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

9to5google.com

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

#341

Post by isodude »

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…

Shameless plug but https://epostflytt.se is a online mail transfer tool. Coming to think about it we should add calendar and contacts as well.

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

#342

Post by easton »

donmcronald wrote: post #327
SergeAx wrote: post #275

I don't know if it was inevitable, but I do not share a sentiment here. Supporting domain mail with web interface and services around is costs resources, and Google have no obligation spending it forever. It was a nice gift and I feel grateful. I also feel it is a perfect time to try out new CloudFlare's domain email forwarding service, while it is free.

It costs more for a single user on Google Workspace or MS365 than it used to cost for shared hosting that came with 50-Unlimited email accounts. Small businesses that only need email are getting royally screwed by big tech. Everything is more complex, has no additional features, and is a solid 10x what it should actually cost once you have 10+ users on email. And before anyone chimes in about needing to deal with bac…

You get Exchange with the Microsoft offering, which offers things like (good) calendars and contacts, and push email to your mobile phone, which you could do with IMAP but many of those shared hosting platforms didn't have to begin with.

Exchange is $1 per month, which is perhaps a little more than shared hosting but you get way more features.

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

#343

Post by Normille »

Normille wrote: post #2

Is this for real? I've not received that email from Google. If so, I guess it's time to setup my own mailserver. I've been meaning to do it for a long while now anyway, as I'm not comfortable with the thought that Google is data-harvesting all my and my family's emails. But with mailservers being notoriously difficult to setup and configure securely, I keep putting it off. Time to get reading a few tutorials, methink…

UPDATE: Well, I've still not received that email from Google and, when I log into my Gsuite admin account, it's still showing "You are on the G Suite legacy free-of-charge edition. Consider upgrading to Google Workspace Business Starter." at the top of the Admin Console page. And, underneath:

Plan details

Payment plan -- Free plan

Licences -- 88 available, 12 assigned

Estimated monthly bill --Free edition (no charges)

So, either that article was a spoof, or Google are rolling this out gradually.

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

#344

Post by theossuary »

wffurr wrote: post #314
someguydave wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you migrate to a google workspace subscription wouldn't you keep the purchases?

I don't even think you have to do that. Your Play account is tied to the email address itself, which you can migrate to another provider with DNS, not the workspace / gsuite stuff.

According to what I've read I'll lose access to my google play purchases made under my legacy g suite account unless I decide to pay $6/month indefinitely. I'm not 100% sure, can't be until I do it; but I'm pretty certain, after reading through posts like https://support.google.com/googleplay/thread/3195114/transfe...

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

#345

Post by y4mi »

quesomaster9000 wrote: post #332
y4mi wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not just googlers, the legacy accounts where available to everyone at the start. but the venn diagram overlap of people * willing to pay for such a tool, * not having switched to another provider since * and not willing to start paying for it now will be tiny

You're forgetting the circle of ageing techies that used to use AltaVista and now (in)directly control large budgets, have long memories and significant clout when it comes to guiding our replacements into making the right decisions and educating them about corporate (mis)trust.

Uh, why do they matter in the context of a potential side project to let people migrate their Mails from the discontinued free legacy project to a free private account?

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

#346

Post by ValentineC »

cyberge99 wrote: post #88
alias_neo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, and I'm running it for extended family so I'm not planning to take on the cost (and neither are they). I need to find a nice alternative for email with my domain that's going to work for us and not cost me a fortune. I'm not even massively concerned about Play Store purchases, I barely use any paid apps anymore anyway I can buy them again if I have to. Since the domain was also bought through GSuite, how d…

I’ve found Zoho to be fantastic. They offer good value, some extra shit if you want it, and you can bring your own domain. I think it’s about $35 USD a year.

I used Zoho for an event's domain, and didn't like how they removed POP/IMAP for their free version without any prior notice.

I'd trust them not to pull the rug any further even less than Google.

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

#347

Post by johnebgd »

notyourwork wrote: post #333
jahlove wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And now we're being forced to pay for something that everyone else gets for free. > Just looks like most of our accounts are going to get deleted or are going to have to pay $6/month for nothing. Am I wrong or are you paying that $6/mo for having the gmail UI in front of your custom domain? Doesn't really seem like nothing.

100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this. It was only a matter of time. Google is a business, not your friend and you should treat interaction with them in this lens. It's not 2002 when Google was the cool hip thing to use and they seeme…

People got a decade or more of free email hosting from Google and now need to pay for it. I know one small business that sells physical products and got 200 free accounts through this program. To this day they never delete old employees accounts as a result because it had zero cost to them to keep it around (not that they cared about security).

I kind of chuckled reading this thinking about how Google even bothered to spend resources closing this legacy service. I wondered what metric they used to determine it was worth spending effort to shut this down.

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

#349

Post by throwoutway »

aingisni_del wrote: post #87
SteveNuts wrote: post #83

Google is really on a killing spree lately. Can any insiders give us insight into whether the people at the top of Google are aware that they have a strong reputation in the community for killing things off?

Do you really think they care about that reputation? It's simply binary: Product makes money, product does not make money. Did you think Google was giving away free stuff for "the community"?

Haha! Just yesterday, that is exactly what Google was promoting as their first defense against antitrust regulation. That “these free services provide thousands of dollars a year in value to the average American”.

So if they’re going to kill the free stuff, then they have no ground to stand on.

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/the-h...

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

#350

Post by quesomaster9000 »

criddell wrote: post #186
rubyist5eva wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they are banking on people just ponying up the cash because they've been with them for so long. It's basically mafia protection payments. Pay us or we'll break your legs (delete all your data).

Do you know anybody else who will give me free hosting for the next 12 years before demanding payment? I think I'm okay with moving once every ten or twelve years.

I wish most places would even let me pay for 10 years at a time like you can do with domain names, when it comes to peace of mind in the event of unexpected circumstances (which is incredibly relevant now given COVID-19, losing your job, ending up in hospital for a few months etc.)

How fragile is your infrastructure if one or two missed payments will wipe everything or even let somebody else take over your intangible identifiers because they're now 'inactive'.

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