Linux people Linux.
If Microsoft doesn’t want you to use a local account, this means that local accounts are less profitable for them, to the point that they’d rather piss off users than let them to do it.
This means that there’s some hidden cost for you on setting up online accounts. Perhaps it’s trying to lock you further into MS’ environment, perhaps Windows will be futurely SaaS (you effectively spend more money this way, through a thousand transactions instead of one) so they’re “paving” the grounds for it, perhaps they’re selling the shit out of your data. Or a combination of those.
If you’re still insisting on Windows, in 2024, the article mentions another method to bypass this crap:
Another method of bypassing the account lockdown still exists. You simply have to enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO in the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup process, which allows you to skip the connection to the Internet and thus also the link to a Microsoft account.
I think they want firstly smooth integration with OneDrive. Then with Copilot, and finally it’s Recall.
So basically locking you inside their walled prison, right? (It stopped being a garden since a long time ago.) Windows is still their main product; and it’s harder to change the OS if you need things deeply integrated with it.
and finally it’s Recall
I hope so. No, seriously, I hope that Windows and Recall become intrinsically intertwined, to the point that you can’t use one without the other. The year that this happens will be the year of the Linux desktop! [NB: I’m being a bit cheeky.]
