Mastodawn

Milo Ramone Nov 2

#Microsoft is clearly becoming desperate due to low adoption rates of #Copilot.

Apparently, Microsoft is now pushing Copilot to all #Microsoft365 personal subscribers and calling it a "subscription price increase". Only when you decide to cancel your subscription are you presented with the option to switch to "Microsoft 365 Personal Classic" without Copilot (and nearly the old price). The classic plan is not presented as an option unless you try to cancel your subscription.

This is a classic scammy trick: Modify the existing plan and add the feature no one wants and hide the old plan from view. Presto, now you have an insane adoption rate you can present to investors as a great success.

I personally don't use Microsoft subscription services, so I don't know if they tried this bullshit in the EU, but if they did, they're asking for trouble. They got sued in Australia over this already: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/microsoft-in-court-for-allegedly-misleading-millions-of-australians-over-microsoft-365-subscriptions "Microsoft in court for allegedly misleading millions of Australians over Microsoft 365 subscriptions"

EDIT: It seems that at least in some areas/situations the "classic" non-AI version is actually even more expensive. This isn't exactly making the situation any better of course.

Microsoft in court for allegedly misleading millions of Australians over Microsoft 365 subscriptions

The ACCC has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against Microsoft Australia and its US-based parent company Microsoft Corporation for allegedly misleading approximately 2.7 million Australian customers when communicating subscription options and price increases, after it integrated its AI assistant, Copilot, into Microsoft 365 plans.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

@harrysintonen The investors must be pretty stupid if they are believing these adoption numbers. I can't wait for the bubble to pop, but sometimes I feel like this is so obvious, that too many people are expecting it to pop, so it will not actually pop. Then again... the investors really are this stupid.

@harrysintonen my new “lower cost without ai” is higher somehow!?

@jbeckers @harrysintonen this looks like mine, which gets discount through the company I'm working in.

Harry Sintonen Nov 1

@jbeckers I heard similar reports from elsewhere as well.

At least the reporting seemed to suggest that in Australia the non-AI version was cheaper. I guess this is not the case everywhere then.

I guess that's another way to push adoption, then.

@jbeckers @harrysintonen You probably get a lower price because your employer has an enterprise subscription. This does not apply to "Classic", of course.

@jbeckers
The non-Copilot plan is more expensive for me too (US) because it's the family version, and I get a discount from work, but I don't get that discount for the non-AI version.
@harrysintonen

Wilfried Klaebe Nov 1

@harrysintonen "Pray I don't alter [the plan] further!"

Ashley Cave Nov 1

@harrysintonen this is exactly why I've cancelled my family plan. They upgraded me to the AI subscription earlier in the year and I immediately changed it "back" to the classic plan. Since then I decided to turn off the renewal and stop using it.

Something not fun to fix, was disabling OneDrive backup of library folders (I ended up in the registry to fix the folder locations).

Also, after I turned off auto renew they sent me an email a few minutes later telling me that there would be a price increase in February, and that if I wanted to secure the price I should renew soon.

It's so predatory and the whole AI push has given me the final push to start using Linux as well. I've had enough of companies telling me how I need to use my devices, especially when they can't even make it work well the way they try forcing me.

Pēteris Krišjānis Nov 1

@harrysintonen when board makes such a bad gamble, it will try to do everything including burning company down for that gamble to succeed.

System Adminihater Nov 1

@harrysintonen They could just stop wasting money on GPUs instead

thinkbeforecoding Nov 1

@harrysintonen they did. I had to do the trick to get the same previous price, here in france.but it's clearly the last time.

@harrysintonen When you never plug into these proprietary services you never grow dependent on them. This means never finding a set of features free and open alternatives can't realistically support. I enjoy seeing these issues from the outside, just being a spectator.

I had to deal with them as a sys admin, I always tried to protect my clients as much as possible. Since I saw the true cost every bill for these services I rapidly moved to a full free software stack wherever practical.

Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC Nov 1

@harrysintonen I would never use any kind of software subscription anyway. I want software which I can install once and then use forever. I know many people who still use old machines running ancient versions of Windows, MacOS, or even MS-DOS, in order to use ancient software of all kinds, and many use virtual machines for that when their old PCs or Macs finally break. How dare any software companies make people pay subscription fees to keep using their software? How dare they force them to always use the latest version, forcing them to buy new hardware if their existing machines get too old? I know people who still use Office 97 running on Windows 98 because that's all they need, and if the machine isn't networked, they don't have to worry about security anyway.
So fuck all those greedy bastards at Microsoft or Adobe or whatever, not allowing users to buy software anymore but forcing them to rent it instead, and forcing them to replace perfectly working systems because they are outdated. Fuck DRM, fuck being dependent on external servers, the entire industry can go to hell for all I care. I'm using mostly open source software under Linux and a few Windows applications and games with Wine, some of which are over 25 years old but still work perfectly, even if Windows 11 won't start them anymore.

Gareth Morgan ☕️Nov 1

@harrysintonen Deleted my subscription too, last week. Slowly working my way out of Google too but a bit trickier as it’s tied up in my business stuff. But I’ll get there 🙂

circumspicio Nov 1

@harrysintonen I would recommend looking at LibreOffice as an option instead of renewing with Microsoft. #libreoffice #microsoft https://www.libreoffice.org/

Home | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.

@harrysintonen
User: copilot, explain deceptive and coercive unconscionable corporate conduct and enshitification as a business model.
Copilot: Copilot

@harrysintonen After seeing this post I went to go check and yes, they are pulling this in the EU as well, I am seeing exactly what you describe and I'm in the Netherlands

@harrysintonen These things are not really useful. They'll keep trying until the money dries out.

@harrysintonen Canadian here. They raised the price back in May when my subscription was due up for renewal. When I selected cancel they offered me a plan near the previous rate. If they raise it again in 2026 I'm just going to cancel.

@harrysintonen
Guys, it's time to start voting with your wallet.
Stop using this cr@p!

Paul Hart Nov 2

@harrysintonen and this was what inspired me to go fully into self hosting Nextcloud and Collabora Online (CODE).

Ian Walker Nov 3

@harrysintonen yeah they did in the UK and EU. If I hadn’t logged in to change credit card details I wouldn’t have seen the plan including copilot which I never wanted in the first place. I downgraded to classic and price luckily remained the same as previous years. Bad practice as always from #microsoft

Harry Beard Nov 3

@harrysintonen Every day I feel more inclined to embrace Linux. How odd that most of the motivation is coming from this commercial software company.