back to article Microsoft: We're hiking UK cloud prices 22%. Stop whining – it's the Brexit

Life is to get a lot more expensive for Microsoft customers from the start of next year with currency linked, double-digit price hikes looming for cloud and on-premise software. Software resellers, integrators and cloud service providers were warned about the price rises late on Friday afternoon and told us they expected a …

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  1. Joerg

    Stop whining. Start killing Microsoft instead!

    1. luminous

      Can you tell me a DTP program for Windows that doesn't pixelate screenshots when you embed them in a word document? LibreOffice pixelated them so badly that they were unreadable. I signed up for Office 365 on the spot so I could deliver to my client.

      1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

        Pixelated

        I think probably you need to use a graphics editing program to resize and smooth your screenshot images before placing them. Bear in mind that a screenshot consists of pixels, so that's what you'll get out of it.

        1. Triggerfish

          Re: Pixelated

          Can't say for a DTP program, but i find Irfanview is pretty handy for manipulating images before sticking them in something like word, it's free and always seems to me to be pretty low overhead on resources for what you can get out of it, tends to be a always install program on any system I use/ build.

        2. d3vy

          Re: Pixelated

          @Robert

          "I think probably you need to use a graphics editing program to resize and smooth your screenshot images before placing them. Bear in mind that a screenshot consists of pixels, so that's what you'll get out of it."

          I think his point was that office doesn't have the issue so its more efficient to use office than some mishmash of different products to achieve the same result.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Can you tell me a DTP program for Windows that doesn't pixelate screenshots when you embed them in a word document? LibreOffice pixelated them so badly that they were unreadable.

        We've never had problems, but do you deliver it to your client as PDF? If so, the "General" tab under "File - export as PDF" has an "Images" section and I suspect you have it set to "JPEG compression" or maybe have "Reduce image resolution" enabled.

        Switch it to "Lossless" and disable "Reduce image resolution" and try again - you'll find that will rather improves matters :). I would not invest too much in DTP this year: next year, Affinity are planning to release a DTP package and the software they've released so far suggests it may be worth the wait..

      3. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

        Scribus?

        Not tried it myself but it's available on Windows.

        https://www.scribus.net/

        1. breakfast Silver badge

          Re: Scribus?

          You have to learn to use it - the workflow is very much about publishing - but it seems to work pretty well, certainly a viable match to Publisher and way more usable than LibreOffice in terms of fitting images and text on the page together.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Linux

        LibreOffice pixelated images

        I see no pixelation on this screenshot of a PDF created in LibreOffice.

      5. Dave Lawton

        DTP for Windows - try Ovation Pro

        http://http://www.davidpilling.info/cd/main.html

      6. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Perhaps Paint is more your style?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >Stop whining. Start killing Microsoft instead!

      You could always move over to Amazon - they haven't put up their UK prices.

      .....although they charge in Dollars of course :)

      Don't understand the outrage or surprise - when the Pound crashed imports got expensive and importers like MS aren't going to cover it. Same thing with Apple the other day, same will happen over the next few months on High Street and in the supermarkets.

      1. tfewster
        Facepalm

        What's imported?

        https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/microsoft-azure-now-available-from-uk-datacenters/ - Posted on 7 September, 2016

        So the hardware is already there. Running costs are in £. Staff - Onsite staff will be paid in £.

        How do you want to be gouged today?

  2. Steelted

    UK is doomed!!!

    And who needs Microsoft? I prefer Linux.

    1. yossarianuk

      Re: UK is doomed!!!

      Me too.

      However the fact that police, schools, hospitals, councils, etc use Windows means the taxpayer will pay more of our tax on Microsoft.

      Migration to Linux for all public services would saves money over years, decades.

      Yes there would be a need to re-write apps (using open standards so we're never in the position of having to stick to an EOL OS to run in the future) and re-training but give it a decade or so and we would be saving money (whilst probably having a more efficient/secure system), it would mean not having to upgrade hardware in order to run the latest Windows (which the tax payer will be forking out for WinXP/7 -> Win10 upgrades) and has the added bonus of taxpayers money being used for the public good - the improvement of technology for everyone.

      1. Law

        Re: UK is doomed!!!

        "However the fact that police, schools, hospitals, councils, etc use Windows means the taxpayer will pay more of our tax on Microsoft."

        Good news, some NHS laptops are getting an upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8.1 this month! Money well spent!

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: UK is doomed!!!

      "And who needs Microsoft?"

      Those who've already been sucked into Azure? Note how those who are more strongly locked in get a steeper price rise than those who might find it easier to move to Linux. Nevertheless this is still slicing the salami rather thickly.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: UK is doomed!!!

        " than those who might find it easier to move to Linux"

        But - errm - lots of VMs on Azure DO run Linux....It's just that it's a better Amazon than Amazon...

        1. breakfast Silver badge

          Re: UK is doomed!!!

          Microsoft Azure: Amazon for people who like downtime.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: UK is doomed!!!

            "Microsoft Azure: Amazon for people who like downtime."

            I seem to recall rather more Amazon major outages....

      2. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: UK is doomed!!!

        Those who've already been sucked into Azure?

        That's the price of being an early adopter - you always pay more than everyone else and suffer more grief...

    3. Alan Bourke

      Re: UK is doomed!!!

      Who needs Microsoft? People who need the use the actual software that actual businesses need day to day? Gamers? And so forth.

      Well done if you run Linux. So do I. You're delusional if you think it will be the year of Linux on the consumer or corporate desktop any time soon though.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: UK is doomed!!!

        Well done if you run Linux. So do I. You're delusional if you think it will be the year of Linux on the consumer or corporate desktop any time soon though....

        Seems to be working well for IBM, now with the biggest corporate deployment in the world and paying less in support costs...

      2. Aitor 1

        Re: UK is doomed!!!

        It should be the year of the browser. A Pig to program.. but then you can use whatever browser if you did your job well.

        Corporate computers should run a hosted machine unless mobile (virtual desktops, etc).. and ppl should be careful about running things on the cloud.. it is really expensive.

        We run most of our services on the cloud, for the very simple reason that we are a small company and dont want to have to be "on the ready" 24/7.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: UK is doomed!!!

          It should be the year of the browser.

          Well remembered!

          Obviously, those who promoted browser style thin-clients must have been quietly taken to oneside and given a talking to; as they've been quietly forgotten about...

  3. Tom 64
    Megaphone

    Can we rename Brexit please?

    I'm not sure which tory spin doctor came up with 'brexit', but its really starting to get on my tits.

    How about 'clisterfuxit', or 'brexshit'?

    1. Len
      Coat

      Re: Can we rename Brexit please?

      Pig's Brexit?

    2. caffeine addict

      Re: Can we rename Brexit please?

      Nothing to do with the Tories - it came from the EuroActiv website, who stole it from "Grexit" which came from Citibank.

    3. Pen-y-gors

      Re: Can we rename Brexit please?

      Currently I'm rather fond of Wrexit

  4. mix
    Go

    Work the problem?

    I'm really tired of the doom-mongering for every possible brexit backlash. Another US conglomerate decides to hike its prices and everyone immediately blames the brexit voters, looking for a scapegoat.

    Seems to me that every company trying to make a buck out of this opportunity should be met with a "no thanks." whilst we buy/use something else. There is a solution to most problems, we just need our country(ies), its government and its people to stand up and make the decision work in the best interests of our country(ies).

    Linux for all I say. :)

    1. Terry Barnes

      Re: Work the problem?

      "we just need our country(ies), its government and its people to stand up and make the decision work in the best interests of our country(ies)."

      The best interest of our country is served by remaining in the EU.

      Asking people to get on with this is like decorating while your house is on fire.

      1. veti Silver badge

        Re: Work the problem?

        @Terry Barnes: The best interest of your country is served by ignoring a referendum result?

        Okay, I'm not saying you're wrong. But please, think through what that would mean, and what it would look like. Specifically, how the 52% would respond to it.

        Actually, I guess I am saying you're wrong, and I devoutly hope I'll be able to say the same thing to Trump voters in a couple more weeks. You lost. Get over it. That's how democracy works.

    2. mix

      Re: Work the problem?

      The thumbs up and down look like the vote results... :D

    3. Ben Tasker

      Re: Work the problem?

      > Seems to me that every company trying to make a buck out of this opportunity should be met with a "no thanks." whilst we buy/use something else

      Here's the thing. When you devalue your currency, the cost of things from foreign suppliers tends to rise as a result.

      If MS didn't allow us to buy in GBP, and instead only sold in USD, we'd still be spending more.

      It's not just opportunism, it's a direct result of the devaluation of the pound, which has come about as the result of businesses having serious concerns about the UK's prospects post-brexit.

      In my book, that's definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

      1. Jess

        Re: definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

        For sure, I totally agree.

        But of course given a legitimate cause for a price rise, how many companies are going to restrict that rise to just that which is justified?

        1. Tatsky

          Re: definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

          What's justified though. If you for a second imagine that not every corporate is evil (bear with me here) it's maybe prudent to assume the pound will fall further and so hedge your bets and increase the prices a little over the currency devaluation. That way if it does fall further you don't have to adjust your prices again, which would be a PR pig.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

            No, you make your local currency increase equal the decline in currency so you can say with a straight face that the change is entirely due to currency. Bear in mind that they'll be hoping that their competitors (?) will be pushing through similar increase for the same reason, or using MSFT's higher prices as a price umbrella.

        2. Terry Barnes

          Re: definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

          "how many companies are going to restrict that rise to just that which is justified?"

          For a global product it's in their interests to only do what's justified, else you create incentive for people to buy from the wrong market which causes all sorts of channel headaches.

        3. Hans 1
          Happy

          Re: definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

          >But of course given a legitimate cause for a price rise, how many companies are going to restrict that rise to just that which is justified?

          Do you understand business ? When you hike a price, you sell less, so you usually have to hike the price somewhat more to find the sweetspot ... that is why the hike is so much more than the actual devaluation of the pound.

          Besides, MS is losing money left-right and center ... don't worry, cloudy price hikes across the board/world to compensate for falling cashflow in other business units and the good part, as I told you, you cannot easily migrate from Office 360 ... I have pop corn, need more beer ...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        definitely something to dump at the feet of the leave crowd.

        Or perhaps at the feet of the media, political and industrial elites in the UK, and the non-elected and sort of elected elites (e.g. the unelected Junker, etc) who run the EU which created the conditions which led the majority of voters to vote for Brexit.

        You do realize that what the snowflakes in the metro areas like most about the EU, most of the rest of the country isn't included in and doesn't benefit from .....

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Work the problem?

      >Another US conglomerate decides to hike its prices and everyone immediately blames the brexit voters, looking for a scapegoat.

      It's not a matter of blame or scapegoats - it's simply reality. There's little point moaning about it whichever way you voted - either you lost or you got what you asked for! Remainers, BoE, pretty much all importers and even Johnson (in his recently leaked pro-Remain piece) predicted the increased cost of imports, crash of Pound etc .

    5. Tom_

      Re: Work the problem?

      "Seems to me that every company trying to make a buck out of this opportunity should be met with a "no thanks." whilst we buy/use something else."

      Good point. I'll just fish my Amstrad out of the loft. I'm sure that'll be fine for my dev job.

    6. coderguy

      Re: Work the problem?

      Sadly for Linux to be viable, those using the software need to realise there's no such thing as a free lunch and pony up for the feature they need. Use something like bountysource, kickstarter etc... or do it in-house I don't care. Waiting for the 'community' to build something that exactly matches their requirements is never going to happen. /rant.

      1. smot

        Re: Work the problem?

        "Waiting for the 'community' to build something that exactly matches their requirements is never going to happen".

        Funnily enough, all my company's specialist software is written for Windows, yet runs quite happily on the Linux desktop. Firebird replaces MS SQL Server for the database, but even this may not be necessary if MS releases the Linux version in 2017 as proposed.

        So no need to wait in many cases unless the software uses specific Windows hardware drivers.

    7. Aitor 1

      Re: Work the problem?

      We basically pay in dollars, plus some kind of "pound tax" ;) So prices keep up with the value of the pound.

      I am happy that we got a good pot of money/credit on our provider just before the pound crashed, so our "server" money wont go down for quite a while... and as we are using Linux servers (not the API) we can migrate to another provider or go onsite if needed.

  5. Mark C 2

    £

    Yes, the £ is taking a hit but wait 12 months until the Euro declines as the EU crumbles and see if MS drop their prices accordingly. My money's on the pound in the long run.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: £

      Since the UK will end up as a "migrant holding station" my betting is on the Euro....

      1. TheVogon

        Re: £

        "Since the UK will end up as a "migrant holding station" my betting is on the Euro...."

        I think you mean the EU will end up like that.

        Thanks to Brexit, the UK will at least have the option of saying NO once global warming really kicks in throughout the third world, and we get millions of migrants heading to Europe...

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: £

          Thanks to Brexit, the UK will at least have the option of saying NO once global warming really kicks in throughout the third world

          The UK (as a member of the EU) currently controls all non-EU migration into the UK! At the moment the "third-world" is outside of the EU... Brexit merely enables the UK to regain control of migration from EU countries...

    2. Len

      Re: £

      We have been hearing about the imminent collapse of the EU for about fifty years now and about the imminent collapse of the Eurozone for 17 years.

      What makes you so sure this time it is for real? Why didn't it happen when the situation looked a lot more precarious than now? Why did it not happen when EU debts and unemployment were rising but economic growth falling? Why would it happen now EU debts and unemployment are falling and economic growth increasing? Why did it not happen when the EU's popularity was at an all-time low? Our referendum has boosted EU popularity elsewhere in the EU and brought the other 27 countries closer together. I would say this is a most unlikely time for the EU to split.

      Currently the likelihood of Northern Ireland and/or Scotland leaving the UK is a lot higher and that will not be Sterling greatest day.

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