this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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[–] dwazou@lemm.ee 82 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (22 children)

Microsoft is currently robbing Canadians.

Every year, they are overcharging the Federal Government, Provinces, Cities, Universities, Hospitals and Small Business owners for the right to use Microsoft Office. They make 40% margins. It's absolutely disgusting.

Microsoft has basically managed to tax every single Canadian.

If you go to a Canadian University, whether you like it or not, you are paying the Microsoft tax. Because your tuition is paying Microsoft. If you pay provincial taxes, you pay the Microsoft Tax. Whether you like it or not, the provinces are paying Microsoft. If you go buy food at the supermarket, whether you like it or not, you are paying the Microsoft tax. Because Canadian supermarket companies are paying Microsoft. You want to buy a bus ticket ? You are paying Microsoft. The Bus company is paying Microsoft.

It's parasitism. Microsoft is a parasite that feeds on the Canadian economy.

I now use Libre Office.

👉 https://www.libreoffice.org/

It's a wonderful alternative to Microsoft Office. It's free, secure, and developed by a non-profit organization that I financially support. I urge people to switch to Libre Office instead of Word/Excel/PowerPoint.

After a few days, you quickly get used to it. Then you just wonder "Why we are all paying Microsoft so much money in the first place?".

We need Canadian institutions, small and big, to do the same. Stop paying the Microsoft tax. Fight the Parasite.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I'm going to take a slightly more nuanced take on this as someone who works in the enterprise software ecosystem.

Microsoft doesn't just sell office to the government or university anymore. Their Microsoft 365 subscriptions include e-mail, office, intranets, communications, security, collaboration tools, and even more.

You can replace the office part with Libre Office no issues, and for home use I would absolutely recommend that instead of paying for a Microsoft license, but the moment you need to start building your own e-mail servers, file sharing systems, getting software for messaging and video calls, etc. the price (software, hardware, maintenance, tech support) goes up to well above what Microsoft charges.

Unfortunately, Microsoft provides decent value.

I'd love to see a non-American competitor that offers such a comprehensive business package, but there isn't even a realistic American competitor at this point, Google is the closest with Google Docs/Sheets, Gmail, Google Meet, Google Drive but having used it extensively it's still falls short of what Microsoft is doing and of course it's also American.

If you need to sign up to 6 different companies to get the same functionality coverage it's never going to be as integrated, as easy to use, or as cheap.

[–] Dearche@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

It's really unfortunate, but this is completely true. Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on the integrated business suite, and between cost and ease of use, nobody else, nor any combination of competitors, is even close.

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