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

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

#391

Post by fragmede »

boringg wrote: post #249
Apreche wrote: post #139

I knew something like this would probably come, but it doesn't make it any better. Complete BS. 16 years ago me and my friends signed up for "GMail for your domain". That's it. We wanted to use GMail, which was by far the best email available at the time, and have email addresses at our own domain instead of @gmail.com. That's it. Since that time several of us have been using our GFYD/GSuite/Workspaces accounts as ou…

I mean have you used Microsoft suite these days? If you don't renew your subscription they lock you out - terrible business practice but I guess a "brilliant" way to ensure you get paid for your product. Drives me crazy because my parents are confused and then I have to go rescue their documents. I think that's one reason why everyone was using G-suite ... now where will they go. Latex (/S .. latex is great but not p…

That's an interesting decision on Microsoft's part. If you're locked out from your email, it makes it really hard to get into the system in order to pay your bill.

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

#392

Post by xrd »

I love Zoho for this reason. $12 a year for unlimited domains (actually, not sure if there is a limit but I've not hit it yet...). Each user is an additional $12 but it's mostly just me. I've got a bunch of those free Google legacy accounts and will be migrating all the domains to Zoho.

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

#393

Post by fragmede »

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…

Not really - that was the whole point of getting my own domain, so I could move it over if something like this ever happened. Mail to me gets sent to user@domain.name, both before and after the switch. You can argue the other services like google drive and docs are harder to move, and that's true, but those also have their own alternatives that aren't quite as reliant as email is in having the same user@domain.name forever.

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

#394

Post by Strom »

jtc331 wrote: post #282

I've got multiple domains on "G Suite legacy" which the admin console claims have been around since March of 2013. Given the article references December 6, 2012 as the date they stopped offering this I'm wondering if I somehow have a different product that wasn't sunset? The name is exactly what's referenced in this article, but I've received no notice, and I don't see any warnings on admin.google.com for these accou…

I'm pretty sure the date shown in admin.google.com is incorrect. For me it also shows March 2013, but in reality I've had it since 2010 - and I've got e-mails still in my inbox to prove it.

The more disturbing part is that I, like you, haven't received any notice from Google themselves.

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

#395

Post by michaelmrose »

y4mi wrote: post #241
webmaven wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously our use case isn't that common (it's been "legacy" for years) but still annoying to know that there's probably some script I could run to do this, but nobody has built the web UI for it. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for a 20% time project. Surely you aren't the only Googler in this situation?

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

It was free for 10 accounts. The number one massively applicable use case vs plain google accounts was vanity domain names and signing up was no harder than creating a regular gmail account. There are probably more vanity domain users than small businesses with 10 people. In fact I would venture to guess with the 10 address limit they are nearly 100% of the remaining users on the legacy program.

The cost of the domain name is $10 per domain per year or $1 per person per year little enough for one person to pay without thinking.

Most people keep an email address for a very very long time rarely switching unless a service ceases to exist.

Almost no domain owners are going to pony up $720 per year themselves and collection from other users will be an untenable hassle.

Basically every bullet point you listed is wrong. The remaining pool of users is likely 99% vanity users who would have used Gmail+custom domain forever at no real cost to Google over free Gmail none of which will migrate to Google workspace.

For Google the gain from this change will be identical to picking n random Gmail accounts and canceling them and keeping those users digital purchases as a giant fu.

Not ruinous but hardly profitable either.

Someone with an ounce of sense would have included the option to migrate all email accounts to regular Gmail accounts.

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

#396

Post by angus-prune »

ryandvm wrote: post #197
Apreche wrote: post #139

I knew something like this would probably come, but it doesn't make it any better. Complete BS. 16 years ago me and my friends signed up for "GMail for your domain". That's it. We wanted to use GMail, which was by far the best email available at the time, and have email addresses at our own domain instead of @gmail.com. That's it. Since that time several of us have been using our GFYD/GSuite/Workspaces accounts as ou…

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 also work as normal.

Any former GFYD account becomes a semi-account with access to a subset of google services but not all. 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.

Overall, this is a better resolution than I'd feared, but it seems ridiculous that being a loyal google customer for over 15 years leaves you disadvantaged.

[0] Core workspace apps: Calendar, Currently, Drive & Docs, Gmail, Chat, Meet, Groups for business, Jamboard, Keep, Sites, Tasks

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

#398

Post by michaelmrose »

mgraczyk wrote: post #278
webmaven wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously our use case isn't that common (it's been "legacy" for years) but still annoying to know that there's probably some script I could run to do this, but nobody has built the web UI for it. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for a 20% time project. Surely you aren't the only Googler in this situation?

This would not be a 20% project, it would require at least 2 engineers full time for several months. I'm not even a web developer.

Its a man year to migrate per user 10 Google app accounts to 10 Gmail accounts?

That seems... wrong. Do you actually work at Google?

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

#400

Post by tyingq »

weeblewobble wrote: post #291
ryandvm wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I'm fucking livid. I don't know what their freeloader costs are on the grandfathered Google domain accounts, but I'm having a hard time believing it's going to be worth the amount of goodwill they're going to burn by shitting on their most loyal users of all. These folks have been using Google services (and presumably suggesting as much to others) for at least 10 years. But I'm not paying $100/mo so my extend…

I've been reading people on HN talk about how Google is burning their goodwill and there will be Very Serious Consequences for a literal decade. Over that time Google stock price has gone up 10x.

>Over that time Google stock price has gone up 10x.

Based mostly on taking display ads from "only in the sidebar" to "everywhere, including every pixel above the fold if the search term is lucrative". There's not a lot of juice left there to continue revenue increases that exceed general internet eyeball growth. They will still make an insane amount of money, but I don't see how they can sustain past growth YoY percentages.

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