>The kicker is that they are extremely bad at mixed account scenarios, you know like needing a certain account for work and another account for private stuff. Enjoy the entropy!

I never really thought about that Google is surprisingly good at this, despite being more complicated: On some services you can have multiple identities even within the same Google account (like on YouTube).

They have a "Switch Account" button and it just lists all of your Google Accounts with all of your identities (YouTube channels) below them. It's really comfortable to work with and I hardly (well, not never) mess this up. The identity icon in the top right that is also repeated in every place where you're submitting something with that identity (like next to the comment box) helps to keep you oriented.

Typically I give Google a lot of shit, but they've got this figured out at least.

My YouTube account was before the acquisition, when I linked it to my Google account I ended up with two YouTube account linked on the same Google account. Anytime I connect to YouTube it asks me which account to use, I am still using my old account.

In 2010 I first got into Linux because of Microsoft making (what seemed to me at the time to be) user hostile decisions: my netbook came with "windows 7 starter edition", which did not allow you to change the wallpaper. They claimed that this was to accommodate the less powerful hardware of the netbook... but they went out of their way to enforce it. If you found the default wallpaper file and modified it, they would detect it and show a black screen.

Now 12 years later I have many Microsoft accounts, because I don't really use their services, I think they just strongly pushed me into making one when I setup windows laptops over the years. I also probably have one for Skype, I've created a few when playing Halo MCC on a new computer (every damn time it asks me to log in, even if I just want to play single player). Oh and another from when I played Xbox 360 a long time ago. Plus a few from high school when I used MSN messenger.

I've never actually tried to clean this up and merge them, and your comment has scared me from even trying. And more on topic, I'm sad that a game like Minecraft is likely going to be lost in this mess. It's the kind of game that I might open every few years and mess around for an hour. Now it will likely be like my experience when trying to recover my old Microsoft accounts... Extremely painful, mandatory phone number, new login from suspicious location, security questions... Ugh. At least with Minecraft it will be for a game that isn't already tied to another account that I actually use, like steam.

Maybe people don't want their game accounts to be attached to an email account and their OS. Hell, I don't want an account on my OS at all-- what is the benefit, if I don't use Outlook or OneDrive or any of their devices? If anything it's probably a liability, could I get locked out of my own PC if my (otherwise unused) Microsoft account was compromised?

> Microsoft is edging (read 'diving headfirst into') towards requiring a Microsoft account just to log in.

Apple is also extremely persistent about asking you for an Apple id. It prompts me for my Apple ID maybe once an hour.

Now I'm sure that this is behavior that could be turned off in some setting, but the fact that it is somehow not difficult to get it into this state is evidence enough.

This seems to happen a lot during the first ~5 days or so of buying a new iPhone. You get prompted for Apple ID login every few hours and sometimes repeatedly in quick succession. Maddening.

> diving headfirst into

Well, precisely: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/18/22940517/windows-11-pro-r...