Microsoft Office gets an add-supported model.
Microsoft's ad-supported version of Office only saves to OneDrive : Read more
Microsoft's ad-supported version of Office only saves to OneDrive : Read more
MS always was disgusting.Gross what Microsoft has become.
I couldn't even imagine spending $99 for 365. Within 10 years, that will be $1000 for some software that probably isn't going to improve much over time. For the most part, office software hasn't changed much in decades, and the free alternatives have long offered comparable functionality, making it pointless for most to spend a yearly subscription fee for something like that, unless one knows they need some obscure functionality not suitably covered by the free office suites. But even then, Microsoft still offers non-subscription versions of Office that will have cost less within a few years, making the subscription only worth considering if one will be making heavy use of the cloud storage or other side features.I couldn't even imagine signing up to this thing to save the $99 that the Microsoft 365 Pro plane costs per year..
I helped setup Thunderbird for someone the other week, after their home Outlook installation stopped syncing with their mail provider. Looking online, there were a bunch of people having the same issue following an update to Outlook, with a potential fix having questionable effectiveness. And this came within just months of Microsoft forcibly updating them to the "new Outlook" in place of their prior Windows mail client that had been working fine for years. The new Outlook prominently features a pair of targeted ads made to look like mail at the top of the inbox, sends users mail from other providers to Microsoft servers, and doesn't provide the option to keep offline copies of older mail past a certain point. The best fix was just to switch them over to another mail client. Much like office software, email clients haven't improved much for decades, and making the client behave more like webmail just negates much of the reason to use it, especially when they allow critical bugs to slip through that break the core functionality for many users.A couple of years ago I switched to Libre Office. Before that I had been using MS Office since 1995. The reason I switched was simple. Libre office has all the tools and functions I need with no ads and it's free. I will also be switching to Thunderbird soon. I would have done it sooner, but I was waiting for the Android app.
Becaue of gaming support and a few software titles not available on Linux, I will still continue to use Windows.
If I didn't get Office cheap from my employer, I'd just go to Libre.I couldn't even imagine spending $99 for 365. Within 10 years, that will be $1000 for some software that probably isn't going to improve much over time.
Even locking in just on Microsoft Word, the removal of key formatting options like line spacing, text wrapping, headers, footers, bookmarks, and even proper date & time fields is truly egregious. You can't even hyphenate anymore!
Plus plusSo, it's Notepad then?
Well no, it's only literally spy ware if you don't know that that's the primary function of the software.Literally spy-ware.
Eh, it's not like they have any other choice, they either make massive losses or they do this kind of stuff.Gross what Microsoft has become.
Still more expensive than free.If I didn't get Office cheap from my employer, I'd just go to Libre.
$69/year for 5 system licenses....
If your OS costs as much as a whole PC you are not gonna get it sold.... it will get pirated a lot though if it's a requirement for something.I mean windows 98 was like $200 and windows 11 is around $150 , they would have to charge the $400 that $200 was worth in 1998 and probably even more than that.
That's what I'm saying, they can't ask for the amount of money they would have to ask for to make it a pay once OS with no ads and no nothing.If your OS costs as much as a whole PC you are not gonna get it sold.... it will get pirated a lot though if it's a requirement for something.
I am not buying that.... software in general is overpriced from the consumer pov... which eventually is the only pov that actually matters.That's what I'm saying, they can't ask for the amount of money they would have to ask for to make it a pay once OS with no ads and no nothing.
What is there not to buy?! You are saying the same thing as I am.I am not buying that.... software in general is overpriced from the consumer pov... which eventually is the only pov that actually matters.
It is irrelevant how expensive something was to make if the money does not actually exist to pay for it.... and given how Windows has become worse over the last decade rather than better..... it's an increasingly hard sell.
That's literally what this article is about...At the same time M$ tacitly admits it does not care if the consumer pirates or not as long as they enforce a global Windows monopoly. Their actual profits come from corporations. So given that they have so little profit to lose anyway, why not pivot and find ways of legitimately giving it away to the consumer class while gaining command and control capability at the same time while exploiting a willing AI data generation network?
The vast majority of Windows sales have never been retail boxed copies though. Windows 98 was only around $50 for big PC manufacturers to install on systems. And even home users could upgrade from a prior release for less than $100.I mean windows 98 was like $200 and windows 11 is around $150 , they would have to charge the $400 that $200 was worth in 1998 and probably even more than that.
Mobile users will feel right at home with invasive adds and only saving to the cloud, saving to the cloud alone is something you would have to pay for on a mobile app.and often use mobile devices for much of their computing. Things like putting invasive ads in the software and needlessly locking basic functionality behind a subscription paywall are just going to turn more people away from the Windows ecosystem though.