Microsoft Urges Businesses To Abandon Office Perpetual Licenses
- Reference: 0176905881
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/04/02/1941244/microsoft-urges-businesses-to-abandon-office-perpetual-licenses
- Source link:
In its pitch, the Windows-maker says Microsoft 365 includes Office applications as well as security features, AI tools, and cloud storage. The post cites a Microsoft-commissioned Forrester study that claims the subscription model delivers "223% ROI over three years, with a payback period of less than six months" and "over $500,000 in benefits over three years."
[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft_365blog/is-it-time-to-upgrade-from-microsoft-office-everything-you-need-to-know-/4397646
Wonder how many "studies" (Score:3)
MS had to pay for before they got the answer they wanted?
Re: (Score:2)
There's just a small mistake in the report. The ROI goes in Microsoft's back pocket, not their customer's.
Laptops (Score:2)
exist, fkheads.
Re: (Score:2)
> exist, fkheads.
VPN connections to the internal server too, if you need files you left at the office. It's like they're pretending the last forty years of computer innovation doesn't exist, because cloud.
Security features? (Score:5, Interesting)
Because nothing says "security" like tossing your critical business data onto a server open to the whole internet, accessible to every fool with a cell phone.
Re:Security features? (Score:5, Funny)
"But on the upside, you'll be paying us money every month!"
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Where are my mod points when I need one. Laugh out loud!
Re: Security features? (Score:2)
And with a license model that can be recalled at any moment.
Re: (Score:2)
Why does it have to all be "critical business data"? Why not take a nuanced and risk based approach? Microsoft already offers tools in Office to do just that, the requirement to classify files and the ability to automatically block files form certain classifications from being cloud synced.
The reality is 99% of what people work with is not "critical business data". It's more run of the mill boring shit.
just abandon MS Office & Windows completely (Score:4, Informative)
switch to Linux && LibreOffice, sure there will be a learning curve but in the long run you will be doing yourselves a favor
Re:just abandon MS Office & Windows completely (Score:4, Interesting)
LibreCalc is awful compared to Excel. I tried, really I did.
And when it comes to sharing documents, there is just a fear that it won't look right. I'm not going to risk sending a draft proposal to my boss, he opens it up in Word, and I seem like a clown because it doesn't look like it did on my system.
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how so? Calc is better than excel at almost everything i used it for. especially dealing with csv dumps from various sources, understanding different date formats etc without messing up.
Re: (Score:2)
How terrible of you to fight FUD. Can't you see the shill?
I admit that it might also be that he's clueless, or worse can't format his/her/etc way out of a wet paper bag with a sharp wit.
Re: (Score:2)
> How terrible of you to fight FUD. Can't you see the shill?
Yeah I see a shill. You. That's what shill means right? Anyone with an opinion other than your own is automatically a shill for something or on the take right? Sorry but I agree with the GP. Calc is good in a pinch but it is woeful compared to Excel, not the least of which because it has virtually zero compatibility with 99% of data analytic tools and data sources used in the rest of the industry.
I do use Calc at home though. Don't need to pay M$ a subscription fee when all you need to do is note down a sho
Re: (Score:3)
IME, Excel is easier to get good results in. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the modern interface, and I have also found it to be crashy and unreliable these days. It was never immune from explosion, but you used to have to lean on it. Calc has come a long way, and while its interface still isn't great, I mostly prefer it to Excel. I only really wish it had live pivot tables.
Though nobody asked, Writer is much better than Word.
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> I'm not going to risk sending a draft proposal to my boss, he opens it up in Word, and I seem like a clown because it doesn't look like it did on my system.
I think the point was for the switch to be organization-wide, so your boss would be using LibreOffice, too. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
I've never met a boss who wasn't dead set on sticking with their existing apps.
Re: just abandon MS Office & Windows completel (Score:2)
JFC ain't that the truth. I've got one that's got Photoshop CS3 on his machine. All his entire computing concern is that he never lose that install because he lost the license/serial long ago.
I put The GIMP on there along side it and told him he should start learning it just in case, but only Photoshop CS3 will ever do for him. It seems to be causing a problem with the new versions of Acrobat Pro (constant popup error messages, I haven't been able to resolve it without touching the ancient Photoshop), a pie
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Oh really? I much prefer Librecalc to Excel. Cut and paste works sensibly for one thing, and that's huge.
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If you are that paranoid about presentation accuracy... which isn't reliable even between different versions of Microsoft office by the way... then send it as a PDF. Your boss doesn't want to scroll around in your cells anyway.
Linus tech tips tried to get off Adobe (Score:2)
And it wasn't worth it. It was doable but the high cost of interoperability headaches and the little odds and ends losses to productivity meant that he lost money on man hours.
This is not an accident. Adobe is a huge company. So is Microsoft. Both of them are going to have people whose job is to analyze the competition and determine how much value that competition could potentially add and then price their products accordingly. This isn't 1985 anymore and companies don't leave stuff like that up to chan
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Learning curve for what, using a mouse and the save/open icons?
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it will take a day or two to get comfortable with different nuances, menus & icons looking a little different, nothing difficult or painful.
They would like to charge you by keystroke (Score:3)
And given the corporate takeover of the government they might get what they want.
Beware, Microsoft (Score:2)
Your heavy-handed pursuit of profit will cost you the very profit you seek. You want more people switching to Linux?
Have you seen Windows 11? (Score:2)
I think the answer is "yes, please do!"
They've even prepared their users by making the UI look like a shitty linux desktop environment.
Re: (Score:2)
They'd just buy Canonical if that became an issue...
What they are saying (Score:2, Informative)
What i read it as give us more money per month or year and we will make it more expensive several times a year
Additional Microsoft Profit (Score:1)
I decline. I have a single Office 2019 license I don't need any more.
Over $500,000 in benefits (Score:2)
Even for a one seat license for a sole proprietor business? And will they make up the difference if I document less benefits? Or whom do I sue?
I could make a decent living, setting up small businesses, buying a 365 license for each and then collecting for promised but unrealized "benefits".
Did they mix up their note cards? (Score:3)
> Your apps are stuck on your desktop
That's a feature, not a bug.
> limiting productivity anytime you're away from your office.
Lots of the people they're selling to pitched the benefits of return-to-office mandates, so this too sounds like a feature, not a bug.
> You can't easily access your files or collaborate when working remotely.
Because this wasn't a solved problem with VPNs and RDP, or Dropbox or Nextcloud, a decade ago...
> security features
vague...
> AI tools
Clippy and Cortana didn't excite anyone; Copilot won't, either...
> and cloud storage.
You can't get more than 5TB of storage in Microsoft365 at any price.
> "223% ROI over three years, with a payback period of less than six months" and "over $500,000 in benefits over three years."
For Microsoft shareholders, probably. For folks who realized that Office has been basically feature complete since 2010, that there sounds like some Hollywood Accounting. I'd call it Microsoft Accounting, but that was discontinued in 2009.
Re: (Score:2)
While you make some good points, it also sounds like your way of working is stuck in 2015. VPNs, sitting in offices, that shit is gone. These days you expect to be able to open your corporate files on your personal BYOD iPad and work while commuting. They expect you to be able to effortlessly join a Teams call from your device when your internet goes down.
I've been around for a while. I've seen it all, working in thin clients, working on desktops locally, assigning all company people with VPNs to access fil
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Your apps are stuck on your desktop, or like I say, MS is not going to develop desktop applications anymore, it is all webservices (webs that act as if they were a desktop app) like MS Teams and New Outlook. And your data is on a server that is controlled by a US company that needs to comply with the CLOUD act.
Nope... not doing it (Score:2)
It then becomes another subscription that you keep paying for all the time because you forget about it once it starts. I don't want to keep shelling out the cash for something I don't use frequently, because when you terminate that subscription your license downgrades (at best) such that you cannot fully edit your files any more, or gets shut off (at worst) so that you cannot even open the files. Better to pay the flat fee one time, get the "permanent" license, and not have to keep paying for something I
Color me shocked... (Score:2)
Business recommends switching from something that you pay for once and keep forever to something you have to subscribe to with ongoing monetization.
Have to Make Up for AI Losses (Score:2)
Microsoft has to squeeeeeze out more revenue to make up for the AI losses. AI is losing everyone money.
LINUX - ROI (Score:1)
I've been using exclusively Linux since 1999. I know, I'm "older".
In that time I've spent $0 on Windows 2000, ME, Vista, XP, 7, 8, 10, don't "have to upgrade hardware" to 11, etc.
I've spent $0 on Office anything, haven't had my files HACKED 5 TIMES in 2019 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/10/02/microsoft-office-365-email-hacker-made-millions-heres-how/) or ever, and have switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice only once. No hardship. no regrets.
I use my 2005 Dell XPS-13 for travel, have a
To be fair? (Score:2)
If you're a typical business? It's not usually a big deal to pay these subscription fees for your software vs buying up-front "perpetual licenses". Every place I've worked and had anything to do with the I.T. budget -- they have a line item for estimated annual expenses for the software, and it's easier and more predictable for everyone involved if there's some known monthly fee, vs a much larger unknown fee to buy a new version of a program for all of your users, when you hit an obstacle of your existing o
That's a feature not a bug (Score:2)
"Your apps are stuck on your desktop, limiting productivity anytime you're away from your office."
Yes, oh God fucking forbid office notifications and work not follow us on the road home, into the dining room, onto the sofa, into bed and when we're out in nature.
And besides that... I'm not saying I haven't used connectbot on my phone if literally all I need to do is login into X and run one or two short commands, but have you ever tried doing actual real work with a phone or tablet instead of a legiti
Nothing new from Microsoft (Score:2)
Microsoft have been trying to move their revenue stream to a subscription model for decades. I myself have witnessed at least three previous attempts over the last 30 years.
That's some impressive customer resistance there.
And some equally impressive "bashing their heads against a brick wall" from Microsoft.
It is easier (Score:2)
Just have to log in to have MS Office on a new machine, which is way easier than installing and digging up the serial number.
MS recommends to Install Libreoffice (Score:5, Insightful)
MS recommends to Install Libreoffice
No need for a licence
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, that's what 90% of the people will do. That or Google Docs at a guess.
There's a set of MS Office ISOs on archive.org, if people are that tied to MS Office, there's some alternatives there, with the presumption that MSFT would have had them removed if it was a concern. Pirating the software was part of MSFTs success I think, people thought the software had value since it had a retail price.
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Unfortunately, apparently big companies still often stick to proprietary solutions for some reasons. I guess it must be something like "nobody ever got fired for using IBM or Microsoft". As an example, I heard that a lot of companies are switching away from VMWare after Broadcom acquired them but very few big companies are daring to choose proxmox and go with something else. Many smaller companies consider proxmox although. But, big companies with thousands of licenses is where the money is I guess.
As for m
Re: MS recommends to Install Libreoffice (Score:3)
Better yet, why are you still using document formats intended for printers even though you have no intention of ever printing them? Where I work our documentation mostly exists in the form of something akin to a wiki. It's pretty rare that I even open MS word, so why on earth would I use libreoffice either?
I mean I guess if you really need spreadsheets or powerpoint then...ok... Though usually when I'm working with data, it's done with code instead of spreadsheets. Sure that requires an additional skill set