Microsoft and their anti-consumer practices

[ShinraCorp]

I'm just wondering what's stopping people from getting say... a NAS and allow Remote Access to it via an app or Web UI. You might say it's less secure to own an NAS then go and use an online storage service but really... who are you kidding with that statement?

 

[realwarder]

In general, Google has the best free plan. Microsoft has the best paid plan.

Google 1 TB: $9.99
Office 365 (1 TB and Office apps): $6.99

Something to consider is that all we know is this month that is the case. Last month Microsoft had the best 'free' plan. Just saying it takes a lot of effort to bounce around plans and no one knows what next week/month/year will hold.

In general they will all remain competitive because the market will demand that, so you are better looking at features and convenience rather than the price at one point.

I believe OneDrive is the most platform agnostic service and is the most integrated into the OS's I use. For that reason alone I'm happy to stick with Microsoft.

 

[sheldon cohn]

With the announcement of Onedrive getting cut to 5 GB at the time Microsoft isn't doing to well
with their mobile phone compared to Apple and Android, running a far 3rd, seems this wasn't the
time to make such announcement. Rather disappointing the current owners of Microsoft
products it should be more working harder on get the product more desirable. With Window
phones unable to have functional apps that both Apple and Android, I almost feel that I have
Window phone users need to have 2 phones (one Windows and the other Android or Apple).
Windows 10 still has it's bugs, that's why the Windows team if working on more builds. I
worked at a college for years, the IT team needs to make sure all the educational software will
run smoothly under the new OS, or it will continue to use Windows 7, there are Professors
that are not tech savvy so they maybe the reason Windows 7 is still used.

 

[Ten Four]

Google Apps or LibreOffice might be good enough for a home user. How often does anyone use Office outside of work or school?

In addition to my day job, where I use Office constantly, I am a professional writer/editor and I far prefer Libre Office. Recent versions of Word are just terrible and nobody needs most of the functionality available, if you can figure out how to use it. The rest of Office is almost never used by ordinary consumers at home. Most people use browser-based email too, as I have been since Gmail began. I switched to Outlook.com a few years ago. I vastly prefer Gmail and Outlook.com to regular Outlook, which has also regressed in ease of use and functionality in recent versions. One reason that business people hate email is that Outlook is so unpleasant to use. In any case, the point is that most ordinary consumers have no need or want for Office, outside of getting the storage so why not go with Google and get 15gb, free photo storage (at a good enough quality for most people), lots of free music storage, and other free stuff that Google offers?

 

[7a2eer]

I am not afraid of pointing out Microsoft's faults.
That said I could care less about unlimited storage.

Certainly Microsoft has facilities for companies that need more than 1TB of storage. If you need more than 1TB for personal storage you are doing something terribly wrong, possibly illegal.

 

[7a2eer]

The 950xl has a 20mp camera. 16mp won't be good enough for long. Why wouldn't i want my pictures as high quality as i can? part of the reason i got the 920 was its picture quality.

As if the 950XL can resolve those 20MP. Up until fairly recently 16.4MP DSLR cameras were the norm. 16 MP Limit is better than JPEG compression

 

[ScubaDog]

Then I guess I'm not the norm. I LOVE Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, I HATE Windows 10 and 10 Mobile, and we already have over 500GB of photos, music and personal files stored on ONEDRIVE--because Microsoft said it was the one place for everything in our lives. This was clearly a lie. And it's not HOARDING. The IDEA is to be able to access ALL our content from WHEREVER using WHATEVER device. Well, that's no longer true. At the rate we accumulate photos and music we will need well over 1TB by the end of next year. But we will have to choose which items to store on our ONEDRIVE-synced folders and which not to because Microsoft pulled the old bait-and-switch.

 

[ScubaDog]

You are dead wrong. You see, we keep every photo and home video we ever record. Between the AWESOME results of the LUMIA 1020 (which both my wife and I have and take tons of pictures with) and the ultra-high capable dedicated camera and our 4k HD video camera (we do community theater and other public performances, we eat up a LOT of storage. Add to that our ever-growing music collection (all LEGAL), and 1TB is easily a cap that can be busted. We aren't doing anything wrong. We want our media accessible anytime, anywhere.

 

[ajj3085]

I'm just wondering what's stopping people from getting say... a NAS and allow Remote Access to it via an app or Web UI. You might say it's less secure to own an NAS then go and use an online storage service but really... who are you kidding with that statement?

You still have to manage the nas, and back it up, and usually start over again if you need to add more storage.

 

[ajj3085]

As if the 950XL can resolve those 20MP. Up until fairly recently 16.4MP DSLR cameras were the norm. 16 MP Limit is better than JPEG compression

Oh, you've used the 950xl?

 

[ajj3085]

If you need more than 1TB for personal storage you are doing something terribly wrong, possibly illegal.

Ok, this is just nonsense.

 

[wrm1]

Well, the current Windows 10 implementation of OneDrive has done wonders to curb my cloud usage. I used to have music there and everything. Now, it's all local on the SD card. Thanks Microsoft.

 

[ShinraCorp]

You still have to manage the nas, and back it up, and usually start over again if you need to add more storage.

Manage the NAS? You plug it and set it up. To Back it up, you simply add a 2nd hard drive (or more depending on how many TBs you need.) No need to rinse and repeat.

 

[7a2eer]

Oh, you've used the 950xl?

Canon DSLRs that cost well over $1000 cannot resolve 20MP, what makes you think the 950 XL can?

Until Microsoft crams a 1" sensor and future state of the art optics, and or implements a true PureView system with a discrete processor there is little justification for 20MP on a smartphone.

 

[7a2eer]

Ok, this is just nonsense.

Do you use over 1TB on your personal cloud? XD

 

[7a2eer]

You are dead wrong. You see, we keep every photo and home video we ever record. Between the AWESOME results of the LUMIA 1020 (which both my wife and I have and take tons of pictures with) and the ultra-high capable dedicated camera and our 4k HD video camera (we do community theater and other public performances, we eat up a LOT of storage. Add to that our ever-growing music collection (all LEGAL), and 1TB is easily a cap that can be busted. We aren't doing anything wrong. We want our media accessible anytime, anywhere.

I did not consider that there might exist a media hoarder of your magnitude!
*joking* My apologies, shouldn't have made such broad assumptions.

P.S: If I were a pessimist I'd argue that 4k is redundant and your hoarding is a data center's worst nightmare

 

[jbestman]

I see a lot of people defending MS here, which is a bit surprising.

You clearly have not been on this site long. Microsoft can ask every current and past Windows Phone users to send in a retroactive fee of $500 each for each phone owned and you will still find people that will justify and excuse it.

I just ignore them.

Funny thing is this, if Microsoft reverses course due to all the outrage, these same people will come in here rejoicing. Conveniently forgetting that if everyone was an apologist like they are, we would all pay $700 for a Lumia 530 that would have 2gb of storage, no online backup and a reoccurring $20 access fee. Hey, Microsoft is a business, in it to make money.... so let's accept anything they decide to do to us with gratitude.

 

[wrm1]

That and they do begin using it and grow accustomed to full OS integration with the cache stored on that high capacity sd card, then Microsoft destroys the whole thing by not only killing the ability to view all folders, but, the person can't cache the offline files on their SD Card anymore. The cache has to eat into the 32 GB on my hard drive rather than the 128 on my SD. Making storing music on OneDrive a very dumb option. And forcing that person to now go on the website to find documents instead of looking at the dang placeholders. Stupid stuff.

 

[kimigayo]

You honestly believe that they are anti-consumer because you pulled one quote about mobile and the cloud? Dear lord, if you don't like their practices, then feel free to go to a competitor and see how consumer friendly Apple and Google are... ?\_(ツ)_/?

 

[kimigayo]

"because Microsoft said it was the one place for everything in our lives. This was clearly a lie. And it's not HOARDING. The IDEA is to be able to access ALL our content from WHEREVER using WHATEVER device. Well, that's no longer true."

Yes, one drive is plenty for most consumers. If you are going to take an HD video of your entire life and upload it, then that's up to you, but expect to pay for that convenience and storage. Seems amazing that people are going to complain because they aren't getting enough for free or cheap. Convenience comes at a price, especially when you want instant access to as much as you do "wherever" and "whatever"...