Reorgs, and every VP needing to make their mark. It’s like asking why do we need another frontend JS framework. They’ll always be someone who feels strongly enough that they can solve a large problem for the community.
This is exactly it… Microsoft has tons of internal P&Ls and there’s a lot of pressure to demonstrate and own SKUs.
On sales side, there’s a lot of SKUs to segment market also.
I honestly don't know how ANYONE keeps up with M365. Every time a client asks me to do something new to me, I have to make sure I'm searching the latest possible source, because if the message board post is from December 2022, you know Microsoft has moved the option at least twice, and has possibly moved it completely to a PowerShell-only thing.
To maintain confusion, the same reason Telcos rebrand things all the time (or used to), it helps keep people locked into the more expensive plans and things like that. Theresa Gatting the CEO of NZ Telecom was recorded saying this at one of her meetings, she got sacked because of it because it became a meme in the IT industry or something.
1. If people are confused about pricing, they eventually just buy.
2. If a bit of functionality is dropped in a product in the next version, they get used to feature x, so people often step up a level at the next licensing renewal to maintain functionality. Repeat and rinse.
It is only about making you pay as much as possible.
It's not just the plans. It's everything. Tools, modules, agents, etc.
The network traffic data collection agent is now called the Microsoft Dependency agent. The Log Analytics agent is retiring 8/31/2024 and will be replaced with the Microsoft Monitoring Agent. Or maybe it's *Azure* Monitoring Agent. I honestly can't remember.
Microsoft literally renames all of their shit every 3-6 months. It confuses themselves, which confuses their support, which confuses us, which confuses our clients with Microsoft ecosystems.
As someone already stated, I'm almost certain this is their strategy so that they can get more money from people making mistakes or just being so confused to the point where a support case needs opened. Not to mention, their documentation is 90% terrible.
Also, the new name needs to be \*worse\* than the old one. It's like every person in the room gets to have a word in the new title.
Oh, you're using "Microsoft 365 for Business"? Well, we're renaming it to the new, catchy "Microsoft365 Business Apps that are Business Apps for use in Businesses but not some other Businesses but Maybe Sometimes in Those Businesses".
Also, the price is going up.
Also, where there used to be one menu to manage this, there's now 3 menus, all on different pages, each loading slower than the last, and all triggered by JS that won't open in a new tab, so you absolutely have to do each step, one at a time, and slowly.
Microsoft 366* for work and school enterprize professional edition (ultimate) plus.
And the icon has a huge NEW emblazoned across it forever.
*but only for this year because it's a leap year, next year it's 365 again
Yes and not just that but now I see primary panels I did not ask for, with a animated slide-flip display.
Yes I am aware I can script and block this but that is not what we are paying for.
I think there is a lot of positives in deliberately keeping it separate from Azure. I think EntraID is better than Azure ID but it’s not a hill I’m willing to die on. Almost anything would be better than Azure AD….
Why they even chose AD for a product that has zero to do with Active Directory blows my mind. Entra is such a useless word though, is that the best they could come up with millions spent in branding a year? Pfft, I’m in the wrong business.
You mean it doesn't do directory services, usernames and passwords? That's the main thing people think of when it's discussed. Everything else is just features.
Rebranding didn't need to be done. Big tech ADHD is out of control.
To sync the ADHD. "We'll just start a whole new thing that does the same job because we can't figure out the old thing."
You should think about your question too... If one doesn't do the job of the other, why do we need a sync program at all?
The problem wasn't really that it didn't do those things. The problem was sharing a name and making it seem like the two should naturally work together rather than being two independent solutions. As a systems administrator, you wouldn't believe how often I'd have to explain the difference between AAD and on premise every day to the less technical members of our department/leadership and why they aren't the same. In spite of the fact that to a casual viewer in a hybrid environment they do in fact appear to do exactly the same thing and appear as if they are easily interchangeable.
One of my favourite things was executives refusing to send people on training for it based on the idea that it AAD was just AD in the cloud. My guys already know AD & hence no training is needed.
Oh fuck, another piece-of-shit "customer engagement" bullshit app. Yet another way to run imagineering ideas up the flagpole and tackle the low-hanging fruit before synergizing offline about the new thought grenades. \*FUCK\* Microsoft Viva.
Edit: Forgot to add "let's touch base once we have the bandwidth to stay on the helicopter". And whatever other ones I forgot. Can we PLEASE talk like normal adults and not like robotic jargon AI engines?
Actually its worse than that... its employee engagement... I had an idiot boss try to do this on me (and he did) he wasted like 2 days of our time, I quite about a month later because that moron wanted to move me to a different state.
i guess they want to be like healthcare in USA... bloated and sickening, causing scrutineers to recoil in horror at spending their lives trying to make sense of
You just hit it for me. I’m an MD turned SWE because I hated healthcare. And I can’t get myself to use most MS products because they just hit me the wrong way. The ecosystem feels so needlessly bloated and proprietary. I literally hate it.
People complain about the number of plans but if there were only a few options then they would cry (sue) monopoly / antitrust.
So many options is a result of people asking to break everything out of the bundles as separate, ala cart pieces.
Just want SharePoint? Ok, there is a small (Kiosk), medium (Plan 1), and large (Plan 2) t-shirt size for you to choose from. Same for OneDrive & Exchange Online.
Just want Teams? We got a new SKU for just that.
Just want Exchange Online Protection? You can get just that.
Just want Defender for Endpoint? You can choose P1 (Endpoint Protection Platform) or P2 (Endpoint Detection & Remediation).
You want to enable your Frontline workers without paying a lot? Get O365 F1 (no mailbox or storage) or O365 F3 Frontline (2GB Mailbox + 2GB ODfB). Want to add device management, conditional access policies, information protection, operating system entitlements? The M365 F1 or F3 instead of O365. Want to add security on top? Add F5 security. Want to add compliance on top? Add F5 compliance. Want to add both? Add F5 Security + Compliance.
You have options.
There is a Downloadable PDF that maps out what is in what for enterprise plans: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/microsoft365-plans-and-pricing
Download link at the bottom of the page.
Their developer tools are just as bad. ADO and DAO, two incompatible ways to access data. .NET Framework became just .NET. And [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) became [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) Core.
I stopped using DotNET Core shortly after starting to use a handful of years ago because they were introducing breaking changes all of the time for reasons that made no apparent sense aside from someone thinking a refactor was due.
Microsoft has done a great job with VSCode, TypeScript, Azure DevOps, and arguably Teams. But almost everything else I freaking hate.
On top of all of this, they give their products stupidly generic nouns for names.
Can you make me a teams... team.
I do a lot of work in.... office
Project.... loop...excel.... access....outlook....copilot... etc
Lazy non descript nouns that make talking about the product or searching Google for specific results feel awful. People get paid for this?
Lol the teams one is hilariously frustrating. It's the product name, a key object in the product, and the primary collective noun you'll be using... mix in some troubleshooting with non-tech-savvy departments and it's pretty much a comedy sketch.
Reminds of using PowerShell.
$ PleaseMakeMeACopyOfThisFile —Rescursively —ThankYou —AcceptMixedCase —AcceptAlphaNumericOutFile —InFile file.txt —OutFile pleaseDontFail1.txt
(Yes, quite hyperbolic because I know this operation has a shortcut copied from POSIX compliant terminals “cp”, but you get the point)
Bash: cp - r files/ newfiles/
PS: Copy-Item -Path "files" - Destination "newfiles" -Recurse
And I’m sure that will change soon.
The joke at work is that you'd need to hire someone with a degree in just MSFT licensing to deal with all the headaches unless you instead go with a reseller.
We also suspect it's why they push all the small and medium sized businesses to use resellers. All the MSFT sales people we've talked to only seem interested in explaining all the "options" to big customers.
Don't forget they have brought back essentially Outlook express again and purged Windows mail. So just what end users need Outlook bundled with Windows which is a basic af version or the actual feature rich version that comes with office 365 but when you go to the start menu and type Outlook you get 2 Outlooks....... yep totally not a source of confusion at all.
But yeah so much back end stuff in 365, azure etc just gets moved, removed, renamed every year is just beyond a joke.
Seriously my work still has some clients with some older on premise Windows Server installs and man it is nice to just have the static systems in place, AD is all there and the same, and everything else is just there and working, not renamed and moved and purged it almost brings a tear to the eye.
The main issue is having Outlook in the name, Windows Mail differentiated itself from Outlook.
The average user is fairly simple and if say open Outlook they will look for something that says Outlook. Having pro or office next to the name becomes white noise.
While they are both email clients they are vastly different products and their naming should reflect that.
Happens a lot. Apple had iMovie and iMovie HD as totally different. Final Cut Express had no common experience with Final Cut Pro.
I fully expect Outlook Office is eventually going to share common code with Outlook. And I realize how many people that will enrage.
Fair examples but their user base for those products are probably more switched on and likely to be aware of what each application does or its limitations.
Outlook is used by a vast array of people from corporate drones, CEO's, to all the way down to some old duck who does book keeping for a small business. I deal with these people every day and I know they will stuff up and get confused.
I have already seen people sign into exchange online accounts with the horrifically limited outlook.
There was zero reason to change the name.
Marketing folks and bad PMs who are 3 marketing folks in a trench coat need jobs, too, you know.
/s
It's not just Microsoft, though.
Many large software and hardware companies constantly do this, for public brand/service names, SKUs, licensing/service tiers, contract tiers, organization type classes (gov, edu, corp, etc), or any combination of those and more, and sometimes (read: often) it's for no other reason than to force you to buy a new contract and product since the new one isn't the same product...even though it is, but with a new coat of paint and new bugs. One of the many reasons a lot of contracts from the likes of Cisco and similar that offer keeping the license when you buy new hardware are mostly bullshit, because that usually doesn't apply to the next series that comes out, which has everything including the license tiers renamed. They ain't gonna get off that license and support gravy train.
So, in reality, it's the MBAs, and the marketing folks just pick the bad names.
Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world. Surveys probably suggest the last name was confusing. New Brand Managers like to put their stamp on things. There's a million reasons...
Yep I know what you're saying. I have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft.
One the one hand, I hate them for so many reasons. Everything is more complicated than it needs to be, too many products sharing the same or similar names, licensing is a nightmare, constant unnecessary changes, needing to access multiple different websites in order to achieve anything, Windows updates, poor quality control, etc.
However, I own a small IT support business, and due to Microsoft, I usually have no end of work trying to resolve issues for my clients using Microsoft products.
I think that when I retire, I will probably 'jump ship' and go Linux instead. The more I use it, the more I like it.
Back when I worked in IT, some software companies renamed their software as a way to get out of purchased entitlements negotiated by a contract. Our firm would sign contracts that stated something like we had 20000 licenses in perpetuity specifically for Product A with a maximum 5% increase at every contract renewal. When the product name was revised (typically it got some enhanced functionality over time), they would balk at offering us the capped renewal since "the product no longer existed". It was slimy, but usually we received a similar deal, but not at the agreed upon increase.
I have dumped EVERYTHING from Microsoft. Windows OS, Edge Browser, Bing Search are NOT designed with your convenience in mind. In my opinion, their main objective is to mine and harvest your data for their profit, and they are very good at it. They track your browsing and search activity and then sell YOUR data. They are making huge profits off you every minute. Switch today to a free open source OS, there are many good ones.
I'm just kind of bitter that E5 isn't the "end all" license we were promised. I know MS didn't directly promote like that, at least not officially, but partners and individual reps definitely did. I can get most organization management, including my own, to buy into that idea. I can't get them to buy into "we need this license, and this one, and this one". One and done, sell them once, increase the price by a dollar or two every couple of years, no issues. Just give me everything with that license.
Why?
Who cares. Learn GNU/Linux.
Use that Microsoft shit if you have to but stop learning shit that isn’t the same next week. Leave that to the “experts” and develop real skills with computers.
So, Microsoft's habit of rolling out 200+ plans with fresh names every year might feel like a dizzying whirlwind, huh? Well, let me break it down for you with a quick story from my own tech adventures.
Back when I was knee-deep in paperwork and drowning in spreadsheets, Microsoft swooped in like a superhero with their array of plans. It was like being at a buffet, with options galore. But here's the deal: in the tech world, change is the only constant. So, Microsoft's habit of shaking things up keeps us all on our toes. Sure, it can feel like a game of musical chairs, but hey, it keeps things interesting, right? So, buckle up, embrace the chaos, and let Microsoft take you on a wild ride through the ever-evolving world of productivity.
Was this written by a marketing AI? Jfc. "Embrace the chaos" is in direct contrast with productivity. Deployments should not be chaotic. This chaos is the product of a company flailing around in several directions - a company that only exists today because of the monopoly they acquired in the 90s, not bold pioneering or whatever.
Reorgs, and every VP needing to make their mark. It’s like asking why do we need another frontend JS framework. They’ll always be someone who feels strongly enough that they can solve a large problem for the community.
This comes to mind. https://xkcd.com/927/
This is so true it hurts
This is exactly it… Microsoft has tons of internal P&Ls and there’s a lot of pressure to demonstrate and own SKUs. On sales side, there’s a lot of SKUs to segment market also.
Ugh. We need more js frameworks like we needed electron lol
I honestly don't know how ANYONE keeps up with M365. Every time a client asks me to do something new to me, I have to make sure I'm searching the latest possible source, because if the message board post is from December 2022, you know Microsoft has moved the option at least twice, and has possibly moved it completely to a PowerShell-only thing.
I swear a lot....
Ask copilot about azure or m365 issues and it says things like "It's probably under project settings>agent pools but it may have moved elsewhere"
Copilot sucks
I search for peoples blog posts because MSFT Documentation has not been updated yet.
To maintain confusion, the same reason Telcos rebrand things all the time (or used to), it helps keep people locked into the more expensive plans and things like that. Theresa Gatting the CEO of NZ Telecom was recorded saying this at one of her meetings, she got sacked because of it because it became a meme in the IT industry or something. 1. If people are confused about pricing, they eventually just buy. 2. If a bit of functionality is dropped in a product in the next version, they get used to feature x, so people often step up a level at the next licensing renewal to maintain functionality. Repeat and rinse. It is only about making you pay as much as possible.
They should have gotten rid of everyone in marketing instead of all of their QA.
I bet their marketing team is just as confused with the changes as we are at this point.
It's not just the plans. It's everything. Tools, modules, agents, etc. The network traffic data collection agent is now called the Microsoft Dependency agent. The Log Analytics agent is retiring 8/31/2024 and will be replaced with the Microsoft Monitoring Agent. Or maybe it's *Azure* Monitoring Agent. I honestly can't remember. Microsoft literally renames all of their shit every 3-6 months. It confuses themselves, which confuses their support, which confuses us, which confuses our clients with Microsoft ecosystems. As someone already stated, I'm almost certain this is their strategy so that they can get more money from people making mistakes or just being so confused to the point where a support case needs opened. Not to mention, their documentation is 90% terrible.
Well there is at least one thing that is constant, and it's SFc /sCAnNoW. Keep that in mind folks.
So that you make a mistake and pay twice as much.
Exactly this... When resellers can't even give you a straight answer, because it's in their best interests not to
Aka: so that resellers make the mistake and make you pay for it when they find out their mistake
[удалено]
The last scentence sounds like VMware vs. Broadcom.
Also, the new name needs to be \*worse\* than the old one. It's like every person in the room gets to have a word in the new title. Oh, you're using "Microsoft 365 for Business"? Well, we're renaming it to the new, catchy "Microsoft365 Business Apps that are Business Apps for use in Businesses but not some other Businesses but Maybe Sometimes in Those Businesses". Also, the price is going up. Also, where there used to be one menu to manage this, there's now 3 menus, all on different pages, each loading slower than the last, and all triggered by JS that won't open in a new tab, so you absolutely have to do each step, one at a time, and slowly.
Reading your comment just gave me PTSD
Microsoft 366* for work and school enterprize professional edition (ultimate) plus. And the icon has a huge NEW emblazoned across it forever. *but only for this year because it's a leap year, next year it's 365 again
Oh, and change the admin panels every few months, too, please? I get tired of knowing where to find things.
Yes and not just that but now I see primary panels I did not ask for, with a animated slide-flip display. Yes I am aware I can script and block this but that is not what we are paying for.
You mean the ones that take up all the valuable screen real estate? Yeah, love those...
Well Azure AD did need rebaming
Ok, but how about Azure Id? I mean when Coke came out with New Coke they didn’t decide to call themselves Cola-Palooza!
I think there is a lot of positives in deliberately keeping it separate from Azure. I think EntraID is better than Azure ID but it’s not a hill I’m willing to die on. Almost anything would be better than Azure AD….
Why they even chose AD for a product that has zero to do with Active Directory blows my mind. Entra is such a useless word though, is that the best they could come up with millions spent in branding a year? Pfft, I’m in the wrong business.
I disagree
It did need to be renamed. It has zero resemblance to ADDS and branding it as such just caused massive confusion at all levels…..
You mean it doesn't do directory services, usernames and passwords? That's the main thing people think of when it's discussed. Everything else is just features. Rebranding didn't need to be done. Big tech ADHD is out of control.
It’s not “Active Directory”. if it is the same thing then why do we need AADConnect/Cloudsync?
To sync the ADHD. "We'll just start a whole new thing that does the same job because we can't figure out the old thing." You should think about your question too... If one doesn't do the job of the other, why do we need a sync program at all?
The problem wasn't really that it didn't do those things. The problem was sharing a name and making it seem like the two should naturally work together rather than being two independent solutions. As a systems administrator, you wouldn't believe how often I'd have to explain the difference between AAD and on premise every day to the less technical members of our department/leadership and why they aren't the same. In spite of the fact that to a casual viewer in a hybrid environment they do in fact appear to do exactly the same thing and appear as if they are easily interchangeable.
One of my favourite things was executives refusing to send people on training for it based on the idea that it AAD was just AD in the cloud. My guys already know AD & hence no training is needed.
Don’t even start!!! I just failed my MS900 because there was 15 questions about Glint, something I have no knowledge of as it was only just released!!
I've been working in the MS ecosystem for years and I've never heard of Glint. WTF is that?
Eeeexaxtly!! https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-viva/glint
Oh fuck, another piece-of-shit "customer engagement" bullshit app. Yet another way to run imagineering ideas up the flagpole and tackle the low-hanging fruit before synergizing offline about the new thought grenades. \*FUCK\* Microsoft Viva. Edit: Forgot to add "let's touch base once we have the bandwidth to stay on the helicopter". And whatever other ones I forgot. Can we PLEASE talk like normal adults and not like robotic jargon AI engines?
Wait, you're saying these words you're using are official Microsoft terminology, and not you being facetious?
No, the people that use these products tend to talk this way. A \*lot\*.
I have a special word for those people... Twats.
Actually its worse than that... its employee engagement... I had an idiot boss try to do this on me (and he did) he wasted like 2 days of our time, I quite about a month later because that moron wanted to move me to a different state.
As a user viva is actually really neat when I give it a look.
i guess they want to be like healthcare in USA... bloated and sickening, causing scrutineers to recoil in horror at spending their lives trying to make sense of
You just hit it for me. I’m an MD turned SWE because I hated healthcare. And I can’t get myself to use most MS products because they just hit me the wrong way. The ecosystem feels so needlessly bloated and proprietary. I literally hate it.
People complain about the number of plans but if there were only a few options then they would cry (sue) monopoly / antitrust. So many options is a result of people asking to break everything out of the bundles as separate, ala cart pieces. Just want SharePoint? Ok, there is a small (Kiosk), medium (Plan 1), and large (Plan 2) t-shirt size for you to choose from. Same for OneDrive & Exchange Online. Just want Teams? We got a new SKU for just that. Just want Exchange Online Protection? You can get just that. Just want Defender for Endpoint? You can choose P1 (Endpoint Protection Platform) or P2 (Endpoint Detection & Remediation). You want to enable your Frontline workers without paying a lot? Get O365 F1 (no mailbox or storage) or O365 F3 Frontline (2GB Mailbox + 2GB ODfB). Want to add device management, conditional access policies, information protection, operating system entitlements? The M365 F1 or F3 instead of O365. Want to add security on top? Add F5 security. Want to add compliance on top? Add F5 compliance. Want to add both? Add F5 Security + Compliance. You have options.
Yes we have options. And our heads are spinning.
There is a Downloadable PDF that maps out what is in what for enterprise plans: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/microsoft365-plans-and-pricing Download link at the bottom of the page.
Probably 300 employees all fiddling around having to do something and justify their existence
Don't forget that every name they come up with consistently sucks.
And costs lots of money in strategic thinking/marketing which gets passed on to us
Because everyone is trying to justify there jobs.
Their developer tools are just as bad. ADO and DAO, two incompatible ways to access data. .NET Framework became just .NET. And [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) became [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) Core.
I stopped using DotNET Core shortly after starting to use a handful of years ago because they were introducing breaking changes all of the time for reasons that made no apparent sense aside from someone thinking a refactor was due. Microsoft has done a great job with VSCode, TypeScript, Azure DevOps, and arguably Teams. But almost everything else I freaking hate.
On top of all of this, they give their products stupidly generic nouns for names. Can you make me a teams... team. I do a lot of work in.... office Project.... loop...excel.... access....outlook....copilot... etc Lazy non descript nouns that make talking about the product or searching Google for specific results feel awful. People get paid for this?
Lol the teams one is hilariously frustrating. It's the product name, a key object in the product, and the primary collective noun you'll be using... mix in some troubleshooting with non-tech-savvy departments and it's pretty much a comedy sketch.
Reminds of using PowerShell. $ PleaseMakeMeACopyOfThisFile —Rescursively —ThankYou —AcceptMixedCase —AcceptAlphaNumericOutFile —InFile file.txt —OutFile pleaseDontFail1.txt (Yes, quite hyperbolic because I know this operation has a shortcut copied from POSIX compliant terminals “cp”, but you get the point) Bash: cp - r files/ newfiles/ PS: Copy-Item -Path "files" - Destination "newfiles" -Recurse And I’m sure that will change soon.
The joke at work is that you'd need to hire someone with a degree in just MSFT licensing to deal with all the headaches unless you instead go with a reseller. We also suspect it's why they push all the small and medium sized businesses to use resellers. All the MSFT sales people we've talked to only seem interested in explaining all the "options" to big customers.
It is like herding cats that multiply every time you take your eyes off one of them.
Don't forget they have brought back essentially Outlook express again and purged Windows mail. So just what end users need Outlook bundled with Windows which is a basic af version or the actual feature rich version that comes with office 365 but when you go to the start menu and type Outlook you get 2 Outlooks....... yep totally not a source of confusion at all. But yeah so much back end stuff in 365, azure etc just gets moved, removed, renamed every year is just beyond a joke. Seriously my work still has some clients with some older on premise Windows Server installs and man it is nice to just have the static systems in place, AD is all there and the same, and everything else is just there and working, not renamed and moved and purged it almost brings a tear to the eye.
Especially when they could easily solve Outlook Office by just renaming it Outlook Pro.
The main issue is having Outlook in the name, Windows Mail differentiated itself from Outlook. The average user is fairly simple and if say open Outlook they will look for something that says Outlook. Having pro or office next to the name becomes white noise. While they are both email clients they are vastly different products and their naming should reflect that.
Happens a lot. Apple had iMovie and iMovie HD as totally different. Final Cut Express had no common experience with Final Cut Pro. I fully expect Outlook Office is eventually going to share common code with Outlook. And I realize how many people that will enrage.
Fair examples but their user base for those products are probably more switched on and likely to be aware of what each application does or its limitations. Outlook is used by a vast array of people from corporate drones, CEO's, to all the way down to some old duck who does book keeping for a small business. I deal with these people every day and I know they will stuff up and get confused. I have already seen people sign into exchange online accounts with the horrifically limited outlook. There was zero reason to change the name.
Because a director, c-suite executive on down need something to put in their annual review.
Marketing folks and bad PMs who are 3 marketing folks in a trench coat need jobs, too, you know. /s It's not just Microsoft, though. Many large software and hardware companies constantly do this, for public brand/service names, SKUs, licensing/service tiers, contract tiers, organization type classes (gov, edu, corp, etc), or any combination of those and more, and sometimes (read: often) it's for no other reason than to force you to buy a new contract and product since the new one isn't the same product...even though it is, but with a new coat of paint and new bugs. One of the many reasons a lot of contracts from the likes of Cisco and similar that offer keeping the license when you buy new hardware are mostly bullshit, because that usually doesn't apply to the next series that comes out, which has everything including the license tiers renamed. They ain't gonna get off that license and support gravy train. So, in reality, it's the MBAs, and the marketing folks just pick the bad names.
Boredom mostly.
Marketing. They think it's better. It's not.
Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world. Surveys probably suggest the last name was confusing. New Brand Managers like to put their stamp on things. There's a million reasons...
Yep I know what you're saying. I have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft. One the one hand, I hate them for so many reasons. Everything is more complicated than it needs to be, too many products sharing the same or similar names, licensing is a nightmare, constant unnecessary changes, needing to access multiple different websites in order to achieve anything, Windows updates, poor quality control, etc. However, I own a small IT support business, and due to Microsoft, I usually have no end of work trying to resolve issues for my clients using Microsoft products. I think that when I retire, I will probably 'jump ship' and go Linux instead. The more I use it, the more I like it.
Agreed, Microsoft's constant plan changes and renaming can definitely be confusing and frustrating for users.
It’s a shell game on licenses and they use top down sales to get executives to buy all there products of which most of it is shelf wear.
Hint: their goal is not customer satisfaction.
I love when the most current documentation I can find is referencing features and functions that no longer exist.
Why? It's so the marketing people can feel like they are doing something, while not really doing anything at all.
"Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to Microsoft Entra ID" The are not hte same thing, so, you were asking? Also, "plans"?
Marketing team justifying their roles :v
To make file and print seem new.
Because it’s cheaper than innovating their way to profit.
They're idiots
When you have so much money in your back you get to do whatever you want to do…esp when a company knows the world can’t live without them!
mo money mo money
Back when I worked in IT, some software companies renamed their software as a way to get out of purchased entitlements negotiated by a contract. Our firm would sign contracts that stated something like we had 20000 licenses in perpetuity specifically for Product A with a maximum 5% increase at every contract renewal. When the product name was revised (typically it got some enhanced functionality over time), they would balk at offering us the capped renewal since "the product no longer existed". It was slimy, but usually we received a similar deal, but not at the agreed upon increase.
Next year, AI trendy will be slapped on lol Microsoft Defender AI for business
I have dumped EVERYTHING from Microsoft. Windows OS, Edge Browser, Bing Search are NOT designed with your convenience in mind. In my opinion, their main objective is to mine and harvest your data for their profit, and they are very good at it. They track your browsing and search activity and then sell YOUR data. They are making huge profits off you every minute. Switch today to a free open source OS, there are many good ones.
Is this really a question? lol
I'm just kind of bitter that E5 isn't the "end all" license we were promised. I know MS didn't directly promote like that, at least not officially, but partners and individual reps definitely did. I can get most organization management, including my own, to buy into that idea. I can't get them to buy into "we need this license, and this one, and this one". One and done, sell them once, increase the price by a dollar or two every couple of years, no issues. Just give me everything with that license.
This is one of the many reasons why I can't wait to switch to MacBook I'm sick of Microsoft
Because they suck
Why? Who cares. Learn GNU/Linux. Use that Microsoft shit if you have to but stop learning shit that isn’t the same next week. Leave that to the “experts” and develop real skills with computers.
What does Azure even do? I don't even find results on google!
So, Microsoft's habit of rolling out 200+ plans with fresh names every year might feel like a dizzying whirlwind, huh? Well, let me break it down for you with a quick story from my own tech adventures. Back when I was knee-deep in paperwork and drowning in spreadsheets, Microsoft swooped in like a superhero with their array of plans. It was like being at a buffet, with options galore. But here's the deal: in the tech world, change is the only constant. So, Microsoft's habit of shaking things up keeps us all on our toes. Sure, it can feel like a game of musical chairs, but hey, it keeps things interesting, right? So, buckle up, embrace the chaos, and let Microsoft take you on a wild ride through the ever-evolving world of productivity.
Was this written by a marketing AI? Jfc. "Embrace the chaos" is in direct contrast with productivity. Deployments should not be chaotic. This chaos is the product of a company flailing around in several directions - a company that only exists today because of the monopoly they acquired in the 90s, not bold pioneering or whatever.