Microsoft pulls MS365 Business Premium from nonprofits
Microsoft pulls MS365 Business Premium from nonprofits
135 comments
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Let this be a lesson to future communities.
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Lure them in, pull the rug, harvest profits.
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Open office, libre office.
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Actually I think this isn't exactly news. The university I go to, which is technically a foundation, had MS365 pulled last year IIRC and sent us all scrambling to find alternatives.
It didn't bother me too much because I had already fully transitioned to LibreOffice, but my classmates were furious because they didn't want to lose the "seamless online editing experience". I told them to either use LibreOffice or move to Google Docs, but they didn't like the idea and most (if not all) of them purchased MS365 subs. I unfortunately had to budge and get one too, because we needed to get some work done ASAP. I can't wait until I graduate (should be soon-ish?) to stop paying for that crap.
But yeah. IIRC they started by reducing the amount of storage the university got, meaning they had to quickly delete data from past classes (fortunately I managed to back up quite a bit), and then one day they suddenly sent everyone an email saying "you don't have access to MS365 anymore lol get fucked"
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The university having M365 and the students having M365 are not the same thing. Students don’t subscribe to M365 Business because they need word or excel. Students would subscribe to M365 Family or Personal, or just buy office outright. Students get a huge discount too.
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we used google docs alot during my final years in college, why aare they so resistant, its free. libreoffice i havnt touched yet.
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Depending on what you're using it for, the gsuite office alternatives are incredibly feature-sparse. Last I checked, a lot of essential features such as accessibility checking and scripting either have nightmarish implementation, or require third-party addons. It also requires an internet connection and can't save in-progress documents to your local storage.
Honestly the only leg up over the others that I think the GSuite really has is the seamless collaboration features.
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Bit of context:
As such, it is generously removing the ten licenses for Microsoft 365 Business Premium that it previously granted to non-profits. The replacement? "We are transitioning to provide up to 300 licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits."
One could argue that 300 free licenses of Business basic is better than 10 free licenses of Business Premium, especially if the non-profit has more than 10 employees.
A business premium nonprofit license is $5.50 per user per month, so to get it back for those 10 users it would cost them $660.
Business basic was $1 per user per month with the previous non-profit discount.
This means that any non-profit with 55 employees would be no worse off now, but any with more than 55 employees will be better off with the updated plan and discounts.
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Yes, in the number of licenses they will be better off.
But without business premium the loose entra id P1, so lots of functionality will be lost there, and they will loose the windows license premium has, meaning they will either have to buy windows licenses or switch to Linux to be compliant on their devices.
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This hits nearly all my local community centers since they're not massive. Each one I can think of has 10-30 employees.
I can see it being a decent move with the 75% discount on other products.
Start with the free basic and add on for the rest.
Business premium includes things like intune and defender for laptops. So doing a 75% off add-on wouldn't break the bank.
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I wish I had fuck you money. I'd use it to bankroll the development of LibreOffice and all the other alternatives to MS365 and get them integrated. Then I'd start a massive training program to teach people how to use them.
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The french government is kinda doing that right now
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Libre le France
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waow
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I wish LibreOffice would do what OnlyOffice did and update their interface to something more modern. That, or I wish OnlyOffice would stop being so Russian.
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Bootstraps, folks! Microsoft is basically BEGGING you to try Linux, and it's now easier than ever - even easier than installing Windows!
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Unfortunately the inevitable enshitification of our lives by capitalism will continue, even if we remove it from our lives as much as we are able.
What microsoft does to its products, it also does to our governments and civil liberties, social media does to society and democracy, data brokers do to privacy, zillow does to housing security, wallstreet does to economic mobility and financial regulations, etc, etc, etc.
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What exactly does Linux offer that M365 does? Linux is an operating system, not a full suite of business management software.
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Ackshually Linux is a kernel.
If you take "Linux" broadly, you could piece together a business management stack.
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Yeah, but non profits are bullshit in almost every instance. From the guy running a women's homeless shelter near me that has 6 rooms but never has more than 2 occupied, one 9f which has lived there for years and seems very "friendly" with the guy running it, while he denies everyone else that tries to get in the place, but keeps collecting money, to all the large non profits that pay their people running it hundreds of thousands a year.
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LibreOffice
And perfectly working software that covers whatever else MS365 offers, e.g. Thunderbird
I'd love for more people to change to Linux, but these are all (also) Windows software.
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Yeah office isn’t the what orgs care about losing with this change. Business premium was the lowest cost license option available to non-profits that allowed access to identity management using entra.
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That’s the real story here.
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Identity and access management ensures that the right people, machines, and software components get access to the right resources at the right time. First, the person, machine, or software component proves they're who or what they claim to be. Then, the person, machine, or software component is allowed or denied access to or use of certain resources.
So that's what's that called. Is that also what tracks who access what and when?
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And if you need it in a browser, there is Collabora, which exists as a paid business version with support or a free non-support version, that can easily be deployed with Nextcloud. Another alternative would be CryptPad.
If you also need your mails in your browser, there are multiple providers like mailbox.org that offer mail encryption even through the online mail interface.
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Sometimes I find myself annoyed by Lemmy users. We love to tout foss alternatives, even when they don't work as well, or aren't nearly as polished.
Libre office is a different story, it has everything you'll need, it's really complete, it does everything you want and it can read any format you throw at it and save its output in any format you need. It launches faster than Microsoft office, it's more stable, I really have absolutely no complaints, everyone should be using it.
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Libre doesn't support IDM, nor provide email, nor MFA, nor CAM, nor MDM, nor storage.
M365 Business Premium is a LOT more than Office Documents.
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Microsoft 365 Business Basic gives you all this:
Plan highlights:
- Identity and access management for up to 300 users
- Web and mobile versions3 of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- Custom business email (youyourbusiness.com)
- Chat, call, and video conference with Microsoft Teams
- 1 TB of cloud storage per employee
- 10+ additional apps for your business needs (including Microsoft Bookings, Planner, and Forms)
- AI chat experience with web grounding, writing assistance, data analysis, and access to agents4
- Automatic spam and malware filtering
- Anytime phone and web support
LibreOffice gives you ………. 1 of those bullet points lol. Not really a like for like replacement is it?
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Does it support macros?
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GNOME Evolution is also a good outlook alternative and am pretty sure it was made as a open source alternative to outlook
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Has it gotten a makeover yet? Last time I used it ~3 years ago it still looked like it was built in the early 90s.
It was functional, not a complaint about that. The super old design just got on my nerves.
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Outlook alternatives are irrelevant when you don’t have your own email address. Microsoft 365 gives your company your corporate email.
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I use evolution! It has some advantages over thunderbird but afaik it's *nix only.
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And if you need a more MS Office like feel: Use Softmaker.
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Thankfully libreoffice
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Google offers workspace for free to nonprofits, Including device management. No one, I know in nonprofits even fucks with Microsoft because they’re so ridiculous. Now it’ll be even less people.
Google now has the market cornered because they aren’t as greedy.
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Google is so fuckin greedy lmao
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Yes, but it's essentially the difference between the greed of an ancient red wyrm, (Microsoft) and an adolescent white wyrm. (Alphabet)
The white guy is almost a cutie next to the red one. They're still both chromatic dragons, and therefore evil. One is just leaning more towards lawful evil, and the other seems to have embraced chaotic evil
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Google offered Workspace free to individuals. I set that up and used it for my family, and then BAM! After a lomg time using it, they removed the free plan, once we were using it for logins for a bunch of sites and for our emails. Went from free to $50 per month. It took a LOT of effort to get my family off of that. Never again.
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Ah cool Google. We’re all set then. Totally different…
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Google now has the market cornered because they aren’t as greedy.
honestly cant tell if this is satire. my university is currently purging google storage as fast as we can because they altered the licening once we were fully invested. and that was before they started screwing around with licensing language around their Ai. the google mdm is an absolute joke. not even my orgs own google team reccomends it and their jobs depend on google being used. i'd use the vmware nightmare formerly known as airwatch over google mdm.
google is exactly this greedy.
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Hey remember when Google used to have a motto, "Don't be evil"?
Used to.
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Sure, once, but that... Was a long time ago
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This article clearly states that this non-profit switched to MS specifically because Google changed their non-profit plans to be paid.
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I don't know where you're based, but I work in a international NGO and the majority are in the MS ecosystem. Same with many midsized NGOs in Sweden.
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They aren't as greedy yet. It will come.
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I've read horror stories of an employee doing something on their own personal account and Google locking out the whole business. Hopefully they fixed that idea because it would sink business uptake.
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So that's why Gates said he would donate money once he dies
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I don't trust any of these "giving pledges" upon death. In name, their fortunes will pass on to nonprofits. Nonprofits controlled by their family members, which comes down to letting them keep their inheritances tax-free. This even happens in Europe.
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thats how he does it.
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Yup it's mostly bullshit. Someone, somewhere might benefit, but certainly not any of the people within two thousands miles of where the rich guy lived. Which is still better than nothing, but Bill Gates could end homelessness in America immediately if he chose to do so. (I'm not saying it would be easy or fast, just that he has the money to make it happen.) He could make ALL COLLEGE FREE for students. Musk could have too, likely for less than he spent on Twitter.
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Now now, it's not like they get the whole inheritance. It's more like they get cushy overpaid non-work jobs to manage or consult for the non-profit.
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If old rich fucks had giving in their hearts, they would want to see some good shit done with the fruits of their “labor” (lol) while they are alive.
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Yep. Look at Patagonia.
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hes just trying to "clean up his image" of being a ruthless businessman in the 80s and 90s, he still is, even his foundation is questionable, remember the vaccines, he lobbied it so the poorer countries are forced to buy the usa/western versions, and cant make similar ones. warren isnt a saint either, but i dint hear much negative things about yet.
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He said that he was giving away 99%+ 30 years ago, it's just publicity stunts, or as Kyrgizon explains below they "give" things to nonprofits that they control. Why? They no longer pay taxes. So nice!
Bill gates is another billionaire mentally ill evil crap person, no different than elon or zuckenberg etc.
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hes a billionaire, with a veneer of "philantrophy", which means hes not genuine. there were plenty of ytbers that are like this had a veneer of progressivism, while turning hard right in the end.
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Bill gates has already given away tens of billions of dollars. There’s no reason to believe he won’t give away the whole lot.
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Microsoft has no soul. I'm going to guess that Google will follow suit. There is no class solidarity quite like corporate class solidarity. Fuck all these companies.
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Google did it first according to the article, that’s why this non-profit moved to MS.
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Lol. When will they learn?
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scream in John Malkovich's voice:
"FUCK MICROSOFT"
On the flip side, please keep digging yourself in a hole, Microsoft. More incentive to join Linux for us users.
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Team america screams join you
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Yesterday, I finally talked my parents into canceling MS356 and switching to LibreOffice and Thunderbird.
Now, the excessive subscription fees for MS365 goes to them instead.
If Microsoft keeps this up, I might even manage to persuade them to switch to Linux at some point.
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Yet again, I laugh, and remark 'People still use Windows? People still use MSFT products?'
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Sadly. An example: I work at a small school that does not have an IT department. Staff and teachers are nearly IT-illiterate, and the students can hardly be coaxed to do stuff on a laptop instead of their phones. So installing Linux would add an additional hurdle for both. Probably much smaller than they think, but still: it heightens the threshold to even consider switching to Linux.
There's a few people who know that Linux is just as valid as Windows, but who would they trust to make the switch safely. Me? I'm not a professional. So they'd have to pay someone, properly. And then it all comes down to money again which usually comes down to "let's not change anything".
So for now I'd just be happy if they used LibreOffice instead of MS365.
The same goes for Google Workspace. Making the effort to roll your own (totally possible with FOSS) would require to pay at least 1 person, and some sort of transitional period. It's cheaper and easier to pay none and just blame it on Google when things don't work as desired. These people just don't see it as a priority. Don't understand the dangers.
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teachers dint go to school for tech, i would give them a pass.
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Yep.
MSFT will continue to enshittify, people who point out this will happen will be poo-poo'd because switching would be complicated and costly...
... But, having to panic switch sometime down the road, because an entire class of software features or pricing models drastically alter with little warning...
... Well then, in the long run, it would have been less costly to start the migration strategy earlier.
I have seen this play out at every single company or non profit I have ever worked at, and I have learned to leave about 6 months after a planned migration/mitigation strategy gets canned as too costly and unnecessary... because usually, 6 months or so after that, every one is now in panic mode, and my workload would triple.
Including literally at MSFT itself.
The managers and corporate don't know anything other than maximize short term profits, and have astounding levels of normalcy bias; even if you can present a well resesrched, realistic scenario with detailed costs over time for different strategies... they basically always assume things will just be fine, untill its far too late.
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Was gonna say this is exactly why Chromebooks and Google docs is popular.
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LibreOffice is not a replacement for M365 though, it’s a replacement for Office. M365 is not just office.
LibreOffice doesn’t give every user 1TB of cloud storage space. It doesn’t give you a company email address and management tools for users. It doesn’t give you 95% of what M365 does.
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There's really no competitor for large orgs with robust technology needs.
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Yeah. They honestly get what they deserve at this point.
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Especially when you can use literally any other word process and program and save in Microsoft document formats.
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lame. The web versions suck.
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I thought from the headline that it was just a downgrade to Business Standard, no this is to Business Basic! That's a huge yikes, it's so much harder to be productive in those web versions.
I honestly would not be surprised if users work out installing LibreOffice et al. so they can still have a desktop app experience because of this move.
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Micropenis still thinking they can use their "monopoly" to their advantage is cute. Js giving Linux and other competitors a higher marketshare for free
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But can you also get all the enterprise features they have with Linux? Like, backups, mobile device management, identity and access management, MFA? All integrated tightly and easily deployable from a portal?
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Of course not.
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That's the thing, I wish we could just switch all enterprises to Linux, but Microsoft developed a huge ecosystem that really does have good features. Unless something comparable comes up in the Linux world, I don't see Europe becoming independent of Microsoft any time soon
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MS13?
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Might as well pay up, what are you going to do learn something slightly different?
135 comments