If you’re an Office 365 subscriber, you probably got an email titled “Upcoming Changes to Your Microsoft 365 Subscription” late last week.  It included this bullet point:

More flexible cloud storage: Your cloud storage allowance will change from 1 TB per person to 2 TB of shared storage so everyone on the plan can use the free space while keeping their own accounts and files private. This change will apply after your first renewal after May 2^nd, 2027.

That is a pretty cynical sentence.  They announce the downgrade and without even so much as a period, rush into tell you that it’s actually a good thing.

Which it isn’t.  Previously, on my 365 family plan, I was allowed five users, each of which could have 1TB in space, for a total of 5TB.

Now it’s 2TB for everyone – a 60% reduction is service.

This is after that rather bad taste that last year’s “we’ve added CoPilot to your subscription!” fiasco left in my mouth.  As you may recall, your $99/year subscription was jacked up to $129/year because you were getting CoPilot features…whether you wanted them or not.  I didn’t.  I had to hunt down the instructions on how to start cancellation so Microsoft would offer me the chance to switch to 365 Classic, which remained at the $99/year price.

Gotcha sales tactics and services that cost the same but come with less features than before…shame on you, $MSFT.

raindog308

raindog308 is a longtime community LETizen, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, raindog308 runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, raindog308 has a life-long love of German Shepherd Dogs, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, playing guitar, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.