Microsoft is Killing off Windows 11's Mail and Calendar Apps By the End of the Year (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0175457771
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/11/12/1859243/microsoft-is-killing-off-windows-11s-mail-and-calendar-apps-by-the-end-of-the-year
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/12/24294652/microsoft-windows-11-mail-calendar-apps-end-of-support
> The software giant has been moving existing users of these apps over to the new Outlook for Windows app in recent months, and now it has set an end of support date for the Mail, Calendar, and People apps of December 31st.
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> Once the apps reach end of support later this year, Microsoft warns that users who haven't moved to the new Outlook app "will no longer be able to send and receive email using Windows Mail and Calendar."
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> Microsoft has been rolling out the new Outlook for Windows app for years, with it officially reaching the general availability stage in August. The new web-based Outlook is designed to eventually replace the full desktop version of Outlook too, and Microsoft plans to provide enterprise customers a 12-month notice before it starts to move people away from the desktop version of Outlook.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/12/24294652/microsoft-windows-11-mail-calendar-apps-end-of-support
At Some Point, You Have To Wonder (Score:2)
If more and more desktop software goes into the cloud, why not just ditch the OS used to reach it all and consider yourself "released" from software investments and try something new?
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Chromebook in a nutshell.
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That's what I've been wondering. There are things you can do with native office apps that you can't do with the web versions, but I use none of those features, so my job could reasonably be done on a chromebook. We are only allowed to use edge or chrome, so I would still be able to use the same browser. The only thing that our IS department is getting out of keeping us on Windows is that they can use management tools they're familiar with, but chromebooks can be centrally managed and crucially do not requir
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> ... chromebooks can be centrally managed and crucially do not require as much management to begin with as they are not such a shit show.
There are no rational reasons. My guess is fear of change and fear of being exposed as incompetent. The only reason my teaching laptop is Windows is that Linux seems to still occasionally crash beamers with crappy firmware and those are sometimes really expensive ones.
Re:At Some Point, You Have To Wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
That is what usually happens. This move from client-side-computing to server-side-computing is not new after all. It has now gone back and forth for 4 or 5 times, maybe more.
Nothing like microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
to force you into doing what you don't want to do. I hate you microsoft.
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> to force you into doing what you don't want to do. I hate you microsoft.
Why? They don't hate the public. They absolutely love what they do to the public!
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In a more general context, Microsoft is a nice demonstration of some things deeply wrong with the human race. After all, they would never have amounted to anything without a ton of willing victims.
Me too. (Score:2)
Microsoft needlessly being a jerk is why I stopped using Windows and went full-time to Linux. Linux is not a utopia but whenever someone says, "no, not like that" I don't have to listen to them.
Let me guess (Score:3)
Outlook for Windows is going to be made default on the next major Windows 11 release, even if I never used Windows Mail to begin with.
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You just said why they killing a default mail app, it’s not used. Outlook at least for enterprise is very good. Why you need a mail/calendar app when outlook already exists. Roll that staff into enterprise
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Outlook is barely OK. People use it primarily because they are being forced to by their employer.
But they are not just killing Windows Mail, they are replacing it with a new Outlook which only has name in common with the "enterprise" product which is part of MS Office. They confusingly call it "The new Outlook for Windows". I wonder how long it will keep that name.
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Outlook is already the default mail app on Windows 11. I just did a search for "mail" in my start menu and I get Outlook (2016) and "Outlook (new)". It seems the old mail app wasn't even installed (or at least is somehow hidden) from my current Windows 11 install.
I'll be retired (Score:3)
Nice to know if you're still using Outlook, 2029 is the cutoff date. I'll be retired by then and won't have to deal with the twin nightmares of users and forced Microsoft "upgrades".
They can enshittify all they want. I just won't have to (directly) deal with them any longer.
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Even worse - your bank will require you to use the Microsoft environment by then.
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They tried that a while ago with me. Turns out my bank cannot reliably detect VM environments (nobody can).
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> Nice to know if you're still using Outlook, 2029 is the cutoff date. I'll be retired by then and won't have to deal with the twin nightmares of users and forced Microsoft "upgrades".
> They can enshittify all they want. I just won't have to (directly) deal with them any longer.
I look forward to the day that I don't have to mess with their shit anymore... Only 15-ish more years...
and... (Score:1)
and nothing of value was lost.
Thunderbird (Score:5, Insightful)
Thunderbird exists and is generally better than webmail abortion that is this particular "outlook" which has nothing to do with actual office outlook.
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I second that. And it does not start to behave erratically when you have more than three office365 accounts either.
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> when you have more than three office365 accounts
Ouch.
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Indeed. One time I had to delete accounts cached in some obscure Windows OS place to get it to work again. Fortunately it is mostly only for streamed lectures with the slides definitely not PowerPoint.
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> Thunderbird exists and is generally better than webmail abortion that is this particular "outlook" which has nothing to do with actual office outlook.
I'd also like to throw a suggestion for [1]Pegasus Mail [pmail.com] into the ring as well, a robust independent email client that's been around since Windows 3.X; it's still going and being updated after all these years.
[1] https://www.pmail.com/downloads_s3_t.htm
Pathetic (Score:4, Interesting)
When your new product is so bad you have to force users to start using it.
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That has been going on for a while with Microsoft. Just think of Win11.
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Not really. You're not forced to use Outlook, they just aren't continuing their old mail client and forcing users off that. Virtually all software companies do not maintain two programs with the same function in parallel, though it is a dick move to disable it.
Now's a good time to advertise all the FOSS alternatives.
Re: Pathetic (Score:2)
I never said they need to maintain two in parallel. Just don't make the newer one so much worse. Problem solved.
Spyware (Score:3)
"Outlook for windows" is basically a spyware according to an [1]article [heise.de] it will transfer your login credentials for any email account you set up to MS and you explicitly give permission to MS to suck all your email and calendar data, then send to MS datacenter. After that it's whatever MS decides: AI training, NSA (obviously), ad companies.
[1] https://www.heise.de/en/news/Microsoft-lays-hands-on-login-data-Beware-of-the-new-Outlook-9608798.html
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> ... After that it's whatever MS decides: AI training, NSA (obviously), ad companies.
What's sad is of those 3 options, only one of them (NSA) is appealing to me.
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Incredible. Fucking criminals...
Logical move (Score:2)
Finance wise... it fits to persuade customers to use O365
Productiveness wise... it makes sense not to have 3 separate apps when there's already a single app that takes care of mail/cal/contacts.
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Productivity? With MS tools? My experience is that all the Office/Outlook/Windows/Edge crap stands in your way and decreases overall productivity rather markedly.
"new" Outlook is awful (Score:5, Informative)
I have never used their Calendar app but the new Outlook is garbage. And comes with ads.
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Add to it the case that it also creates a total confusion in naming with the commercial Outlook but not the same functionality.
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> Add to it the case that it also creates a total confusion in naming with the commercial Outlook but not the same functionality.
Absolutely right. It shows up as "Outlook (New)", which makes users click on it because, new is better - right? I'm having to right-click and select "Uninstall" for many users because it doesn't work correctly with Exchange on-prem.
Re: "new" Outlook is awful (Score:3)
It also lacks features businesses require. Talk about total garbage. Slow, hard to use, lacking features, Must be a Microsoft product
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I tried it a year ago, and it was missing the ability to add group mail accounts, which is a really important business feature. So I was reverting to old Outlook, which I still use.
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The URL hyperlink address showing when you hovered over a link in the new Outlook had been broken for months, they just fixed it a few days ago.
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> And comes with ads.
That is probably the reason for it. But unless they want to _really_ piss off a rather large part of their user-base, it remains possible to use other mail clients.
Re:"new" Outlook is awful (Score:4, Funny)
> the new Outlook is garbage. And comes with ads.
So... the outlook is bleak. :-)
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"Outlook not so good."
The Magic 8-Ball really *does* know everything!
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>> the new Outlook is garbage. And comes with ads.
> So... the outlook is bleak. :-)
"It should be called Microsoft Lookout " - Scott McNealy
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It also wants to sync all emails in your server to the cloud. I already have a server, I don't want to do that. I had Mailbird with a lifetime license and they made a new version and they told everyone 'screw you and your lifetime license' . You have to buy again and new version has no lifetime license. Bought em client and I'm happy.
I couldn't get it to work (Score:3)
I tried it about 9 months ago. I think it assumes every idiot has a gmail or outlook.com account these days. Trying to convince the tool to use an IMAP server with one login and password and an SMTP server with a different login and password was beyond its capabilities. To be fair Thunderbird had this problem too but if you fuck around with that one long enough you can eventually actually get it working after jumping through some ridiculous hoops.