We asked our readers what they think of Windows 11's forced Microsoft account requirement, and the answer is clear. Too bad it's not on the official list of improvements coming to the OS in 2026.
I can’t help you with the games. You could vote with your wallet and just not play those specific ones. Start hitting that backlog of games you got on sale and never opened.
Regarding Adobe suite in a professional manner, I’m pretty sure they work on MacOS.
You always have choices. They may not be perfect but they do exist nonetheless. These companies will never stop being invasive if users keep giving in. Until “number go down” in board meetings, nothing changes.
You could vote with your wallet and just not play those specific ones.
Oh I’m not paying for them, but still one of my main daily drivers is Genshin, and I haven’t found such an enjoyable open world exploration in any other game I’ve tried. (I’m PC-only so haven’t tried Breath of the Wild.)
Regarding Adobe suite in a professional manner, I’m pretty sure they work on MacOS.
I would never touch a Mac, it’s way more of a walled garden than Windows.
Also I was talking about Adobe alternatives like Inkscape for Illustrator or Scribus for InDesign. From what I’ve read they are really not there yet. (Tried Inkscape a few times, but the UI is so unintuitive for my brain used to Adobe’s UI/workflow 😭)
Oh I’m not paying for them, but still one of my main daily drivers is Genshin, and I haven’t found such an enjoyable open world exploration in any other game I’ve tried.
(I’m PC-only so haven’t tried Breath of the Wild.)
I’m Linux only and I’ve played Breath of the Wilds (works on Windows too).
Go to your favorite torrent site (1337x to) and search for Breath of the Wild. It’ll be packaged with the emulator so you don’t need to do anything. It’s a better experience, higher framerate, antialiasing, 4k upscaling and reverse tonemapping (Windows calls this autoHDR) (and basically anything that you can do with ReShade)
Also I was talking about Adobe alternatives like Inkscape for Illustrator or Scribus for InDesign. From what I’ve read they are really not there yet. (Tried Inkscape a few times, but the UI is so unintuitive for my brain used to Adobe’s UI/workflow 😭)
A few months ago someone made a patch which makes the Adobe CC 2021 and 2025 installer work in Wine.
Thanks, that’s good to know! From what I’ve read a few months ago when I last looked into it, it only worked with a fan-made launcher that posed a ban risk and also broke every few updates.
I always thought of Macs as not a good value before, but nowadays for laptops at least they seem to be relatively good.
I still find them annoyingly unintuitive, but that’s probably due to lack of experience. At least they come with some (old) version of bash and support standard stuff like ssh out of the box from my understanding.
Not played genshin yet, but you might like where winds meet? Incredibly beautiful, good combat, exploring is rewarding. And totally free.
And runs wonderfully on Linux, even with HDR.
Dunno about current adobes, but don’t they also run fine via wine? Have only one single tool so far that makes a bit trouble (mediamonkey).
I can’t help you with the games. You could vote with your wallet and just not play those specific ones. Start hitting that backlog of games you got on sale and never opened.
Regarding Adobe suite in a professional manner, I’m pretty sure they work on MacOS.
You always have choices. They may not be perfect but they do exist nonetheless. These companies will never stop being invasive if users keep giving in. Until “number go down” in board meetings, nothing changes.
Oh I’m not paying for them, but still one of my main daily drivers is Genshin, and I haven’t found such an enjoyable open world exploration in any other game I’ve tried. (I’m PC-only so haven’t tried Breath of the Wild.)
I would never touch a Mac, it’s way more of a walled garden than Windows.
Also I was talking about Adobe alternatives like Inkscape for Illustrator or Scribus for InDesign. From what I’ve read they are really not there yet. (Tried Inkscape a few times, but the UI is so unintuitive for my brain used to Adobe’s UI/workflow 😭)
Genshin Impact works on Linux: https://lutris.net/games/genshin-impact/
I’m Linux only and I’ve played Breath of the Wilds (works on Windows too).
Go to your favorite torrent site (1337x to) and search for Breath of the Wild. It’ll be packaged with the emulator so you don’t need to do anything. It’s a better experience, higher framerate, antialiasing, 4k upscaling and reverse tonemapping (Windows calls this autoHDR) (and basically anything that you can do with ReShade)
A few months ago someone made a patch which makes the Adobe CC 2021 and 2025 installer work in Wine.
https://www.xda-developers.com/someone-finally-got-the-adobe-cc-installers-working-on-linux-with-wine/
Come on in, the Linux water is fine :)
Genshin is playable on Linux? I play it on my Steam Deck.
Thanks, that’s good to know! From what I’ve read a few months ago when I last looked into it, it only worked with a fan-made launcher that posed a ban risk and also broke every few updates.
I just add the official launcher as a non-steam game and ran through the install as normal.
Granted I haven’t done it in a couple of months, so not sure if that method still works…but I don’t see why not
I always thought of Macs as not a good value before, but nowadays for laptops at least they seem to be relatively good.
I still find them annoyingly unintuitive, but that’s probably due to lack of experience. At least they come with some (old) version of bash and support standard stuff like ssh out of the box from my understanding.
Not played genshin yet, but you might like where winds meet? Incredibly beautiful, good combat, exploring is rewarding. And totally free. And runs wonderfully on Linux, even with HDR.
Dunno about current adobes, but don’t they also run fine via wine? Have only one single tool so far that makes a bit trouble (mediamonkey).