Hotmail, the final straw. An icy rant from the polar regions

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I’m not sure if this rant even belongs to these here pages, but I leave it to a Moderator to correct me and I promise I will stay in line later. Then again - i am seriously p…d off!

I’ve had a @hotmail account since they first went online — long before many of you here, brothers and sisters on these pages, were even born.

Back then, I was a Windows user, and Hotmail was far better than what my internet provider could offer. We had dial-up modems using landlines, and you still had to physically visit the bank or mail papers to insurance companies. Mobile phones were the size of a small brick — or worse, a heavy bag — often mounted in a Yuppie’s car.

Times have changed. Today, cybersecurity is a massive industry — rivaled only by those trying to break it to get your credentials.

I still have that same @hotmail account, though I mostly use it as a login email to keep spam away from my private, well-guarded address.

Over the years, I’ve linked that account to a ton of subscriptions — news agencies, online shops, streaming services, and more.

Then recently, I got a login prompt requiring Microsoft Authenticator. Fair enough. But then came the kicker: starting this July, Microsoft Authenticator is being phased out — and you’ll apparently need MS software, or at least MS Edge, just to access Hotmail. A “security measure,” they say.

Can they do that? Yes. They can. It’s their service, and as long as we use it, we play by their rules.

Fine by me. I use Linux as my daily driver. I keep Windows 11 around only for gaming — dual-boot, each OS on its own drive.

But I’ll be damned if I ever install Edge on Linux. Maybe I could run it in a VM, but honestly, I’m not that desperate. So come July, if I need to access Hotmail while in Linux and Edge is required — I’m up that proverbial creek.

So now I’m working through all my online accounts, updating login credentials. No more Hotmail for me. It was a great spam filter for my sacred private email, but now Gmail will have to take the hit.

The worst part? Some services don’t even let me change the login address. I’ll have to let those subscriptions run out before deleting the accounts and signing up again with a different email. Until then, I’m stuck with Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge now and then — just long enough to finish the migration.

But damn me if I’m going to cave to this proprietary nonsense.

Windows? What a bloated, broken mess. Still the same old problems since Windows 95. Never the same machine you shut down the day before. Constant errors, pop-ups, driver issues, mystery repairs, updates, crashes, reboots, endless troubleshooting loops.

I keep my Windows 11 install as clean and minimal as possible — just enough to run the games I want. That’s it. Period.

Goodbye Hotmail.

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I know some folks don’t like posting AI answers, but here is what Copilot had to say in response to your post.

Yes, the core of that rant is based on a real change, though it’s a bit more nuanced than the post makes it sound.

Microsoft is phasing out the password autofill feature in its Authenticator app starting July 2025. Here’s the timeline:

  • June 2025: You can no longer add or import new passwords into Authenticator.
  • July 2025: Autofill stops working in Authenticator.
  • August 2025: Saved passwords will no longer be accessible in the app.

Microsoft is encouraging users to switch to Microsoft Edge, which has a built-in password manager. So while you won’t need Edge just to access your Hotmail (now Outlook.com) account, you will need it if you want to continue using Microsoft’s autofill features for passwords and payment info.

That said, Authenticator will still work for two-factor authentication and passkeys, so it’s not being entirely discontinued.

The frustration in the rant is understandable, especially for Linux users who prefer to avoid proprietary software like Edge. But if you’re just logging into Hotmail via a browser and not relying on Microsoft’s autofill, you should still be able to access your email using Firefox or another browser — no Edge required.

Let me know if you want help finding a good cross-platform password manager or setting up alternatives.

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Hi @audun_s ,
I have never tried that tactic. All my email is at one address and it is a very busy inbox that requires daily attention.
I have always used my ISP’s email service… because they are contactable
I too remember the early days of PC’s with dialup modems… about all you could do on the internet was email and ftp.
If you do decide to use gmail for your spam email, you can set up dual accounts on a linux emailer like thunderbird, so you can view gmail there along with your personal account. The gmail mail viewer in Android is a rather awkward tool. I only have gmail because I am forced to by Android.
I do believe that everything gets more complicated over time. Your hotmail example is a good illustration. People keep adding things that they think are improvements, but a lot of them end up as complications and barriers. It happens in Linux too.
Southern Australia is probably the opposite side of the world to you. It is icy here too, we are now in early Winter.

Regards
Neville

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Hotmail - before Microsoft acquired it - actually ran on one of the BSD variants (can’t remember which one)…

I used to think that too - until one day they (my ISP) decided to arbitrarily DELETE all my email (I was changing my plan from ADSL to just webmail)… I’d never rely on them again…

Been using gmail ever since - I think I’ve got 4 accounts - and they all forward to my main one. I don’t use a “Fat Client” on my PC (e.g. NOT thunderbird or geany or anything - just the web) - I just use the web interface (I do use the imap client on my Android phone). Gmail is pretty horrible compared to Outlook - they don’t even have “folders” - they have some shonky thing called “labels” - that is only barely functional.

I nearly switched over to the free Outlook - but realised how much I had invested in Gmail and aborted…

I was using MS Edge on Linux for my work stuff - 'cause I could do “work stuff” and sync using my work MS account - but - then work decided I could only use their devices - so now I only use Edge on my work MacBook - and I’ve removed it from my Linux systems… No point otherwise - I’m happy with Brave… But I also use Firefox… using different browsers makes it easier to sandbox one customer from another…

It’s not perfect - but I’ve never really had a problem with it.

I’ve not seen anything about this - I use MS Authenticator for a bunch of my clients systems - i.e. separate O365 accounts - no mention of it being phased out…

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I dont rely on the isp for storage… anything I want from Input goes into folders on my machine. Same for Sent. What I dislike is that the local storage by Thunderbird is not .txt files. It almost is, but searching them outside of the mailer is awkward.

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I had something like that happen too, but it was my choice. If you change ISPs, you lose your old email address. Something like an aol.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com email is portable.

I don’t use gmail for anything productive. The only reason I have it is because they basically require it for Android users.

I have seen a couple notifications for this on my Android phone. It might have been when I got into MS Authenticator for the first time after an update. Not sure exactly when.

Yes, but what happens if you leave your current ISP or they leave you somehow. Now you can’t receive the email configured for some online service to reset your password. As long as you can still login you can change to a new email address, you’re OK, but that’s a pain. If you use a third-party service, it’ll “never” go away. Of course, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo or whatever could go away. It’s just less likely than a local ISP I think.

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You may be right.
What I called a local ISP is our national telephone provider (Telstra) . Hopefully they will not disappear.
I might get some other generic provider, for a measure of protection.

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The big problem with email is when you want to move.

If you sign up with your phone provider as so many do, then they get taken over, go bust or are just too expensive… so you want to change letting everyone know, not just friends but doctors, insurance, bank, government … its a pain.

I am quite lucky in that I have bought a web site with email, That I give to everyone needing it. Then if I change phone providers or any other reason I just change one redirection place.

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So why cant one’s email address be fixed and personal, like your drivers licence?
I dont see there cant be a generic address that will map to any provider’s special address.

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They can but down the line someone gas to pay, that is why gmail is popular, although free you pay in different ways with google.

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I don’t see how that could be implemented with e-mail.
Address consits of a domain (host) name, and a username at that host.
Hence the “@”.
So left to the “@” identifies the host where the email has to be delivered, and that’s basically the server which accepts the email.

Me too. My webhosting provider allows me to set up any DNS records for my domain (for which I pay), and that allows me to have my own e-amail server.
No OAUTH, no authenticator or similar fashionable security measure.
The initial setup is somewhat painful with DKIM and others, but once it works, it’s just there and no problems…

I whish that ice now! :hot_face:
:smiley:

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Yesterday I logged into my hotmail account without any problems.

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I have not ran hotmail in over 20yrs, I now have two email accounts, one with outlook and the
other one with gmail Any saved email goes into a folder on a drive that has a partition just for
emails. If I need the email, like for a receipt, I will print the email.

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Get rid of all the servers and make one giant server for everyone. Then the part beyond the “@” becomes redundant and your ID could be a generic like your licence number.

Servers are the problem. That is what the hotmail issue is about.

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I use Betterbird (a fork of Thunderbird) for my emails and have experienced no issues accessing my (longstanding) Hotmail account. My system rebooted this morning after a Debian update, BB is set to load as a startup application and there were no warnings or advisories.

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Sounds like socialism. :slight_smile:

There are services where you can define an email alias and they receive that email for you and forward the emails to your ‘real’ email address. When you decide you don’t want to receive those emails anymore you can just remove the alias.

That’s probably a paid service or at least limited to a few alias email addresses. Proton is one service like that I believe.

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One server for all, great idea in theory , but (there is alway a but)

Who pays for it, who supports it, where. Is it held and controlled …

In principal google offer that service. Microsoft used to but they changed the rules to many times.

First we had hotmail.com, then msn, then outlook, then each country had a go so it could be .com or .co.uk or .fr expand this through 100 plus countries

Just to add to the story we had messinger, mail, outlook, outlook 365,

Sorry lost the plot now, you could have an address of something@outlook.fr and use outlook to access it or thunderbird and use smtp or pop3 or imap

Make no surprise its the pits to support … if i get a call on mail issues, i must sound really stupid asking what they use

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Yeah, there are aspects of centralism that are unattractive.

The paid bit seems to have crept in.
Originally, when everyone had a static ip address, email was free. We all paid by contributing to the routing.

Yeah, but gmail is very limited. I suppose I could give everyone my gmail address and then forward it all to my real email address… but what does that achieve?

This business of email providers is new. Originally , when all addresses were static, email was routed to your machine , via any other machines that would provide the link. We all paid by helping with the routing.
So how did providers get into the picture, and why do we need them?

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Same similar - but I use it for a bunch of other stuff - and e.g. I read e-books through Google Play books via my main gmail account. But it is my main mailbox…

One thing I DETEST is the evil practise of google in Gmail and Docs - I know sure as shit they would do de-duplication of attached files on their storage backend - but EVERY time you reply, or forward, or someone replies, to an email with a couple of photos - EVERY time it generates new copies in your storage allowance - so - one email with a 2 MB image file - with 35 replies, is now using 70 megabytes of your allowed 15 GB… That’s just plain evil…

That’s genuinely “do be evil” (remember when google first started their motto was “don’t be evil”) - I got stick of micro-managing my storage for a while and was paying google $2.50 (AUD) a month for the “privilege” of having 100 GB of storage - but never went much past 20 GB for fear of them having me by the short and curlies if I decided to leave - so I cancelled it and ruthlessly deleted old emails with all those EXTRA attached files…

When this started happening I did try to start using my free Outlook account… But never really put much effort into it.

There are some Universities - where if you’re a graduate or something - of certain “schools” - you can qualify for an @edu email address “for life” or something…

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Outsourcing. Currently, I’m using my provider’s mail facilities with my own domain, as it fulfills close to all my requirements.

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