[axby]

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?