A tendency that has been greatly bothering me recently regarding modern +systems - on the web, desktop applications, OSs or otherwise - is the increasing +number of them that require new users to register an account for their usage. +The most recent case was when I was trying to install Windows 10 in a virtual +machine, and in order to finish the post-install configuration I had to log into +or create a Microsoft account. There was no option to skip this step available +on-screen. I tried using my student Microsoft account, but this was rejected... +I don't know why. So ultimately, I got fed up and decided to ditch the whole +thing.
+ +This is what bothers me: why do I need an account to use an operating system? +I understand having the option available in later configuration, or having a +button clearly visible that allows me to skip this step, but to require it I +find is quite ridiculous. Perhaps it's just that I haven't been using any of +these kinds of technologies for years, and therefore it's more shocking to me, +but I find it completely inexcusable to require me to create a whole new account +just to use one crappy bit of software, which by its very nature does not +inherently require the usage of a networked account. Perhaps if we were talking +about a social media site, or cloud hosting. But not for literally every single +application.
+ +Some believe that the solution to this is the use of third-party accounts +(e.g. when you sign into a website using your Google account, even though the +website doesn't belong to Google) but I dislike the idea that the access to all +my online information can be accessed by a single company like that. It provides +little security, and means that all it takes is for one account to be hacked for +all of them to be hacked. This creates a huge security risk that I am not +willing to take, as well as issues of privacy concerns that may arise as well. +As such, this does not seem to be an acceptable solution to me either.
+ +Getting more to the point, I don't get why I need accounts for these things, +when often times I'm only going to be using these programs for a couple of +things and then I'll never touch them again. I find it ridiculous that these +developers (or more likely, their bosses) think I want to make a silly account +on their website just to receive more spam in my e-mail to delete.
+ +Sometimes these companies think that by advertising that with this account or +this software I can install a bunch of other crappy software of theirs, that +this will somehow make me more inclined to create an account with them or +install their product... It doesn't. Any option that requires for me to install +and use more things than I need is automatically discarded for me (as anyone who +has read my post on pre-installed applications[1] +would know).
+ +I realize this post really hasn't contributed much useful information, I just +needed a place to rant about something stupid.
+ +