Microsoft 365 Personal is Now Free For US College Students For a Year (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0179023706
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/05/1628256/microsoft-365-personal-is-now-free-for-us-college-students-for-a-year
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/news/772385/microsoft-365-personal-free-us-college-students
> This subscription gives students free access to Microsoft's Office apps and the Copilot AI assistant integration for a year, after which the students are eligible for a 50 percent discount to continue the subscription.
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> While most students have access to education versions of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Microsoft's offer is for student's own personal Microsoft accounts, and is available to claim until October 31st. Microsoft 365 Personal is usually $99.99 a year, or $9.99 a month, and includes 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/772385/microsoft-365-personal-free-us-college-students
Microsoft only wants to give students a big hug (Score:1)
Isn't is sweet how Microsoft wants to give them a big hug, and extend that support until all doubt is extinguished.
Of course (Score:2)
Get them hooked at a young age.
Re: (Score:2)
Or disgusted at a young age.
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't matter if they're disgusted.
It's not like Apple, which also did that back in the days to get students hooked to Apple computers, because Apple computers were better.
Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on the professional marketplace: the point is to get the kids used to using Microsoft cloud shit before they start their career so there's no friction - and therefore no pushback - when they get their first job. The point is to make sure Microsoft is kind of the natural thing in the background to peopl
PII collection (Score:2)
In the process of proving it you let them know where you go to school.
Obviously Libre Office is getting to them (Score:3)
It is pressure from their near-peer competitor, LibreOffice, forcing them into this desperate move.
. . . what? No? Well, in an alternate universe, it might be true!
Students are fucked (Score:2)
I feel bad for kids in school right now. They are learning to rely on a half-assed tool instead of using their own brain. I wonder if they know when AI output is trash.
I didn't get to use a calculator in school until I had the basics down by hand. We need this same approach with AI, learn the basics yourself before you learn to push the easy button.
Re: (Score:2)
I cannot speak for "kids" in general, but my 20-25 year old IT security students are very careful to only use LLMs when they are stuck or as a final verification step. This is in Europe.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't know how old you are but when I was in college.. erm, lets say 10-20 years ago they were pretty insistent on having *Real* Microsoft Word and not using alternatives because the professors don't want to deal with formatting issues. And papers had to be submitted in .docx
Yeah... (Score:3)
"The first taste is free!"
Reminds me of another "business" known for exploiting its "users"...
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XqyGoE2Q4Y
Honest crooks (Score:2)
At least they are honest about it being free for a limited time. The standard process for enshittification is to make it seem like it will be free forever, and then one day the terms of service change.
Re: (Score:2)
That's usually a side effect of some company spending a wad of venture capital without having a business plan figured out yet. Microsoft already has the product and the business plan, but they must be in need of customers. I share the OP's dim view of what Microsoft is doing, but the grocery store has free sample days too. Sometimes it's necessary to give potential customers a taste of what they're missing.
The first dose is free (Score:2)
And then you have one hell of a problem...
That is a terrible offer (Score:2)
The only reason Microsoft is making this offer, is so they can abuse access to OneDrive, which is now turned on by default, to vacuum up data for AI processing.
What other reason would Microsoft have for doing this? Office 365 is a subjectively valueless program, it falls well short of other offerings in the office space, such as LibreOffice. It's buggy, glitchy, crashes, locks up, and makes a song and dance out of doing anything reasonably simple, pair it with OneDrive, and you've really unleashed a new
Sure... (Score:4, Insightful)
And all your files are stored on OneDrive by default. Sub runs out and now you have to figure out how to move all your files, or start paying $50/year or whatever.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's be real these kids are going to paying someone for storage so Microsoft is trying to get them locked in with them instead of Google or Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
And all your files are stored on OneDrive by default.
Probably can change that.
Bet the Copilot AI training can't be turned off though.