Microsoft announces product it doesn't want anyone to buy

Microsoft will keep delivering security updates for old versions of Exchange Server and Skype for Business Server, after admitting that some customers aren't ready to make the move to newer products. Readers may remember the company previously announced that customers could sign up for six months of Extended Security Updates ( …

[Dan 55]

"Our preference is that our customers finalize their migrations"

Any organisation or business which has realised that Trump has an off switch will be migrating away from MS so the extra time is welcome. That might not be to MS' preference though.

[steviebuk]

Re: "Our preference is that our customers finalize their migrations"

Hopefully the off switch is his own when those burgers finally crush his blackened heart.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: "Our preference is that our customers finalize their migrations"

blackened heart? this is what the US troops are fed under his watch

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/troop-meals-in-the-middle-east

icon: Eat this

[Doctor Syntax]

What's a software giant to do? Point out it was quite emphatic about not extending the ESU period past April and stick to its guns – or make a change take the money?

FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha

Skype for Business the, shiftiness of Lync with the shittiness of SharePoint combined. Poor gits.

Now Teams on the other hand ... Skype with the shittiness SharePoint plus some stuff which eats all my RAM. Much Better.

[Lee D]

Re: Hahaha

I honestly don't find anything of worth in the Office suite, not even Word or Excel any more, but certainly not the side-offerings from Teams (which one?) to Outlook to Sharepoint to all the other nonsense they have.

I don't understand why people are so attached to them. I don't think I ever really have.

I mean, pay me and I'll "manage" them for you (i.e. install them and then you're at the mercy of whatever MS want to do with them), but I wouldn't touch them if I wasn't being paid to.

[tip pc]

Re: Hahaha

The previous company used the Google suite of office & collaboration stuff.

I was astounded that I could do video calls from my web browser.

Worked amazingly well & naturally my email and office apps where in browser to.

Around the time they outsourced us they moved to teams which we all felt was a massive downgrade but they plotted on regardless.

Current company is teams, office360 and outlook.

I have to restart office apps once a week due to app patches, teams is a steaming pile of cack & outlook is a pain seemingly designed to make things harder to do.

Why does teams move my office file to one drive when I send a copy to a colleague? I saved it in my specific folder so I knew where to find it!!!!

If I didn’t have to use ms stuff I wouldn’t.

[Ozan]

Re: Hahaha

How's the offline support of Google Suits?

[Someone Else]

Re: Hahaha

Isn't "that stuff that eats all [your] RAM" otherwise known as Electron?

[Bebu sa Ware]

"you do not need to ask"

Microslop meaning "We need you not to ask."

I had thought that this perverse use of "need" had died in the bum. Apparently not.

What it use to mean (Hell! Actually does mean!) was that your request might be taken as read and was implicit that it would be seriously considered with a slight nod that it would likely be granted.

Here of course the poor sods who require such an extension actually do need.… want ? I wouldn't think any rational soul would desire any further truck with Microslop.

The MS meaning could have been clearly and economically stated with "(do not ask)" or with more actual courtesy than MS exhibits "(please do not ask)" [And as the old "No Credit" signs had it… "as refusal often offends." ]

[Someone Else]

Re: "you do not need to ask"

I know it's Friday, but...Gad! What was that?!? amanfrommars1 is more lucid in its rants.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Of course they can't!

That was clear even before "the current Administration forced Microsoft to kill a European politically active account".

Tons of country/state departments in the EU cannot, by definition, move to Azure, they can only be self hosted (aka "private" cloud). Some things cannot be trusted out of the country, no matter what the papers say. That includes an 100% offline "classic" Outlook as well - and i must say, Office 2024 including Outlook is MUCH MUCH better than the classic Outlook 365 in surprising many ways. The difference is bigger than many know.

For companies it is different, they get their special lawyer signing the "OK", done. That is a different liability, 'cause if MS fails (again), they cannot be held responsible.

There is, of course, a grey area of companies closely working with government agencies where the lawyers have to apply more strict measurements.

[James Turner]

Re: Of course they can't!

There is still an on-prem Exchange product, Exchange SE released in July 2025.

This is not down to not being able to move to the cloud, but failing to organise an upgrade despite years of warnings.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Of course they can't!

> Exchange SE

Of course there is, common knowledge here in this forum.

> This is not down to not being able to move to the cloud, but failing to organise an upgrade despite years of warnings.

Go on and suggest an alternative which can compete in versatility, including extra Office/Outlook plugins to extend the functionality. I'd love to see you try that with customers, especially with that tone of communications you use here.

[James Turner]

Re: Of course they can't!

Compete in versatility with what? Your original post seemed to be entirely a rant about moving to the cloud, which I was pointing out wasn't necessary.

These are people sitting on out of date Exchange, for which there is a current supported version available, but who haven't managed to organise updating. Despite several years of warnings of the October 2025 EOL, then the further 6 months grace period, they've still not managed it.

[Someone Else]

Re: Of course they can't!

You know, James, there tends to be many things going on in your average well-sized business that are more important than keeping up-to-date with Micros~1s latest borkage spew. The concept of someone coming over the loudspeaker and loudly announcing: "At 3 o'clock today, we'll be updating all your computers to Windows 11. May the Lord have mercy on your souls! That is all.", just doesn't happen in most places.

_{And if that happens at your place of employment, James, Then I would kindly suggest you find another, post-haste!}

[shodanbo]

Re: Of course they can't!

If your running any open source stuff you are constantly on an upgrade treadmill there. You can fork off the mainline but then the software becomes your problem.

Organizations chose MS products because they thought they did not have to worry about keeping all their stuff up to date. Just keep up with the OS and the rest comes along for the ride.

Those days are over though. MS had realized that an OS that needs to move forward without ever breaking backwards compatibility is an technological and financial albatross.

[FirstTangoInParis]

Re: Of course they can't!

So I've had to use Office since its inception (and I still think nroff or indeed Markdown is actually better) and tbh things have not progressed since Office 97. I have no idea what additional features beyond the much maligned ribbon thing and the zipped XML file format and the odd extra Excel function have actually been rolled out, so they could have just upgraded that on a rolling basis since then. Of course that doesn't earn any money unless you, with fanfare, 'end' support for the 'old' version and ta-da here's a new version (but actually same as the old version under the hood).

At least Office 365 doesn't pretend. It IS the same version in terms of the headline apps, year after year (except Teams, when who knows what version is to be used) and you pays your monthly fee to use it. But then there's a laundry list of apps you'll likely never use, unless your biz can be arsed to roll them out and then have to retire them because the product droids decide they aren't worth supporting (Sway, anyone?)

[Anonymous Coward]

What M$ wants =>

=> Is very simple.

They want your money.

The strategy is to kill off many "legacy" apps and sell you a newer "depreciated" version which will be SaaS subscription only cloud based accessed via a browser window.

There may also be a "de luxe" version of the software available for an additional subscription.

You will also be paying extra for an AI enabled version which does stuff that you probably don't want or need, but you'll be sacrificed on the altar of more functionality is better with AI, even if you never use that functionality.

[CA Dave]

Viva la France?

This is likely another reason why France is giving Micro$lop the middle finger and switching to Linux for all government systems.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Microshaft should be glad to hear

that I at least have fully migrated off all old Windoze products. In fact, aside from the work machine I have no control over, I have migrated completely off everything Microshaft. Fuggem.

[Ropewash]

All I heard there was..

..the old software wasn't built around sending us all your 'telemetry' so please stop using it.

[Anonymous Coward]

skype

skype was my favorite to talk to family. then teams happened and screwed up all my contacts. I will never forgive them. i hate teams.

[Anonymous Coward]

They also steal from their partners

It looks like they're stealing from partners on microsoft store. I downloaded some free font called Independence and left a review because capital letters have a cool military theme to them and my review was on some other font made by microsoft.

[FirstTangoInParis]

Re: They also steal from their partners

YOU LEFT A REVIEW!!!! IN ALL CAPS!!!!! AND THEN THEY WENT AND CHANGED IT TO COMIC SANS?????

I'm now imagining the orange one posting on TS in Comic Sans and begging to be taken seriously.