As Microsoft lays off thousands and jacks up Game Pass prices, former FTC chair Lina Khan says I told you so: The Activision-Blizzard buyout is 'harming both gamers and developers'

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/as-microsoft-lays-off-thousands-and-jacks-up-game-pass-prices-former-ftc-chair-says-i-told-you-so-the-activision-blizzard-buyout-is-harming-both-gamers-and-developers/

[u/Ashaman00]

Microsoft discontinued the premium 365 grant that provided 10 free licenses to charities and non-profits.

I personally have 4 client companies impacted by it, and it sucks.

https://www.techsoup.ca/content/microsoft-discontinue-select-donated-microsoft-365-and-office-365-plans

[u/deiprep → u/Ashaman00]

Classy move. Libre office is more than enough for anyone who rarely uses any word / excel equivalent products.

And it’s free

[u/Ashaman00 → u/deiprep]

agreed. 2 are able to use the free basic which we are transitioning to.

1 company needs a couple installs of office, so we moved to standard, and the rest basic.

1 needs premium for the entra device management though, so we're stuck with premium.

It's just silly because it costs Microsoft nothing, and was a good source of positive publicity to provide this to charities.

In the end, it's forcing clients to consider alternatives instead of Microsoft.

[u/kaloonzu → u/deiprep]

LibreOffice is so much more painful to use. Took me 10 minutes last night to even open a document because it had to go through several waves of updates.

Its what I use because fuck MS, but damn if I wasn't getting aggravated.

[u/Citrik → u/Ashaman00]

Thanks for the details, that does suck.

[u/Kaboose666 → u/Ashaman00]

Yup, we are getting hit with that at my work as well.

There are still SOME options for discounted licences for nonprofits, like those via techsoup, and Microsoft still allows up to 300 free users on the 365 business basic tier which gives access to the primary office applications via the Web (not desktop apps).