After 'Copilot Price Hike' for Microsoft 365, It's Ending Its Free VPN (windowscentral.com) 27
In 2023, Microsoft began including a free VPN feature in its "Microsoft Defender" security app for all Microsoft 365 subscribers ("Personal" and "Family"). Originally Microsoft had "called it a privacy protection feature," writes the blog Windows Central, "designed to let you access sensitive data on the web via a VPN tunnel." But....
Unfortunately, Microsoft has now announced that it's killing the feature later this month, only a couple of years after it first debuted...
To add insult to injury, this announcement comes just days after Microsoft increased subscription prices across the board. Both Personal and Family subscriptions went up by three dollars a month, which the company says is the first price hike Microsoft 365 has seen in over a decade. The increased price does now include Microsoft 365 Copilot, which adds AI features to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and others.
However, it also comes with the removal of the free VPN in Microsoft Defender, which I've found to be much more useful so far.
To add insult to injury, this announcement comes just days after Microsoft increased subscription prices across the board. Both Personal and Family subscriptions went up by three dollars a month, which the company says is the first price hike Microsoft 365 has seen in over a decade. The increased price does now include Microsoft 365 Copilot, which adds AI features to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and others.
However, it also comes with the removal of the free VPN in Microsoft Defender, which I've found to be much more useful so far.
Who wants their useless AI? (Score:5, Insightful)
When it comes to the price hike, meh, it's bad software, from a company who doesn't and will never care about customers, security, integrity, or customer value. If you need Office, LibreOffice, if you want security, while, start by removing Windows, then build your own tool stack, or just grab one of the excellent open and free offerings. I can't recommend a single stack for security, but many great options exist if you use DuckDuckGo to search them up.
After careful consideration and consultation with our higher management team, we regret to inform you that our current systems do not support PGP encryption. Despite our best efforts to explore this option, we are unable to provide this service at this time.
That's part of an email Microsoft sent me last week, they don't support PGP? PGP is the global open standard for identity validation, and email security. Microsoft loves to double down on not caring about important security features, and waxes poetic about being careless, it's mind-boggling. That's one in a long series of emails, going over the course of years. There was much more to the email, but the summary is they don't, won't, and can't support the global standard identity validation and email security. Microsoft doesn't and won't care, so fuck them.
Re:Who wants their useless AI? (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a use for AI, specifically OpenAI's. I have a ton of legacy code written in (of all languages) Forth. This is for embedded devices and it's complicated by control loops that are written in machine language in order to keep the performance up on these controllers with low cost industrial grade CPU's. The code is pretty slick all things considered, but it's a really hard to maintain mess mostly because I'm not a Forth programmer, and especially with the machine language stuff in there it's complicated.
About a month ago I embarked on a journey to re-code all our software in C. ChatGPT (paid) has been incredibly useful in both helping me understand what's going on in the Forth code, and helping to translate it into C. The new code usually isn't compile-ready but it's close enough that it just takes a few changes and I can compile and burn to the controller. Yes, I actually can have it translate the code directly into a compile-ready version but learning the process and learning how the code translates has been incredibly useful in helping me with the old Forth code and has also helped me find fixes and optimizations that mean the new C code runs better on the same hardware than the Forth stuff did.
So yeah... one good use for AI. There ARE good uses for it but it's a tool like any other. It's also great for help with writing, especially formal writing.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft sucks, Remember Office95 upgrade to 97 (Score:2)
Tariffs = Boycott (Score:2)
I was already going to drop O365 due to the price hike and their dark patterns to âoedowngradeâ to the package I signed up for, but now I will also be boycotting all US companies due to the orange idiot tariffs on Canada.
70% of US citizens let this happen. Fuck you guys.
Re: Tariffs = Boycott (Score:2)
70%? Not even 50% of voters who went to the polls voted for the new administration...
Re: (Score:2)
The problem will migrate so that it won't just be because of the current alleged administration. Now countries are going consider that maybe the problem isn't that significant pop. of Americans voted for that moron as a one-off, it will be that a significant pop. of Americans cannot be depended upon to support democracy.
And any foreign country will now consider a trade deal with the U.S. as being ephemeral and subject to change given the zephyrs wafting through a president's head. That will also extend to d
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm still a bit confused on how we can tariff Mex/Can. Didn't we sign NAFTA?
By declaring fentanyl an "emergency", Trump can override USMCA (nee NAFTA) by executive order.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm still a bit confused on how we can tariff Mex/Can. Didn't we sign NAFTA?
As I understand it, Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs, despite the USMCA (NAFTA's replacement, although it pretty much is just NAFTA2.0). Canada and Mexico have already promised to retaliate, and depending on what they do farmers in the Midwest could take a double hit as gas prices go up and they lose Canadian markets for their goods.
And weirdly to me, China is getting a better deal than our friends. Could it be musk wants to hurt gm/F since they use more of Mex/Can parts than leon? Could leon be planning on importing Beijing cars? Inquiring minds.
The 10% is on top of existing tariffs.
Or is trump just bat shit crazy attacking friends (democratic) and sucking up to dictators out of envy?
Panama, probably one of our best allies in Central America, has already said if the US tries t
Re: (Score:2)
oh please. People believed America was as feckless as it was fickle going back to the moment they watched people fall to their deaths clinging to airplane landing gear in Afghanistan.
Re: (Score:2)
Total turnout in 2024 was 63.7%. Trump won 49.8% of those votes. I believe the OP's point is that 70% (to be precise 68%) of the voters that could've voted against Trump didn't.
Re: Tariffs = Boycott (Score:1)
But do we still Stand with Ukraine? I really need to know, my democracy is threatened!
Re: Tariffs = Boycott (Score:2)
Useful VPN? (Score:2)
The "free VPN" is available in a small number of countries, none of them being the ones where you really want a VPN, doesn't let you specify the exit point (presumably in the same country), is limited to 50 GB/month, and doesn't work with the most popular streaming services. It is designed *not* to be useful for what most people use personal VPNs for.
And it is not like what they offer is special, there are already plenty of free VPN options with less restrictions.
The only thing it is supposed to do is (part
Re: Useful VPN? (Score:2)
I stopped using M$Office years ago (Score:2)
I've been using Libreoffice happily and haven't felt the need to consume any Microsoft products for quite some time. One of these days, one would hope that my employer clues in and does the same.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Libreoffice happily and haven't felt the need to consume any Microsoft products for quite some time. One of these days, one would hope that my employer clues in and does the same.
I used to recommend open office suites to friends who had kids heading to college since they did everything most students needed, unless it was some MSOffice only thing, usually in Excel. Now, many schools include MSOffice as part of the tuition so people just go with it.
I use MSOffice simply because that's what clients use and I need to ensure 100% compatibility and unfortunately no open office suite has that. so they are no goes. MSOffice has won the business use battle, all that's left are guerrilla ac
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Libreoffice happily and haven't felt the need to consume any Microsoft products for quite some time. One of these days, one would hope that my employer clues in and does the same.
I used to recommend open office suites to friends who had kids heading to college since they did everything most students needed, unless it was some MSOffice only thing, usually in Excel. Now, many schools include MSOffice as part of the tuition so people just go with it.
I use MSOffice simply because that's what clients use and I need to ensure 100% compatibility and unfortunately no open office suite has that. so they are no goes. MSOffice has won the business use battle, all that's left are guerrilla actions...
I really love Microsoft office for Linux. 100 percent compatible among all operating systems. My Linux customers just can't say enough about how great it is.
Anyhow, You will accept whatever Microsoft says you will accept, and you will be happy with it.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Libreoffice happily and haven't felt the need to consume any Microsoft products for quite some time. One of these days, one would hope that my employer clues in and does the same.
Cue the people who bring up some never used feature of Microsoft office and complain, But LibreOffice doesn't have something something, something.
Now cue me up asking what the Microsoft office does to handle identical results across Windows Mac, and Linux?
Crickets, or the never clever "Well, don't let people use Linux! "Don't worry about the Mac Version not being 100 percent compatible!"
Ive designed systems that use all three. One of the Open suites (I lean toward Libre) is it.
Re: (Score:2)
excel is vastly better able to handle anything more than a handful of rows than Libreoffice. Libreoffice will slow to an absolute crawl, if it's usable at all, with just a few hundred to a few thousand rows of data.
AI (Score:1)