Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 591 posts

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#151

Post by Yeul »

hedora wrote: post #117
Toutouxc wrote: post #86

I understand people who love Apple (or the OSS world) unconditionally and I understand people who hate either, but I find it hard to feel any kind of strong emotion towards Microsoft. Feels like there isn’t a single product person left in the company, no vision, no direction, no soul, no plan, nothing.

It switched from being a software company to a cloud provider about 10 years ago. Things like Azure, LinkedIn and GitHub are where the focus is, since they have recurring revenue and also help them build their surveillance apparatus. Windows and Office are legacy monopoly products, so all you’re going to see from those divisions are price hikes and more mandatory surveillance. Edit: VS Code is an interesting play. It…

Well there is only so much you can do with Word and Outlook.

Let's be real the difference between Office 2024 and Office 2019 are largely cosmetic. That stuff stopped being exciting a long time ago.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#152

Post by phren0logy »

rUsHeYaFuBu wrote: post #7
phren0logy wrote: post #2

Given how hard Microsoft is leaning into AI, and how important Office 365 is, the Copilot for 365 is shockingly bad.

I think these things have potential to improve over time. If nothing else I do like being able to get a relative quick explanation for how to change some obscure or minute functionality in the Windows OS. Now, would it be better if the Win OS, by default wasn't obnoxiously in the way with the pretense of being "simpler"? Yes! At least there are some truly free OS's out there that keep the interface consistent through…

I'm sure it will improve over time. I'm just surprised it was as bad as it was at launch, and has improved minimally.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#153

Post by jay_kyburz »

evanelias wrote: post #141
munchler wrote: post #6

My problem with this isn't the price increase. It's the blurring of what used to be a clearly understandable suite of products (e.g. Office) and services (e.g. OneDrive) into a soup of weird AI and cloud stuff that all goes under a single unhelpful name (Copilot). My mental model of what I'm actually purchasing is broken in this new paradigm.

> that all goes under a single unhelpful name (Copilot) This isn't even a new dumb move for Microsoft. In the early 2000s, they applied the .NET brand to lots of random things that were completely unrelated to the runtime/framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET_strategy

They are doing the same thing to Xbox right now. Really working hard to kill the brand.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#154

Post by _rupertius »

for_i_in_range wrote: post #8

Hate that if you use Word for Mac, you now have Copilot next to your cursor with no way of turning it off. I just want to use Word. I like its print layout features better than Pages. I don't want to switch. Just let me write and leave me alone. Now they're jamming AI down my throat without any opt-out mechanism.

For those trying to work out an alternative, I've found OnlyOffice desktop to be pretty good – it's quite similar to the Microsoft products, and fully compatible, but free.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#155

Post by Keyframe »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #149
infecto wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MacOS copilot implementation is horrid. Takes up a significant amount of screen space just to offer a summary of the email. Cannot turn off. For whatever reason cannot be a simple button with pop up on click. It’s horrid.

I can't think of an email I have ever received that needed to be summarized? Who is writing these super long emails?

sometimes, super long email threads in corps

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#156

Post by jay_kyburz »

mrweasel wrote: post #124
pylua wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was it Microsoft 365 in the first place? Does it not work on leap days ?

Good question, 360 would have been better, full circle coverage of all your (office) productivity needs.

Then the next version would have been Microsoft One.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#157

Post by mjburgess »

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #27

For those just skimming the article and who haven't heard, as an existing subscriber to Microsoft 365, you can switch to the Classic variant without AI and without the price increase, by clicking on "Cancel subscription" on your account page and selecting Classic. ...at least for now...

Upvoted because it's an actually helpful comment -- I've just downgraded mine to classic. I dont need to pay for several AI subscriptions -- they all do the same thing.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#158

Post by dingaling »

msh wrote: post #58
whalesalad wrote: post #13

I don't think Microsoft has created a single novel or useful thing in the last 30 years, with the exception of vscode.

I dont like windows these days but I still think they have made several useful things in the last 30 years: C#/.NET Windows 95 Windows 2000 Windows XP WSL SQL server for a start.

I'll credit them for Windows NT, that was a solid system ( though developed mainly by ex-DEC staff ).

SQL Server was originally licensed from Sybase.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#159

Post by gopher_space »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #103
alangibson wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's not weird to be upset by a button which is entirely useless to the functionality of the product, and exists only to add politicization where there needs to be none. In fact, it's shameful that Microsoft did this. Let's put it this way: if the button was for something you didn't agree with - say, it was a button for "show your support for the sanctity of marriage", would you blithely say "there are lots of button…

I don't know, the existence of that button seems like a great way to get the "empathy is a sin" folks to self-identify. I'll need that information moving forward because that's a massive red line in my religion.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#160

Post by n144q »

rsolva wrote: post #34

A lot of people use Microsofts products out of old habit and because they are simply not aware of any alternatives. I have helped alot of people try LibreOffice, which offers everything they need from their office suit. Most people also like that LibreOffice looks like what Word and Excel looked like before Microsoft changed up the menu system.

I am not a power user by any means. In fact I use Word and Excel maybe no more than 5 times a year for both professional and personal use. Yet I quickly run into things that are not well supported in other word processor/spreadsheet applications and need to go back to Office.
Post reply on HN