.
(And outside of work, Apple punted on games, which means I will always buy a Windows or Linux computer.)
You're comparing eating unflavored oatmeal with eating bleach. One of these things is clearly in a league far and away worse than the other, and you're doing nobody any favors pretending otherwise.
No, I just don't agree. At work, that's a decision the corporate overlords make. At home, I will continue to prefer games + WSL over Apple's offering... despite having started in computing, back in the 1980s, on a Mac, and having owned a number of Macs over the years.
Apple has consistently made choices that make having a Mac less palatable to me -- killing all 32-bit binaries destroyed most of what was available on Steam for the Mac. Hassling me to logon is another unforced error. Eventually I dumped my Macbook Air and bought a Windows laptop.
Apple hardware is really good. I probably spend more on Windows laptops because I replace them more often. But it's a better experience. (And I can get a more adequate amount of memory.)
I agree with you here. My solution was to use Linux on my Desktop PC and its been great for work and gaming, and I have an M1 Mac with Asahi Linux on it for on the go. I love it and I'm really happy with it. I've used Windows most of my life and is has really worn me down, and I tried MacOS for around a year, and it is equally as painful but in different ways. Linux has some rough edges in certain areas, but I like that I can easily sync all my devices, emulation files (it pairs well with the steamdeck), and configurations... and I don't have to put up with being a data cow or being constantly badgered to engage in vendor lock-in.
Sorry, but Macs require an online account only if you want to use optional online services offered by Apple, just as is the case with Microsoft and something like OneDrive or Office 365.
You aren't required to use the optional services on either platform.
The difference is that Microsoft wants to force you to use an online Microsoft account to log into your own local computer. Macs do not require that.
You cannot install any apps on an iOS device without registering and logging in with an AppleID, which requires both an email address and a telephone number.
> The difference is that Microsoft wants to force you to use an online Microsoft account to log into your own local computer. Macs do not require that.
I have no OS or tech giant loyalty, but I think the pushiness is wash between MacOS and Windows. I still haven't found a way to stop my mac from nagging me to log into iCloud, I currently am dealing with a bug where the iCloud login modal shows up immediately after I dismiss it, in an unceasing cycle, and I have to launch the App store and the quit before the nagging stops.
I recently set up a Windows 11 laptop over the holidays and found out (from Google) esoteric "oobe*.exe" command I had to run on the CLI on first boot (pre-setup) that showed the option to create a local account in the UI. I didn't get any nags post set-up.
At any rate, Microsoft has made multiple changes over the years designed to hide the option of using a local user account in Windows, which is a bridge too far.
No, I'm not required to logon, and I didn't, but they absolutely do prompt for it and otherwise making ignoring their services less convenient. I put up with it for years, but I hated it.
Longtime Mac and Windows user who feels similarly.
I recently tried Linux as my primary desktop after 10+ years. It’s amazing. It just works and there is no slop, no advertising, no ecosystem to log into, no notifications. So nice. I can actually get work done! And games often just work.
On win 10 there used to be a button to create a local account, but they removed it and made it so you had to disconnect from WiFi to get to that screen. Then they changed it to make it so that you have to disconnect from WiFi AND run some arcane terminal command. At this point your average user is just going to use an online Microsoft account. What an atrocious user experience
You have to pull up a command prompt in the advanced settings menu and change a registry setting. Easy for you or me (with a guide telling us where that registry value is), super scary and risky for your average user. It also only works when you actually do a fresh installation from install media. If you buy a computer that has Windows pre-installed, it's much more of a hassle.
I'm sorry to say, but logging in with a centralized account to use a device is a given in 2025. The benefits are far too good to disregard. Apple is no longer in the business of selling you devices, they're in the business of selling you add-ons to your Apple Account.
And people always say that we risk our accounts being locked out, but when was the last time Apple was heard closing Apple Accounts?
No, this is garbage. I have plenty of real accounts I need to log into already, I don't need another one that is there just so the vendor can track me and try to enmesh me in their ecology.
That's your point of view. I see access to so many services because I have a phone, laptop, watch and headphones. Apple doesn't use accounts only to track you, it uses accounts to do things like seamlessly switch your AirPods between devices.
You couldn't just pair the device to all of them and then seamlessly switch? The only thing the account is adding is removing that initial step on first pairing, but even that could be done without an account if the new device C was paired to host A and came in proximity to host B that was in connected at some point with host A.
> I'm sorry to say, but logging in with a centralized account to use a device is a given in 2025.
It's really not. Of all the devices I own, the only one that really wants a centralized account is a Chromebook on its way out. Even Android is willing to work without a Google account.
I mean, it's a given that it will be pushed, but I really don't see the benefit of logging into windows with a microsoft account for most people. I do it, because it makes it enables parental controls, but if I didn't want those, I don't see the point. The regular people in my life do it because Microsoft pushes it hard, and they don't care. The Windows app store works just as well (which is to say, not very well) if you log in to it in the app or through your windows account.
It's basically required on a chrome OS device, although my MIL was using the guest account for months when she changed her password instead of referencing her password book and then later couldn't log in from her book. Chrome OS isn't awful with no persistent storage.
Blessedly, I haven't had to use a mac in many years, but a local account didn't seem to impact anything of note --- you could login to the app store in the event you needed something from there, but there wasn't much that needed it other than Xcode; maybe that's changed.
The iPhone with no app store is fairly useless, so yeah, you've got to login to that. An Android with no google play is a little bit less useless, depending on what apps you want to run, some of them distribute apks directly.
An Android without Google account is fine. I use Aurora store to download apps. Most of the features of Google Play Services (notification, cell location) still work when you're not logged in. I always use my android devices like this.
I dunno, my family likes it. They largely standardized to storing all their stuff in their OneDrive. When they get a new device, they just log in with the same username/password as their other computer and a lot of their settings are already configured. All their stuff is just there in their OneDrive.
For shared computers its really nice. I log in with my account, my wife logs in with hers, regardless of whatever computer we have handy. If I'm lounging on the couch I might grab her Surface, if she wants to sit down and work on a bigger project she can hop down at the bigger gaming PC, if we're on a trip and want to sync photos just grab the laptop. It's our same accounts, same username and passwords, same customization settings we like, regardless of whatever computer we use. The NAS at home has its permissions tied to our Microsoft accounts so our accounts log in seamlessly regardless of what computer we're on.
Meanwhile all our devices are encrypted and have our backup keys to decrypt synced there.
I probably would never want to have any personal Windows machine use a local account going forward.
(And outside of work, Apple punted on games, which means I will always buy a Windows or Linux computer.)