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Comment by ROARosen | Hacker News Reader

We should - though - definitely appreciate the fact that they still "let" you setup a workstation without signing in to a Microsoft account (unlike iOS, the new Oculus device etc.)

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You can most definitely setup an iOS device without signing into iCloud, same as you don't need to use a Google account for an Android device.

macOS is also quite a capable workstation OS that needs no account other than a local account.

Windows 10 Home you cannot even create a local account without having the Internet disconnected.

You can setup iOS devices without an Apple ID if that is what you are trying to imply.

You can, but apart from calling & web browsing, it's not that useful, in contrast to a windows machine (i guess you probably can't use the windows store)

iOS is still useful without an iCloud account. Everything still works. Calendar, Calculator, Contacts, Safari, Music, etc, on and on all work just fine. You can add any number of third party services with the email app. All you loose not logging into iCloud is sync'ing of said data to other devices. It's a local only device at that point.

Pretty sure the same stands for Android.

What do you mean with third party services? Apps? You can download (free) apps w/o an Apple ID?

No. I mean you can use the included PIM/multimedia apps with any current service you use without using any Apple account. Just goto accounts and passwords under settings and add your preferred service to integrate with notes/email/contacts/etc.

Sure I would say this would make it more of a feature phone but the device itself is quite usable without an iCloud account.

The Windows Store (now called the Microsoft Store, apparently to match the name o their physical stores), does allow one yo download free programs without using a Microsoft Account. I'm guessing you might need one for paid programs, but I've literally never tried, since this is a PC, not a phone/tablet.

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