Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying • Hacker News Board

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#581

Post by tristan957 » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:06 AM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #449

fooey wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The frustrating thing is I think many of us would be perfectly happy paying for a custom domain in plain old regular gmail, but $6 per month per user is waaaay too expensive when all we care about is email.

I think I pay $60/year for Protonmail, and at least $30/year for my email forwarding service. $72/year for gmail seems reasonable given it includes drive.

Your ProtonMail account most likely includes access to ProtonDrive. Proton's services are also encrypted at rest. So for cheaper, you support a company fighting for user privacy. $72 for GMail is unreasonable considering you are also the product by merely hosting your data with Google.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#582

Post by fencepost » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:16 AM UTC

rajup wrote: post #559

GeekyBear wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're complaining that a service you use all the time for a decade for free now might cost the equivalent of a cup of coffee per month? People always complain about bait and switch tactics. Give them a way to revert to a free personal account without losing access to their files, data, and any digital goods they may have purchased and let them decide if they want to covert to a paid account or not.

You can always use Google Takeout so you don't lose access to your files.

You can always use Google Takeout so you don't lose access to your files.

Does Google Takeout allow you to download de-DRMed media you've paid for through Google properties? Provide functional APKs of paid Android apps that will continue working without an active and functional Google account?

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#583

Post by pathartl » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:19 AM UTC

addicted wrote: post #525

wdtrsd wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are reddit posts showing how to bypass the Godaddy requirement. I used them to setup Office 365 for my family. I have since moved the family emails to icloud mail since we already pay for icloud+ and I get multiple domain support, and aliases.

If I was starting off afresh I certainly wouldn't do that. All it takes is for some partnership manager who deals with the GoDaddy rep to get enough pressure put on them about this for the workarounds to become impossible within a few weeks. And unlike most other things, this being unofficial, there need not even be an announcement with a few weeks to months of transition time. You'll just wake up overnight and it's…

While purely anecdotal, mine's been working for over two years using a .tl tld.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#584

Post by z0f » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

pronoiac wrote: post #558

yannikyeo wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iCloud+ purelymail mxroute Migadu Mailbox.org

I've had exploring mxroute as a low-priority todo item for a while, I like that pricing is roughly per gigabyte, not per domain or per user. Do you use it? Does it deliver to gmail and others ok, or does it go to spam?

I've used it for years, no issues with delivery to gmail or outlook.com / o365. They've got a bit about their delivery system mentioned here: https://mxroute.com/docs/#/Presales/ipreputation

It's pretty basic in terms of webmail/core functionality but it receives and delivers mail well from the various IMAP clients I use, which is all I need.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#585

Post by jrochkind1 » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:23 AM UTC

angus-prune wrote: post #396

ryandvm wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same boat. I set up a Google domain for family many years ago. It's been somewhat convenient when it comes to sharing Google docs with each other and managing their email accounts for them, but that's about it. Everything else has been a continual pain in the ass. So many services are not supported by the custom Google domains or if we're lucky we get access years after they're introduced. It's always been remarkable…

I've dug into this through the documentation and in discussions with workspace support and its not as bad as we fear, at least in terms of purchases. If you cancel your workspace account, then the individual user accounts will still have access to non-workspace services [0], which importantly includes Google Play and all access to your purchases will be retained. Any other google services which aren't core apps will…

> Since the account exists, it cannot be used to sign up for a free personal account, and you can never use google docs or have google docs shared with any former GFYD account.

OK, that's actually terrible.

Is there any way to delete the account and start fresh clean slate, so you can use that email address for an ordinary free google account that's just like any other?

The whole reason I had a custom domain was to be able to keep it even if I switched my email provider, of course. I planned to use this email address for everything forever.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#586

Post by richardw » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:24 AM UTC

That’s about the last shred of trust. I was such a fanboy for so long.

I’ve paid Google a lot of money when the price on the tin was upfront. I’ve used the free services as well. They generated huge goodwill and lock-in all over the place. Now it’s an extraction machine to pump the stock price and I’ll treat them like that.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#587

Post by richardw » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:29 AM UTC

l33tman wrote: post #485

theossuary wrote: post #226

I'm definitely getting screwed over by this. I've hosted close friend's and family's email for a decade now on an old G Apps instance. We only ever used it for email on a custom domain. It was most useful because I could reset passwords for them if they forgot it. Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do. Microsoft's Family offering is way better (not saying much considering Google doesn't have one). Right now…

You're complaining that a service you use all the time for a decade for free now might cost the equivalent of a cup of coffee per month? I'm all about Google being evil and all that, but spending valuable aggression on this seems a bit excessive.. The Google Takeout system gives you all of your email in a format you might be able to import into another system?

The account that locked them into Google for a decade? Yes. No competitor could begin to attempt to sell a new service against free. Now the social contract is switching after all the baiting and it’s money time.

It’s typical in SaaS to grandfather in old accounts. You take the hit because your later client base is so much bigger, and why not keep your early adopters sweet. Google has calculated the value of those early adopters and decided it’s worth it. Wait until customers have too much to lose and then yank the fishing line. “You call them early adopters? We call them freeloaders.”

This is why I use an iPhone. I pay the money and I get to keep (mostly) my data. Google, you give away your data and pay nothing. Now you give data and you pay? Ick. If Apple starts giving away my data I’d be equally pissed.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#588

Post by Aloha » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:30 AM UTC

mgraczyk wrote: post #49

I'm a Google employee who just found out about this. I'm not annoyed that I have to pay, it's been ~13 years of free service and I don't think Google is obligated to continue providing this to me. The annoying part is that Google doesn't provide any migration tool, but there are migration tools for Google Edu accounts so that graduating students can migrate their data to personal Google accounts. The software is evid…

Look, I'd gladly pay something but 60 dollars per month, every month? I'd be happy to pay 120 dollars a year for the service I'm getting now. Like one of the parallel commenters, I have given out accounts on my domain.

I dont really need any more service than I have now, I don't need the full google workspace, I just want gmail on my custom domain, thats all really.

The most annoying parts of this, google, the company that hosts my email, couldn't even be bothered to send me an email about this, I instead found out about it on the front page of HN.

So now I need to figure out how to migrate out, because if I move my email, I have to move my entire google account, my email, domain hosting/registration, youtube account, everything, I have no way to port the data over even to a regular account.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#589

Post by Aloha » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:38 AM UTC

nighthawk454 wrote: post #313

area51org wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not roped in (good, albeit not free, alternatives exist), but yeah, this is just a fuckover. I've been paying google for GDrive for some time now, and that's about to end. It's back to Dropbox. I know, I don't have to do this, but the hell with google. I'm done. This is nothing short of a needless f---over, and I want as little to do with them as possible.

Not _absolutely_ roped in, but practically, yes. The cost of switching is ridiculously higher than the cost of just paying up - it's not a realistic option. Which, considering they also control how hard it is to switch, is a bit artificial. It would be a little different if they did this to _everyone_ and completely removed the free @gmail plans. But instead they're targeting GSuite users when @gmail plans are _right…

I will literally go pay someone else more money a year, than pay google for the same services, because of how difficult they make it difficult to migrate my data out.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#590

Post by jrochkind1 » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 4:40 AM UTC

cstejerean wrote: post #573

jrochkind1 wrote: post #570

Uh oh, I think I have one of these. I somehow have my own custom domain pointing to gmail, for free, that I don't actually remember how I even got it, I've had it for years, but never have paid for it. That's all I do with this... whatever it is, email on a custom domain, I don't use anything else. I didn't receive any email this morning notifying me about it though. I guess maybe it's finally time to move to fastmai…

You should be able to use IMAP to move things over.

I'm trying to figure out, if I sign up for a fastmail account @mycustomdomain, which is what my "legacy g suite" also uses... I guess I can probably still transfer over with IMAP before I change the MX and try to cancel the google "legacy g suite" account.

It's pretty confusing.

I wonder if I can manage to create an "ordinary" google account with the same email address afterwards.