![\"Microsoft](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Microsoft-Word-Logo.png\" "\\"Microsoft-Word-Logo.png\\""){kind=logo}
Microsoft increased their \u201cPersonal\u201d subscription price for Office 365 from something like $65 to $99 per year.<\/p>\nMicrosoft increased their \u201cPersonal\u201d subscription price for Office 365 from something like $65 to $99 per year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll admit that\u2019s not a lot of cash.<\/p>\n
The problem is I barely used Microsoft software.<\/p>\n
Outlook<\/i> wasn\u2019t any better than the mail client supplied with MacOS. The Apple email client works instantly and easily across all Apple devices. For its faults, it is reliable and doesn\u2019t require for you put your contacts on Microsoft servers to be blasted across all their properties like LinkedIn and such.<\/p>\n
In the entire time I\u2019ve had Microsoft office, I don\u2019t think I ever used PowerPoint<\/i> for anything personal. I used it at work, but not at home. Excel<\/i>, got more use, but not enough to justify the cost.<\/p>\n
Word<\/i> was about the only application I used with any frequency. As Word<\/i> has evolved, it\u2019s become less pleasurable and more annoying to use. So I wasn\u2019t using it as much either. I was using Pages, Ulysses, or Scrivner. The latter two are configured more for writing things like stories. They\u2019re clean and focused on their purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I looked at the renewal. I realized it was the same price for 4 applications on a Mac as the price for what? 6 applications on Windows, and that I was really only using 25% of the Mac applications, I decided not to renew.<\/p>\n
I made the decision about a month ago. The expiration date came & went. I\u2019ve removed the Microsoft applications from my devices and now, I\u2019m getting email notifications saying my subscription has lapsed and I should re-subscribe immediately<\/i><\/b> to regain the benefits provided by their products.<\/p>\n
Nope<\/u>. Not interested. I\u2019ve got a decent desktop publishing application, and Apple\u2019s Pages<\/i> for word processing documents. What Word or Pages couldn\u2019t or can\u2019t do, the desktop publisher can. Apple\u2019s Numbers<\/i>, and Keynote<\/i> handle spreadsheets and presentations.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never used Keynote<\/i> either. Nothing against it, I just don\u2019t do that kind of presentation thing. I could, but why? I\u2019m not presenting anything to anybody these days.<\/p>\n
All the Apple apps read Microsoft formatted documents, they can output Microsoft compatible files and PDF documents if I need to share something, and they\u2019re free.<\/p>\n
Plus, I just saved 3 GB, (4 GB if you count Outlook<\/i> which I\u2019d purged a long time ago,) of space on my internal drive.<\/p>\n
The Apple products all have the ability to back up versions, and like the Microsoft versions can save their data to cloud based storage. In the case of Microsoft, they insist that you use their cloud and refuse to turn on backups of documents unless the document is saved in their cloud.<\/p>\n
Apple products likewise prefer to save their documents in the Apple Cloud which is end to end encrypted, and which through the use of Apple\u2019s AFP system are encrypted in the cloud so that supposedly, even Apple can\u2019t hack them.<\/p>\n
I never much liked Microsoft\u2019s cloud solution either and therefore didn\u2019t use it.<\/p>\n
This leads me to wonder about maintaining Windows on my Mac. Most of the apps that I routinely use are available on the Mac, so the reason for maintaining VMWare and running Windows is greatly diminished. VMWare having been sold and their subsequent moves regarding VMWare Fusion (the Mac VMWare) also calls into question the necessity to allocate 40GB of disk storage there. I don\u2019t recall the last time I fired up VMWare or the Windows system. It\u2019s Windows 11 which is okay, but there\u2019s not much point in having it, if I\u2019m not going to use it.<\/p>\n
Thinking about it, and that my job search is going nowhere, maybe I should just back it up to the NAS and flush it from my Mac. If I need it, I can pull it from the NAS, if I don\u2019t need it, It won\u2019t be taking up space needlessly and I\u2019ll know the answer.<\/p>\n
Besides, it might be better to do away with VMWare and instead go to Parallels in the event that I need Windows on the Mac. Perhaps a better solution would be that if due to employment needs, I need a Windows machine, I just buy a cheap assed Windows laptop. Those are a dime a dozen.<\/p>\n
This may be a stepping off point from Microsoft for me. They have nothing that I can\u2019t get elsewhere. I have to point out that Pages<\/i>, opens native Word<\/i> docs faster than Word<\/i> does on my Mac. That\u2019s pretty darn interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft increased their \u201cPersonal\u201d subscription price for Office 365 from something like $65 to $99 per year. I\u2019ll admit that\u2019s not a lot of cash. The problem is I barely used Microsoft software. Outlook wasn\u2019t any better than the mail client supplied with MacOS. The Apple email client works instantly and easily across all Apple … <\/p>\n