Yesterday I received an email that Microsoft allows now all personal accounts to login with passwordless methods. Options include
Windows Hello, FIDO2, MFA, biometric, device PIN and passkey.
The supported platforms are
Windows 10 and newer
Mac OS Ventura and newer
Safari 16 or newer
Chrome OS, Chrome, Microsoft Edge 109 and newer
iOS 16 and newer
Android 9 and newer
Clearly absent is any Linux version.
What are your thoughts on passwordless login, will this become a thing also for Linux systems?
On my Arch, I did see that I needed to install some packages as the Hardware Probe, but kind of failed to install all of the packages, not sure if it works right now, but it ain’t easy for sure.
It’s such a pain on Linux. Especially with newer hardware. Most of it is down to manufacturers not making drivers or providing tools for the community to do so. I’ve been looking for a USB one for ages for my desktops. Even the old school Digital Persona ones only work on some distros.
I do hope this improves. On laptops, it’s hit or miss as well. Frameworks have excellent support as do some (mostly older) Thinkpads and Dells. Anything else is rough. Occasionally a brand will share the same reader as a supported one from another manufacturer… but it’s rare.
I wish they would do something standard like HID or the way MS stopped a lot of trackpad pain with their precision drivers.
fprint does require one dependency as well as a fprintd service to be started. Also the hardware compatibility isn’t as robust as on Windows and Mac. But that wasn’t your initial question, rather it was when will Linux get these features. The answer is they do and have but by default most such services aren’t enabled by default on Linux systems as it goes against the philosophy of many users who wish to keep their system as minimal as possible.