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Microsoft Trials Outlook Premium For $4 Per Month, With No Ads and Custom Domains (pcworld.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Microsoft is testing a premium version of Outlook.com that removes the ads and supports custom domains for email addresses. According to Brad Sams at Thurrott.com, Outlook Premium is free for one year and then costs $3.99 per month during the trial phase, though it's only available by invite for now. The service appears to combine two features that Microsoft offers or has offered in the past. The first is an ad-free version of Outlook, which is already available today as a $20 per year upgrade. The second is custom domains, which allow users to enjoy Outlook.com's features but with a personalized email address. Outlook Premium could also slightly undercut Google's Apps for Work plans, which support custom domains for $5 per user per month. It also offers a middle ground between ad-free Outlook and a full Office 365 subscription. While Outlook Premium may be tempting for a select few, general users may be hard-pressed to pay anything for Outlook, let alone $4 per month.

108 comments

  1. Everything is a Subscription by NetNinja · · Score: 0

    I need an app to manage all my subscriptions for the benefit of companies to leaving me the fuck alone. Or I have the choice not to use anything and live off the grid and eat nuts, berries and wipe my ass with leaves.

    1. Re:Everything is a Subscription by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Fuck subscriptions

    2. Re:Everything is a Subscription by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're forgetting the option of using Free Software. No subscriptions, no spyware, I couldn't got back to using software which I have no control.

    3. Re:Everything is a Subscription by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know you're kidding, but there actually is such an app (at least on iOS):

      https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/outflow-subscription-manager/id975011878?mt=8

      Thankfully it's not subscription-based (Although it isn't free).

    4. Re:Everything is a Subscription by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully you didn't get suckered into installing Windows 10. That will become an ad infested mess and the only way to clean it up will be to pay a subscription.

  2. They really expect people to pay for that? by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Funny

    I always figured we should be able to make systems exposed and unstable for free.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  3. No, Thank You by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Fastmail is a far better option. Fastmail is run by guys who truly know what they are doing. I've been a satisfied user for over 10 years. Yes, it costs money. Yes, it's completely worth the small amount you pay to have the best paid email on the planet. You can use their domains or use one of your own with the right plan. I'm not affiliated with Fastmail, just an extremely happy customer.

    Fastmail

    1. Re:No, Thank You by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yandex, yes those guys, does this sort of thing for free. I've got my email setup with their mx records and it works out well.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    2. Re:No, Thank You by DogDude · · Score: 1

      Outlook/Exchange is not just email.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    3. Re:No, Thank You by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OP here. Yandex are great; they take their ops seriously.

    4. Re:No, Thank You by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Neither is Fastmail. They also provide calendar and contacts in the web app and with CalDAV / CardDAV sync. I run my own server for these things, but they look like a good option to recommend for my less technical friends.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  4. Irony of Microsoft by TylerJWhit · · Score: 1

    I love how Microsoft started by giving Office applications away for free, regardless of whether or not you wanted them on your PC back in the 90's. And now you have to pay for it.

    1. Re:Irony of Microsoft by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It isn't ironic at all. Drug dealers do the same thing: first hit is free. It works.

    2. Re:Irony of Microsoft by clonehappy · · Score: 2

      Not to stand up for Microsoft, but I don't remember Office ever being free. Maybe some of the old DOS versions of Word/Excel, etc? But I do remember paying for a copy of Office '97 on CD-ROM(!)

      I know a lot of the cheap clones like Packard Bell, et. al. would come with a copy of "Microsoft Works" (chuckle), which were incompatible file-format wise from Office.

    3. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

      It doesnt require an email address at outlook.com at all - my Windows 10 account uses an MS Account that has a Gmail address.

    4. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com

      Maybe a biased default setting, but no it's not REQUIRED...

      http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/create-a-local-user-account-in-windows-10

      5. At the bottom of the next page, select Add a user without a Microsoft account.

    5. Re:Irony of Microsoft by neilo_1701D · · Score: 2, Informative

      Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com

      Utter nonsense. You can create a local account on Windows 10 that is NOT tied to an email address or Microsoft account. Admittedly, it's not easy to find, but it it available during the initial user setup.

    6. Re:Irony of Microsoft by ProzacPatient · · Score: 5, Informative

      Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com

      Actually you can still add a local user account during or after setup.

      See also this and this.

      .

    7. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com

      So is this part of Microsoft's devious plan to squeeze all Win10 users for $4/month?

      No it doesn't just because you don't know that you can use a local account please don't go spreading misinformation. It makes you look uninformed.

    8. Re:Irony of Microsoft by TylerJWhit · · Score: 1

      I may have been misinformed, but they did make the suite excessively cheap and had lawsuits for monopolization for a while because of it.

    9. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And it's even easier to do in 10 than in 8.

      With the first versions of 8 you'd have to repeatedly enter invalid credentials, or disconnect from the internet before it would give you the option to create a local account.

      At least in 10 the local account option is there from the getgo. (Though the setup wizard heavily suggests using a Microsoft account)

    10. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you've done an upgrade install there's a good chance your new user won't be able to log in though, since the installer didn't patch the template .dat file.

    11. Re:Irony of Microsoft by benjymouse · · Score: 1

      I may have been misinformed, but they did make the suite excessively cheap and had lawsuits for monopolization for a while because of it.

      You need to support that claim. Office was always excessively expensive. It was, and remains, one of their cash cows

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    12. Re:Irony of Microsoft by afidel · · Score: 1

      The Novell lawsuit was dismissed as it was complete crap. As far as free suites from MS you might be remembering Works, a stripped down productivity suite that could open some MS Office document formats, that was as cheap as $2 to OEM's and so was often included in the purchase price.

      --
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    13. Re:Irony of Microsoft by viperidaenz · · Score: 2, Informative

      My windows 10 account isn't linked to any email address. It's entirely local.

      Perhaps you're a little retarded and can't follow the on-screen instructions when adding users?

    14. Re:Irony of Microsoft by FrankHaynes · · Score: 1

      You must mean the instructions that offer *only* an email address to be entered so that MS keeps my machine tethered? How is that a "local" account?

      What if my machine has no internet connection? I can't use Windows 10 then??

      --
      slashdot: A failed experiment.
    15. Re:Irony of Microsoft by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

      Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com

      No it doesn't. You can use any email address. Lots of folks use gmail addresses.

    16. Re:Irony of Microsoft by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      My machine had no internet connection when I first set it up. Worked fine.

    17. Re:Irony of Microsoft by kqs · · Score: 3, Informative

      You must be young. In the 90s, Office was very expensive, but new computers often had "free" copies of Word bundled with or preinstalled on the computer. Microsoft kept this up until they got most of Word Perfect's market share. Then they started bundling Microsoft Works, making Works less compatible with Word, and charging for Word and Office. After they had the entire word processing market they stopped bundling any office-type software with their computers and made you buy it.

    18. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Archfeld · · Score: 1

      You can set up an account that has no email associated with it. I know because I am using one now. Granted using an M$ OS is not a popular idea here at Slashdot, but I can't help but tinker with new stuff. After I took control of the update process, and set up IE11 instead of Edge which is a REAL POS, I can't say I am that unhappy with it overall. It boots fast, sleeps, and hibernates without errors on a relatively old Dell studio laptop. I also have a MacBook, several desktops running various flavors of OS including RH, Ubuntu, Win 7/8, a firewall box running BSD, and an alpha server running as my media storage box, it has room for numerous HD's to support a LOT of media.

      --
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    19. Re:Irony of Microsoft by TylerJWhit · · Score: 2
    20. Re:Irony of Microsoft by TylerJWhit · · Score: 1

      It was expensive, but Lotus and quadro were more expensive than Excel.

    21. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, they never had free copies of word bundled, they did have "Microsoft Works", which at best could be described as Words bastard red headed step child. I think now it's called Wordpad and is still shipped with windows for free. But Word, it is not. I've seen trial versions of Office, but that's the closest to free I've ever seen.

    22. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 2

      You must mean the instructions that offer *only* an email address to be entered so that MS keeps my machine tethered? How is that a "local" account?

      Here are your instructions. From the User Accounts control panel, choose Manage Other Accounts, then Add a user-account, then Sign in without a Microsoft account (not recommended), and confirm this with the Local Account button. Now type in the name and password; no email required.

      That wasn't too hard, was it? I take it you don't have the OS installed to test it. The only difference between Windows 10 and Windows 8 is that Win8 doesn't have the hyphen on the Add a user account link and it doesn't have the (not recommended) wording.

      What if my machine has no internet connection? I can't use Windows 10 then??

      Even with a Microsoft account, you can still login without internet access. I don't have a Microsoft account on any of my systems to test it, but I have done it on other people's systems when I had to fix their WiFi access.

    23. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

      Sorry Frank, that's just not true.

    24. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Macfox · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up. Works (Office's poor cousin) was bundled for free. Office was never free, until they offered the starter edition 2010.

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    25. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft did in fact cut deals with Dell and Gateway in the 90's to bundle versions of essentially free versions of Word and Excel with their systems. I remember this caused significant anger among many VARs because corporate customers were switching to Dells because not needing a MS Office standard licence saved them at least $300 for an MS Office Standard License (most employees don't need PowerPoint. Even fewer needed Access which required the even pricier Office Pro Licence)

    26. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are absolutely right. That's the way I have set up the only computer running Windows 10 here.

      But you know.. I have that little voice in the back of my head that keeps repeating: "For now my friend, for now..."
      And I have an uneasy feeling that voice might be right......

    27. Re:Irony of Microsoft by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I don't think it was free, but I do remember a lot of machines coming with Works (which was a full integrated office suite, similar to ClarisWorks) and Word bundled as the cheap option (MS Office as the expensive option). Quite a few manufacturers did not offer a machine without Windows and a smaller number didn't offer one without Word + Works. You can be forgiven for thinking that it's free, when Microsoft has made it a condition of a discount on the OS licenses that the manufacturer bundle it with every machine that they sell.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    28. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. I've met plenty of drug dealers in multiple countries spanning the US, China, Germany, Brazil, and Spain. Never met a drug dealer that gives away anything for free.

    29. Re:Irony of Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you're just an anti-Microsoft troll talking out his ass. In that case, you'll have plenty of company here on Slashdot.

    30. Re:Irony of Microsoft by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      The only thing that sounds similar to this is Windows machines (XP included) coming with WordPad which is a very cut down word processor which can read MS Word files, but can't write to them. It's a basic word processor and was of no competition to any other word processor on the market at any point in time.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    31. Re:Irony of Microsoft by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Actually you can still add a local user account during or after setup.

      Forget local accounts. You can add a Microsoft account that has nothing to do with outlook.com at all, just click the "I already have an email address" button when prompted. It's actually quite funny but I can log into outlook.com with an email that ends in @gmail.com, just to really mess with the system. :-)

    32. Re:Irony of Microsoft by donak · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you had to download Outlook Express, which was the free email program at that time, a free copy of Word came along for the ride because it was actually the editor (in the background) for the purpose of writing / composing emails ...

      --
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    33. Re: Irony of Microsoft by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Microsoft Works which included Word was bundled with machines for many years. I got it with a PC I bought in 2004.

  5. Ads? by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seriously? Who actually sees ads at this point? If you aren't running an Adblocker you are just setting yourself up for malware and worse. I haven't seen an online ad in 10 years.

    1. Re:Ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Even funnier is if you go to outlook.com with an adblocker. The sidebar where the ad appears is still there, but with a message that reads something to the effect of "So you run an adblocker. If you upgrade to ad free, you won't have to put up with this box on the side either."

    2. Re:Ads? by afidel · · Score: 2

      Yes, and if you run an intelligent ad blocker you can just block the element with the message =)

      --
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    3. Re:Ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol.. who? Only 95% of people or so. How large of a percentage of people do you think are using Adblocker? Nerdbubble much?

    4. Re:Ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes you have, but they were hosted on the same site you were surfing, and it didn't take up half the page, blink, or play a movie. So you THOUGHT you had no ads in 10 years, but in reality all the decent ones are getting through and they are not abusive so you don't notice them! ;)

    5. Re:Ads? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      I would think it would be about 30% by now use adblockers.

    6. Re: Ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then it means those ads were ineffective and helps explain why advertisers have stepped up to the annoying stuff.

  6. Some of us... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of us are paying Yahoo! $50/year for no ads, so take that Microsoft!

    By the way, does anyone see any ads on Hotmail anyway?

  7. Worth it for spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd have no problem paying $20-25 a year for an email address that I can send 50-100mb files that has very good spam protection with my own domain. Right now, I use Office 365 and have to look at it as $10 a month for that email address and occasional use of Excel/Word.

  8. I'd Pay by clonehappy · · Score: 1

    If they serve me no ads and didn't use the emails to build a psychological advertising profile to sell to to marketers and the TLAs.

    1. Re:I'd Pay by smokescr · · Score: 3, Informative

      Outlook.com does not scan your emails to offer up contextual ads like what GMail and Yahoo does. See https://www.microsoft.com/en-U... Full Disclosure: I work for Microsoft on Outlook.com

    2. Re:I'd Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Yeah, right. MS only scans the emails to improve experience and data monetizing purposes.

    3. Re:I'd Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except they do scan your email for SPAM and to deliver targeted banner ads. Stop being hypocrites.

    4. Re:I'd Pay by JSG · · Score: 0

      "Outlook.com does not scan your emails to offer up contextual ads"

      Bollocks

    5. Re:I'd Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Outlook.com does not scan your emails to offer up contextual ads"

      Bollocks

      Outlook.com doesn't scan emails, Microsoft does. See what they did there?

    6. Re:I'd Pay by smokescr · · Score: 1

      I think I see what I did. :) I specifically referred to the email service's name as the web site I referenced was specifically about Outlook.com and this discussion is specifically about Outlook.com.

  9. Outlook Has Ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Outlook has ads? Or outlook.com has ads?

    The two are very different. One is an MS Office suite desktop application and the other is a fuck cloudy email website.

    1. Re:Outlook has ads? by benjymouse · · Score: 1

      Or are they saying it WILL have ads? I've never seen any.

      Summary is misleading. Outlook does not have ads, and never had. outlook.com does have ads in the free version. outlook.com is a hosted email solution. You can use it through the web interface or any other email reader - including Outlook (the application).

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  10. Free webmail is now a commodity by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Instead of creating new content and apps, the legacy desktop software vendors of the world -- Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, etc. -- continue to subscription-wall their suites in order to try to move users into constantly paying for stuff, forever, rather than forcing them to upgrade every few years. Unfortunately (for them), the younger, more tech-savvy Facebook generation isn't going to buy into their rent-seeking model -- they'll just find another "free" option and use that until it's gone or crapified to the point of being useless (heck, a lot of Adobe's products are mostly there already). The desktop software world will probably look a lot different in another decade, for the first time since the birth of the Internet.

    1. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead of creating new content and apps, the legacy desktop software vendors of the world -- Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, etc. -- continue to subscription-wall their suites in order to try to move users into constantly paying for stuff, forever, rather than forcing them to upgrade every few years. Unfortunately (for them), the younger, more tech-savvy Facebook generation isn't going to buy into their rent-seeking model -- they'll just find another "free" option and use that until it's gone or crapified to the point of being useless (heck, a lot of Adobe's products are mostly there already). The desktop software world will probably look a lot different in another decade, for the first time since the birth of the Internet.

      Nothing is free, it may be gratis, but not free. Full disclosure I pay for Office 365 for Business E3, it's great. No ads, no scanning email, SLA. I guess you get what you pay for. You should try the Microsoft business class products they actually provide some of the best tech support I have found in the industry. For example I submitted a ticket for an Exchange Online powershell script issue I was having the person I spoke to, which by the way was the first person I was routed to, and in under 5 minute wait, not only had advanced knowledge of powershell commandlets but also told me she would look into the issue and CALL ME BACK. And you know what 24 hours later I received a call, from India, from this SAME woman who I spoke to the day before, to see if the issue had been resolved with the information she had provided me over email. No only had the issue been fixed, but I was very impressed that I was able to speak to the same person so no explaining yourself 400 times to different tier 1 shit support. That's how you do customer service, yeah it was an Indian, but her English was great, and the fact that you get to talk to someone that knows something the first time means you don't get transferred to different departments, and they actually PERSONALLY follow up. This is not the only time I have been called back by the same person I spoke with hours before asking if the issues had been resolved correctly. So yeah, you have to pay for it but you know what you actually get some real service. Please let me know how that phone support for free gmail or facebook messanger questions is going for you.

      There is no such thing as a free lunch, maybe the facebook generation will understand that sometime in the future. Finding another "free" model every time a company makes a change you don't like is going to get pretty old when you have to change your email or some other unique identifier. I'll never go back to free email again.

    2. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " no scanning email"
      LOLOLOLOL

      "Online powershell script issue"
      so... you are not aware of google.

    3. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      I'm less impressed that they called you back and more impressed that they managed to retain an employee for two consecutive days.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    4. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by Kjella · · Score: 1

      You say it like it's a good thing, isn't one of the primary complaints around here that the "younger, more tech-savvy Facebook generation" have absolutely oblivious or have no qualms about being tracked, analyzed and marketed to as long as the product or service is "free"? Including various variations where they're planning to get you hooked and squeeze money from you later, whether the initial product is free - "freemium" - or paid with DLC. Most people here seem to be extremely fed up with ads and being nickle and dimed, either militantly blocking them every way they can using ad blockers and noscript or preferring a straight up paid product. And hate products that are mixing/double dipping like premium channels with ads.

      I guess in that sense paid copies are simple, you pay once and that's it. But you haven't really aligned incentives very well, which is why we hear wailing about lack of bug fixes, end of support, forced obsolesence and so on. Well of course, they're not making any more money on a past sale they want new sales/upgrades. To do that the difference between the old and the new version must be as big as possible, otherwise users just go "meh" and stick with what they have. If subscriptions are rent-seeking, isn't also "service and support" which has been hailed as the open source way to make money? What's the prinicpal difference between a RHEL subscription and an Office 365 subscription, or is it the same?

      --
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    5. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose this is evolution. Didn't know that outlook had ads now despite using windows 10. I've also only briefly glanced at all of the garbage next to the left side, and that was just after I installed it. wow. I fail to understand how advertisers think that putting more stuff out there attracts people. Maybe I'm weird, but I almost instinctively ignore ads, and all I use is a custom host file, which I update far too infrequently

      What's the over/under on how soon windows will look like an Idiocracy type format on the display?

    6. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by bazorg · · Score: 1

      the younger, more tech-savvy Facebook generation isn't going to buy into their rent-seeking model -- they'll just find another "free" option and use that until it's gone or crapified to the point of being useless

      Isn't that the same generation that buys virtual dolls and turnips to improve their score in Farmville?

    7. Re:Free webmail is now a commodity by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      or have no qualms about being tracked, analyzed and marketed to as long as the product or service is "free"?

      Something for something. I have no problem having my location tracked on my Android phone. In return I get excellent traffic services which are a real benefit to me which would be almost prohibitively expensive to reply otherwise.

      Windows 10's tracking on the other hand can fuck right off. Windows 10 Insider tracking on the other hand is quite acceptable since you potentially see a real benefit in sharing your data with the company developing a product.

      People don't have qualms as long as it's seen as a suitable trade.

  11. If they are competing with Google Apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Then it should be free for custom domains for users who Google Apps is giving that to for free because we were there when we made it... get it?

    That's the trouble with all this kid-robbing, basically you never award the right people unless they do wrong with anything that the doing-wrong people have (boatloads of cash).

  12. Fuck You Ignorant Fucks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    There are no ads in Outlook!

    There are ads in the free Outlook.com web account.

    There are no ads in the Office365 that includes custom domain, email, Sharepoint file storage, webbased office apps... for $6/month.

    Google Apps offers a near identical list of services for $5/month.

    But, we're supposed to be impressed that Outlook.com - for $4/month - will offer email only without ads but with custom domain and nothing else. And they have the unmitigated gall to compare an email only option to Google Apps?

    Fuck you ignorant fucks! This service will die or there will be price changes across the board for Microsoft because, as is, this make no fucking sense!

    1. Re: Fuck You Ignorant Fucks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Google is 25% more expensive than Outlook if you just want custom domain.

      What the fuck is hard to understand? What value in Google Apps is there?

      My experience with Google Apps has been awful (drive mostly).

  13. They already had free domain email by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    with live mail I believe it was. It was same as Gmail. I used it for a few years but then went back to pop/webhosting.

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  14. This is exactly what I was waiting for by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

    I have had the $5/mo google apps for a long time and am in the process of moving my stuff over to MS. I use MS Office online way more than google docs so it makes sense for me. Plus I think that outlook.com is a cleaner interface than Gmail.

    I am currently doing an old fashioned forward to my Outlook.com mailbox from gmail.

    Only problem is, in order to use my custom domains on MS, I need to use an O365 business plan which would come with OneDrive for Business (Groove) and Skype for Business (Lync) instead of the home user versions.

    I don't want to use the business editions for that reason.

    --
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  15. A better idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    would be to pay the same money to another mail provider, one that takes privacy serious, and one that doesn't mine all your e-mails and builds a profile of you and the people you speak with.

  16. Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by AndyKron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or I could just keep using Thunderbird with no ads for free like I've been doing since it was born?

    1. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you missed the big news about Thunderbird this past December: Replacement For Mozilla Thunderbird? (December 18, 2015), which links to Mozilla May Separate Itself From Thunderbird Email Client (December 01, 2015).

    2. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, if you want an inferior mail client that sucks more dick than a gay sailor, you can keep right on using Thunderbird.

    3. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      It works fine. Email is a fairly mature technology at this point. Even bloated software like Outlook runs fast enough on modern PCs. If you like a desktop client but still want the benefits of "email anywhere", IMAP + Gmail is hard to beat.

      --
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    4. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by JSG · · Score: 2

      "Perhaps you missed the big news about Thunderbird this past December: " ... and your point is what exactly? Its still working and development is ongoing. I don't really care who develops it provided its looked after. There is also Evolution, Kmail and rather a lot more open source email clients available. All good solid stuff.

      Me I use Evo because I can get at the corp Exchange *sigh*

    5. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by JSG · · Score: 1

      "Even bloated software like Outlook runs fast enough on modern PCs"

      Until it goes a bit odd occasionally and locks up. To be fair I think add ons contribute to this feature.

    6. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're using email for sensitive material then you're using it wrong.

      You simply keep all your shady shit out of your normal emails and then you can use webmail and not be a tard about it AND you are much more secure with a compartmentalized model as well as being able to benefit from all the new service that are linked to your google/outlook/apple accounts and you can fight it all you want but that's the future of automating our lives. You can't win that fight. You can just die trying.

      No point in losing out on the future just because your paranoid and have a bad security model where you've intertwined the legal you and the illegal you too much. Simply correct your mistake and move on.

    7. Re:Or I could just keep using Thunderbird by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      And what does it use for rendering HTML email? Is that going to keep getting security updates, as Firefox and Gecko evolve? Or are you going to be infected by the first malicious spam email that you open?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  17. Outlook has ads? by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Or are they saying it WILL have ads? I've never seen any.

  18. The price is too high... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    $48,000(1) is way to high for a product that will be discontinued after a few years.

    (1) for 1,000 years; I read the fine print, it's $4.00 / month, but you have to pay 1,000 years in advance.

    CAP === 'displays'

  19. After the way Microsof treated Windows 7 users... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... I no longer trust Microsoft enough to give them any more money.

  20. Good deal! by DogDude · · Score: 0

    That's not a bad deal, at least for the trial phase. Outlook licenses come with hosted Exchange services now that are generally about $10/month per mailbox. It's certainly worth $10/month/user. Still, I can't believe that MS would undercut their own resellers.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  21. Spam by Ark42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Using Outlook.com for email is a bad idea. So much legitimate email is never delivered, and you won't know what you're missing. It doesn't go to spam or junk or anything. They just delete email and don't warn you. You might as well set your primary MX record to 127.0.0.1 because email with outlook is about that useful.

    1. Re:Spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been fired over this. Legitimate email that never was delivered. I had no explanation for it, I could only show my 'out box'. I had to proof that I sent my mails but I only had one day. I hung at the phone for over a day to beg for log files. But I couldn't get anything because I was just a user of a small company. Maybe the system administrator got access. But the system administrator was the boss who just was administrator in name. The real administrator of our company was on a holiday. I've found many complaints on Stack Overflow and the Microsoft forums, but never got a solution in that one day. I was really annoyed but also relieved that I was freed from this Outlook Online trap when my boss fire me. Let his precious business burn in flames if they prefer to believe some faceless company over their own employees.

    2. Re:Spam by JSG · · Score: 1

      Very true. If you are serious about your email then register a "vanity" domain and get it hosted.

      Obviously the denizens around here would then fire up a pair of DNS servers at two different locations, a SMTP daemon, IMAP or POP or whatever daemon, sort out auth, SSL/TLS, AV/anti spam, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, backups, DR plan etc etc. Well I did.

      Oh and it supports Outlook (spent quite some time with Wireshark to get the auto discover thing working - cheers MS, no need to follow RFCs or say Mozilla's method)

    3. Re:Spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take the tinfoil off your firewall dood

  22. custom domains by Swampash · · Score: 1

    For a year or so after launch outlook.com allowed the user to use a custom domain - and that was the problem.

    "domain" singular.

    If you used more than one domain and you wanted me@domainone.com and me@domaintwo.net and me@domainthree.org all pointing at the same mailbox, you needed three MS Live accounts each set up differently and a bunch of forwarding rules to get email all to one place, it was hideously primitive. Compared with Google Apps's domain alias system it just sucked.

  23. Re:I'd Pay..Bogus M$ bull... by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    It's smokescream - he smokes cream.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  24. Let Me Count The Copies Of Office I Have Bought by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    And they never came with a free email account or email storage. Now I need to rent ANOTHER email client. What in the hell has changed that would make me need another version of an email client? Will anyone ever invent a piece of software that just works without making it not work? Why would I want to rent something that can be made to have infinite copies of for free when I already have it via several paid versions? What the fuck are you guys smoking at MS, cuz it sure as hell ain't weed?

  25. Not bad, but still a tad much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think something like 25 a year is more long the lines of what I'd be looking to pay for add free email with the option to turn off content scanning.

    The fact of the matter is email is becoming less and less important, so it's going to be near impossible to sell people email services in the future. They will just choose to use another free services that's likely more modern and more secure by default, eliminating much of the need for any kind of professional messaging services.

    Email is a failed model, that's why it requires you to pay extra to not get spied on, because it's so damn insecure by default and generally bloated, administration is just too high for what you get. It's a dead end and MS should just use it to make the best free webmail offering as part of their Windows 10 platform with the long term goal of making more money off the mobile market because a desktop that syncs with your mobile is ideal regardless of who wins the mobile wars.

    So.. really nice web email as part of the Windows 10 suit just makes sense, especially because 98% of people aren't interesting in paying for email and things like privacy fears sparked by the NSA are only fading in time, not growing.

  26. Or get mailbox.org for â1/mth with GPG suppor by PsyQ · · Score: 2

    They've been running email servers since 1989, they write books about running email systems, they teach admins how to do email, they sponsor and take part in Linux events and the boss himself answers questions on Reddit. The system even shows you whether your recipient's mail server is able to receive your message via encrypted channels, right in the recipient box.

  27. Re:Or get mailbox.org for â1/mth with GPG sup by PsyQ · · Score: 3, Informative

    The symbol in the comment subject is supposed to be a Euro symbol (€), it looks like UTF-8 is broken when commenting via mobile browser.

  28. Cool. by cshark · · Score: 1

    With some of the cutbacks and revisions over at Google, with their personalized service over the last few years, I'm a long time apps user who might be open to a subscription based outlook.com service. It's a good idea, and we need more free market competition. Google, at least up until this point has remained generally unrivaled in this space for too long, and it's been suffering from many of the main factors that made Microsoft a huge pain in the ass for so long. This is good news for everybody. At least, potentially.

    --

    This signature has Super Cow Powers

  29. Only idiots use microsoft's products by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only idiots use microsoft's products

  30. but locked outside of home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but microsoft completely forget was the point of having an webmail!
    each time you try to connect on another computer, it crap out with damn impossible verification!!

  31. Re:I'd Pay..Bogus M$ bull... by bazorg · · Score: 1

    Yeah, Anonymous Coward is a much more trustworthy source.

  32. So THATS why theyre not fixing win10 mail client by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They want to rent you a working email client.

  33. Haha, it never struck me.... by CaptnCrud · · Score: 1

    This whole time in windows 10 i've been using the equivalent of express mail....no wonder why I thought it sucked.

  34. I never see ads on Outlook.com/hotmail... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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    APK

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