The new M365 Outlook is just webmail. Every upgrade is actually a reduction in functionality as they align to the web version. The good news is this eliminates the need for Windows.
Yes! I’m so close to being able to switch the office PC to Linux. I only really use Outlook and Teams, everything else is in a terminal.
Now to convince Security that I don’t need their intrusive logging and scanning crap…
Outlook and Teams have PWAs that are actually more performant than the desktop apps (anecdotal). They are missing some features, but for the opportunity to use Linux at work, I make it work. Have to use Ubuntu for some unknown reason, but it’s better than using Windows
For some reason our business policy doesn’t allow us to use the web versions…
Ubuntu is very popular in businesses cus it’s Debian but with official enterprise support (I strongly dislike both though).
Luckily all my work is in WSL2 Arch terminal with tmux, so it’s bearable, but I miss my rice setup so much!
Microsoft is just awful at doing basic shit. Office or M365 or copilot or whatever it is called is a mess of new tabs, signing in and duplication of services.
Christ outlook sucks but it isnt even top five of how shit they are.
New Outlook for Windows sucks. I tried it a few months ago and it is like a mobile app for idiots. It lacks many settings and many things. It is like windows 11, you need to do extra steps for stuff and settings you want. Also if you have only a standalone office and not a Office365 subscription they have ads, like their mobile app. Fucking Microsoft.
…depending upon the week, somewhere between ⅔ and ⅘ of my workflow can be in outlook…
…our IT policy required a shift to new outlook last year and it devastated my productivity: i struggled against its user-hostile interface for a couple of weeks and eventually just stayed home so i could get work done, despite our back-to-office mandate…in short order i was given an administrator account and i’m back on old outlook again…
I’ve been paying for Office365 home for years. Recently I started a business and signed up for 365 Business for the company email address.
Outlook stopped working, because the 365 Business account - which I specifically signed up in order to do email - doesn’t include local Outlook, and my existing home-licensed one throws a hissy fit if I try connecting it to my business account.
Microsoft sucks.
I’ve stepped away from Microsoft. Not my favourite company regarding mailing and chatting.
How… how do they not have a smooth on-ramp for what is basically a straight upgrade to the same service?!
I still think there is a group of people working at microsoft, pulling the strings to dismantle the company from the inside. I haven’t seen an update that makes things better for any of their projects in years
Same with Google.
I imagine Microsoft has the same problem as Google, which is internally prioritizing flashy new things over maintaining useful old things. That’s why Google comes out with so many new things and kills so many old things.
If you want a raise/promotion/etc., you have a better shot at it by bragging about the new feature/service you launched than bragging about maintaining the relatively stable project that’s been running for years but could use some improvements.
It’s a really bad structure imo and I hate that Google and other companies prioritize like that :/
Same with the US govt.
Do u mean doge?
I asked my magic 8 ball about this and it said “Outlook not so good”
Hah, I JUST had a conversation with my boss about whether or not I was using the “new” outlook or the “old” outlook.
He’s apparently using the “old” outlook because there’s a toggle switch in the upper right of his window that says “try the new outlook!” and I don’t have that, meaning…I guess I’m using the “new” outlook?
Who knows at this point. It’s all trash.
https://outlook.office365.com/mail/inbox
^ this is the new version lmao. It’s just an electron app (more or less)
In my last job I installed Outlook on my personal phone to access my work calendar conveniently. Found out from a colleague that if the admin for an Outlook server you’re signed into on any device fucks up badly enough you could end up having that device completely wiped so I promptly uninstalled it.
Yeah, you’re talking about MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions/tech. I’m not an IT employee myself, but I am familiar with these things from work (similar situation as yours), and also because I’m a nerd and like researching these things.
On some phones, like Samsung’s (“Secure Folder”), you can have [essentially] a second, containerized instance of Android running. Or you can think of it like a virtual second user that ultimately you have control of. So what I did was install Outlook in that. Because the MDM permissions (e.g. wipe the phone) would only affect that container.
Otherwise, for everyone else – yeah don’t install work apps/accounts on your personal devices.
Just to expand on this. There is an Exchange specific wipe feature. I think it is quite old school and not really used. Have seen it, but never tested it myself. As per documentation it can perform device wipe, but only if native mail client using ActiveSync is used not Outlook. And it probably does not work with all native mail clients, depends if app has device admin permissions.
Current Intune MDM model always uses separate Android storage so any operation including wipe will affect only this storage not your personal space so employer can not see nor delete your personal data.
In Intune there is another option without a need of enrolling device (MDM) where you can manage supported apps. It’s called MAM. If wipe is initiated it affects only data in all apps that support MAM.
In short, companies / schools cannot really wipe your device if we are talking about Intune MDM. Other MDM solutions probably can.
Activesync
Now, that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time.
My understanding is that it’s called work profile. It’s like having 2 users in the same phone. One is personal and you manage it. The other is company owned and you can only install apps whitelisted by your it admin.
this is still objectionable
why does my employer presume it can commandeer my personal property? the only sound policy is to never let work stuff touch personal computers and vice versa. The workplace is like a gas, if you give it the empty space it will keep expanding to fill it
where the hell did my property rights go once one of my PCs got a radio?
I’d love to keep outlook off my personal phone but there’s no chance I’m getting a company phone considering I’m a shop employee and everything in it is an afterthought for IT. Like our computers still run windows 7.
Unfortunately I need email to do my job, on a ping system for what to test and general communications with coworkers who are often not there or traveling in the field.
That’s fair. I should have said *if you can help it.
here’s some advice from me. Outlook is completely usable from a web browser. This includes phone browsers… just use that if you need your emails on your personal phone.
All of Microsoft office products haven’t changed for the good in more than a decade. I still use office 2007 on my personal desktop and 90% of the features and buttons are in the same spot as the current office 365 offering.
Only thing that is an improvement is live collaboration, but that’s getting constantly screwed up by one drive sucking ass.
Whichever version it is, I hope that one day I can delete a mail, change my mind, press ctrl-z and it will actually undo the last delete and not some random one from earlier in the day.
I just stopped deleting everything and now use my archive as a trash instead
I work in government, and on mobile devices Outlook government accounts are restricted so that all other accounts have to be removed from the app.
It sounds like a great security feature, but since I need access to 3 accounts for reasons, I’ve got one version installed on my city phone, one on my tablet, and had to install another on my personal phone.
We’re budgeting in a second city phone for me next year because Outlook sucks.
If this is Android look into enrollment which will use separate storage called work profile so you will essentially have 2 independent copies of Outlook. Or it might be possible to have second copy of Outlook depending on your Android flavour. Samsung has Secure Folder for example.
And if these 3 mailboxes belong in same organization, you can utilize delegation and add them as shared mailboxes.
Oh, I’ve tried the shared mailbox thing. I had it at my last city and it worked fine, but our third-party IT service contractor here is the shittiest I’ve ever heard of.
Yeah, experience can be wildly different depending who manages environment.
They took 3 weeks to attach my new plotter to the network because they didn’t know how to figure out how to trace a fucking Cat 5 cable.
We have 12 employees in the city. My home office has a more complicated network closet.
As a help desk worker, I am starting to get tired of Microsoft’s bullshit.
Try something new and it doesn’t work out? Fine. That’s reasonable.
But can we stop breaking what was already working?
This is what happens with innovation when only monopolies are left on the board.
Name an industry, it’s the same. But here’s the dog shit. You still have to give shareholders returns. When you ran out of shit to innovate like 25 years ago, ran out of companies to buy 10 years ago, and already captured the regulatory bodies. Congrats it’s game over.
Except it’s never game over. Just squeeze one side til the toothpaste runs out.
Sounds like that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.
And they are all terrible and constantly getting worse.
My work and my former university uses outlook and Ms apps as their primary line of communication . It’s like the most counterintuitive site there is
The good news is that Outlook doesn’t confuse anybody who hasn’t used it in years (or never). Last time I did was when I worked at MS. Hasn’t been a problem since.
Bullshit, new outlook is total garbage. I dragged a folder inside a folder in the left column and it fucking disappeared. Had to revert back to classic, otherwise folder was in a black hole. Plus other issues like plugins.
I install classic on every computer I setup now.
I think the parents suggestion was to not use it.
However, it’s a bit like avoiding water on a boat given how pervasive the cancer is.
Most of the MS suite is pretty awful. OG OneNote was a good idea. VSCode is ok, just quite slow. Oh LSP is fantastic, I believe that was developed by MS.
The Office Suite and PowerBI are terrible, by 2025 standards it’s glossy trash.
Yeah, businesses are pretty much entrenched in it if they want to work well with the outside world.
