[deng]

FYI: You can still install Win11 with a local account. When prompted for your account, hit Shift+F10 to get a terminal, then enter

start ms-cxh:localonly

and a window will pop up where you can create a local account and continue with the installation.

Yep, it's all insane. And before the "switch to Linux" replies: yes, I am using Linux, but Friends&Family still rely on Windows software. The big elephant in the room is of course Office, and I mean the REAL Office, not the MickeyMouse version that runs in the browser. No, LibreOffice will not do, neither will running Office in a Windows VM, nor running a 20year old Office version in Wine.

[kotaKat]

Until the day the machine has been UEFI-flagged to require online connectivity regardless. Yes, that's a thing, and the flag's been lurking in the UEFI since Windows 10 1809, even. Intune/Windows Autopilot leverages it for out-of-the-box MDM enforcement.

https://oofhours.com/2019/08/17/requiring-a-network-connecti...

[greazy]

I think this exact reason why MS will fight to the death to keep Office off Linux machines.

It's the last hurdle before 'normies' moving to Linux.

[echoangle]

If you use Rufus to burn the iso to the boot drive, you can also chose to create an offline account there (and also disable some other installation requirements like TPM).

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm a school teacher nowadays, but both my current and previous school have used Google Docs for everything. When I was in graduate school getting my teaching degree, everyone used Google Docs. All of our students use Google Docs.

Is this reliance on Office an enterprise thing?

[em-bee]

why will libreoffice not do? just the difference of the UI, or incompatibility worries?

in my opinion these are just transition issues. iaw. it's not a problem with libreoffice but the problem is that there is a transition.

same with a windows VM. just the issues with interaction with documents outside the VM, or that using a VM is not really solving the problem of getting rid of windows?

[bombcar]

Interoperability is still an issue, and people who are already suspicious of you messing with their shit really do not want a “different office” at home than at work.

[em-bee]

people who are already suspicious

see, that's the problem. it's not a technical issue. it's lack of trust. i am not saying that there are no issues, but by far the biggest issue is and has always been expectations and trust. the expectation that there will be no problems, which is not even fulfilled when you upgrade windows or word, and also the subtle differences, quirks that you got used to, are different now.

it's resistance to change, while completely missing that microsoft forces more change on their users than linux or libreoffice ever did. if we could sell a switch to linux/libreoffice as a windows upgrade, people would moan, but it would not be any worse than an actual windows upgrade.

[deng]

By far the biggest problem is interoperability with people using MS Office. I'm fully aware that Microsoft is essentially sabotaging this by making their format deliberately obtuse, but here we are.

The VM thing is tedious to set up, requires more resources and, as you say, does not really solve the problem. Also, there's the problem of Windows activation in VMs, which - at least officially - requires an expensive retail key.