I'm signed into an Apple ID on my one Mac machine so that I can use the App Store and to use iMessage/FaceTime despite my lack of an iPhone. I unchecked all the iCloud stuff as fast as I could because I wasn't prompted after adding the Apple ID on what I wanted to add, and there's no clear "Turn off iCloud" button.
Updated to Monterey, and suddenly 3 or 4 of the iCloud items were checked. Maybe there was something buried in the Monterey OOBE, but I honestly don't remember even getting a new EULA, and I'm usually VERY careful about looking for the anti-patterns that push cloud stuff.
Just popped System Preferences back open to see what the current state is, and it says I have 4.99 GB of 5GB available in my iCloud (presumably because of the iMessage stuff). Private Relay (Beta) has no checkbox and is spinning a spinner that says "Loading". No idea if that means it's turned on, or how to make it stop loading.
Not defending MSFT, this sucks, and I say that as someone who uses W11 Pro as my daily driver. But between them, Apple, and what Google does on Android, it's very frustrating that my only _reasonable_ option for truly offline local accounts is a Linux machine. I WANT TO PAY MONEY TO HAVE A WELL-SUPPORTED MACHINE
I'm on Monterey with a local account and have never signed into iCloud, although I'm signed into the app store with an Apple Id.
I just checked in Preference and under Apple Id it shows: iCloud -not signed in- Media & Purchases -email_of_apple_id_account-
(also it nags you with a persistant notification on the Apple Id icon in Preferences root, and a "start using iCloud" link too, but for now I can vaguely tolerate that)
Updated to Monterey, and suddenly 3 or 4 of the iCloud items were checked. Maybe there was something buried in the Monterey OOBE, but I honestly don't remember even getting a new EULA, and I'm usually VERY careful about looking for the anti-patterns that push cloud stuff.
Just popped System Preferences back open to see what the current state is, and it says I have 4.99 GB of 5GB available in my iCloud (presumably because of the iMessage stuff). Private Relay (Beta) has no checkbox and is spinning a spinner that says "Loading". No idea if that means it's turned on, or how to make it stop loading.
Not defending MSFT, this sucks, and I say that as someone who uses W11 Pro as my daily driver. But between them, Apple, and what Google does on Android, it's very frustrating that my only _reasonable_ option for truly offline local accounts is a Linux machine. I WANT TO PAY MONEY TO HAVE A WELL-SUPPORTED MACHINE