Had a discussion with a coworker regarding this, and about how seemingly unnecessarily adversarial MS has become with its users. At first you could choose to only have a local account. Then you had to use a magic key sequence and a command to only use a local account. And I think now even that possibility has been removed? And then there’s the forced default of us8ng one drive, copilot, cortana, and a bunch of other shit.
And as someone else said: The shit is the point. We concluded that MS realized that it’s lagging behind other companies such as Google and Apple when it comes to providing an ecosystem that the user grows dependant on.
And while this strategy could have worked, MS has failed to take three important factors into account:
Most of their users don’t care about an ecosystem. They just want to check their mail and run an installed program or two.
Many of their users are used to having their PC NOT be a part of an ecosystem.
MS ecosystem is absolute dogshit. The o365 is somewhat decent if you’rea corporate user, but anything else provided by Microsoft has a better 3rd party alternative if the user wants it at all.
The OS is not the product anymore. It’s just an attempt at getting you to use their other stuff so that they can lock you in. Why do you think you can now use unlicensed windows with no real downsides? 15 years ago your windows install would refuse to do the tiniest thing without a license, because back then, sell8ng licenses was the business plan. Now they’re selling services so that they can start selling you.
I wish I could discuss things like this at work in a rational way. When I mentioned the Recall feature early on, he told me that sounded “like some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory stuff”.
I sent him a link to a news article that dumbed it down for him. Don’t know if he read it. Don’t care. But the point is, he is who MS is pandering to - the lowest common denominator, basically. The one who screws it all up for the rest of us and the reason we can’t have nice things.
anything else provided by Microsoft has a better 3rd party alternative if the user wants it at all.
Imo this is what has held microsoft back. They never really focused on the user market. All their software is pay-for-me bullshit offering promo prices for user tier education subscriptions that never retain users. Once you’re out of school you’re gonna cancel office sub, pirate it, or simply use google docs because everyone can use it without paying. Office is for businesses only.
Google lets you use their version of office without asking for any money. They give you storage that integrates with it and doesn’t nag you to subscribe or purchase a license to do things and they don’t nag you to use it. Their email is actually good, has good spam protection. You can use google mail for small businesses without issue too whereas hotmail or outlook.com look sketchy by comparison.
Microsoft has had so many missteps in their headlong charge believing they are the only game in town. Android has a bigger market share and a lot of people just use their phone as a computer today on a global scale.
In the US, Apple keeps gaining market share. iOS is the #1 operating system here but fairly neck and neck with windows. MacOS is a little under half of Windows too, so combined Apple is a big majority OS wise. Apple isn’t charging for updates on any of it’s OSes, unlike all of microsoft’s. The mobile hardware division makes way more money than laptops and desktops.
On a long enough of a timeline it seems inevitable that microsoft’s OS marketshare dominance will evaporate. It looks like only MacOS is here today as a realistic alternative since Linux is a steaming hot mess for end user computing.
I would love to see a fly-on-the-wall, step by step, accurate documentary of exactly the series of meetings and communications that lead to these kinds of decisions.
Imo this is what has held microsoft back. They never really focused on the user market. All their software is pay-for-me bullshit offering promo prices for user tier education subscriptions that never retain users. Once you’re out of school you’re gonna cancel office sub, pirate it, or simply use google docs because everyone can use it without paying. Office is for businesses only.
Feels like you missed the point.
Where do those users that graduate go? To work for a business. Microsoft gave them free software so they would become familiar with it when they then move into the business world. They don’t care if they use them outside of school or work, because they make money hand over fist with their business licensing.
Moreover most of the things that you just said about Gmail are true about the free tier for outlook.com. I don’t like having to say good things about Microsoft or Google but in this case you’re definitely wrong.
People are going to use Gmail because they’ve got to make a Google account for Android and YouTube anyway, and no one really cares enough about their iCloud email to use that. Moreover Chrome is still king, and it integrates there (whereas Outlook integrates with Edge).
Microsoft also cares very little what average users are using because they are making money from businesses primarily. Outlook is used the world over, just with custom domains.
I said outlook but I meant hotmail which was the only option until ~2012 for free users, maybe live.com was an alternative too? Gmail was around in 2004. Regardless though i’d say hotmail.com vs outlook.com is the same. A small business using outlook.com looks on par with comcast.com or verizon.com for email. It looks extremely amateur.
Microsoft hosted exchange is not outlook.com to me. By the time you’re big enough to sign up for m365 or just an exchange online plan and get it configured properly you’re probably big enough to also have a custom domain name… and that’s a real low bar.
Microsoft also cares very little what average users are using because they are making money from businesses primarily.
Yep, like oracle. Focus is just on business which misses the great majority of why competitors are successful. Google workspace sucks but makes money because people are familiar with it.
Had a discussion with a coworker regarding this, and about how seemingly unnecessarily adversarial MS has become with its users. At first you could choose to only have a local account. Then you had to use a magic key sequence and a command to only use a local account. And I think now even that possibility has been removed? And then there’s the forced default of us8ng one drive, copilot, cortana, and a bunch of other shit.
And as someone else said: The shit is the point. We concluded that MS realized that it’s lagging behind other companies such as Google and Apple when it comes to providing an ecosystem that the user grows dependant on.
And while this strategy could have worked, MS has failed to take three important factors into account:
The OS is not the product anymore. It’s just an attempt at getting you to use their other stuff so that they can lock you in. Why do you think you can now use unlicensed windows with no real downsides? 15 years ago your windows install would refuse to do the tiniest thing without a license, because back then, sell8ng licenses was the business plan. Now they’re selling services so that they can start selling you.
I wish I could discuss things like this at work in a rational way. When I mentioned the Recall feature early on, he told me that sounded “like some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory stuff”.
I sent him a link to a news article that dumbed it down for him. Don’t know if he read it. Don’t care. But the point is, he is who MS is pandering to - the lowest common denominator, basically. The one who screws it all up for the rest of us and the reason we can’t have nice things.
It sounds like tinfoil hat shit, because it’s just that shitty.
Imo this is what has held microsoft back. They never really focused on the user market. All their software is pay-for-me bullshit offering promo prices for user tier education subscriptions that never retain users. Once you’re out of school you’re gonna cancel office sub, pirate it, or simply use google docs because everyone can use it without paying. Office is for businesses only.
Google lets you use their version of office without asking for any money. They give you storage that integrates with it and doesn’t nag you to subscribe or purchase a license to do things and they don’t nag you to use it. Their email is actually good, has good spam protection. You can use google mail for small businesses without issue too whereas hotmail or outlook.com look sketchy by comparison.
Microsoft has had so many missteps in their headlong charge believing they are the only game in town. Android has a bigger market share and a lot of people just use their phone as a computer today on a global scale.
In the US, Apple keeps gaining market share. iOS is the #1 operating system here but fairly neck and neck with windows. MacOS is a little under half of Windows too, so combined Apple is a big majority OS wise. Apple isn’t charging for updates on any of it’s OSes, unlike all of microsoft’s. The mobile hardware division makes way more money than laptops and desktops.
On a long enough of a timeline it seems inevitable that microsoft’s OS marketshare dominance will evaporate. It looks like only MacOS is here today as a realistic alternative since Linux is a steaming hot mess for end user computing.
I would love to see a fly-on-the-wall, step by step, accurate documentary of exactly the series of meetings and communications that lead to these kinds of decisions.
Feels like you missed the point.
Where do those users that graduate go? To work for a business. Microsoft gave them free software so they would become familiar with it when they then move into the business world. They don’t care if they use them outside of school or work, because they make money hand over fist with their business licensing.
In what world is this true?
Moreover most of the things that you just said about Gmail are true about the free tier for outlook.com. I don’t like having to say good things about Microsoft or Google but in this case you’re definitely wrong.
People are going to use Gmail because they’ve got to make a Google account for Android and YouTube anyway, and no one really cares enough about their iCloud email to use that. Moreover Chrome is still king, and it integrates there (whereas Outlook integrates with Edge).
Microsoft also cares very little what average users are using because they are making money from businesses primarily. Outlook is used the world over, just with custom domains.
I said outlook but I meant hotmail which was the only option until ~2012 for free users, maybe live.com was an alternative too? Gmail was around in 2004. Regardless though i’d say hotmail.com vs outlook.com is the same. A small business using outlook.com looks on par with comcast.com or verizon.com for email. It looks extremely amateur.
Microsoft hosted exchange is not outlook.com to me. By the time you’re big enough to sign up for m365 or just an exchange online plan and get it configured properly you’re probably big enough to also have a custom domain name… and that’s a real low bar.
Yep, like oracle. Focus is just on business which misses the great majority of why competitors are successful. Google workspace sucks but makes money because people are familiar with it.
It’s more simple than that. You can only put so much bloat between a user and a command line.