I heard that Microsoft was shoehorning its Copilot AI stuff into Microsoft 365 (née Office 365) because of course it was. AI for all, whether you want it or not!
But then I saw reports that Microsoft 365 plans were also going up in price. Indeed, when I checked my account, my $109/year package was going to be billed at $145 in April when it renewed. This is a substantial increase. The internet advised me that if I cancelled my current subscription, I would then be offered a “classic” version of my plan, without AI, for the previous $109 price. And lo, there it was:
To be clear, it is exactly the same plan I have now, just renamed. Microsoft moved me off that plan and to the new, more expensive “Microsoft 365 Family” plan, acting as if nothing had changed, just a simple (large) price increase.
It’s shady, it’s scummy, and it’s exactly what I expect of Microsoft these days.
My solution is to go back to storing everything locally and having backups available through my NAS, which will function almost as well as OneDrive would have, anyway.
Congrats, Microsoft, in your bid to shove AI down my throat and get more money from me, you will soon be getting none!
