📎 AI Summary:
The thread chronicles Axel PC’s initial skepticism about fully adopting Microsoft services, citing issues with Edge browser and launcher stability, but over time, he reports significant improvements and increased satisfaction with Microsoft products like Edge, Outlook, Office 365, and OneDrive. The conversation also includes a cautious perspective from another user, who warns against fully committing to Microsoft’s ecosystem, favoring Google and Linux instead. Overall, Axel’s experience shifts from frustration to appreciation as he finds Microsoft's offerings increasingly reliable and feature-rich, though he still prefers some third-party services like Spotify for music.
Axel PC

Axel PC

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So I'm trying a little (actually big) experiment. I'm switching over to all Microsoft services and products; Edge, email, music, Office, and apps. Does anyone have any tips or recommendations? Or some good websites that are dedicated to being all in on Microsoft, maybe some aspirin to use as I migrate over lol?

Am I crazy???
 

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Axel PC
So I've been all-in on Microsoft services and they've come a long way since this post.

Browser: Edge is great for both iOS and Windows!
Email: Outlook mobile is a great app on iOS. I use a PWA of Outlook on my Windows laptop.
Calendar: Outlook email calendar has all the features of Google's calendar. However, I just wish it was available as a separate app.
Office: Office 365 is great, always has been.
Cloud backup: OneDrive, since I pay for 365 I have 1TB of cloud storage for 6 family members. This has been a lifesaver!
Music: lol well we all know what happened to Microsoft in that area. I use Spotify for music.
ToDo: is one of my favorite Microsoft apps. Don't use/waste paper, I love the minimal interface, syncs with my iPhone and...
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Axel PC

Axel PC

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OK so already I'm having issues with Edge. On a certain financial site the menus don't work right or get stuck. And then on a major car manufacture site some of the pages don't load. Pages where you'd look up car parts and a results window comes up inside the page. Wow this is already disappointing.

The mobile browser is slick looking. But man it lets in a ton of ads and pages take longer to load. With Firefox and all the right extensions loaded this isn't an issue.

Anyone else have similar issues with Edge?
 

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Axel PC

Axel PC

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Man the Microsoft launcher looks nice and some neat features but crashes and slows my phone down.

Anyone use the Microsoft launcher for Android?

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 

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Mike

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Axel PC said:
So I'm trying a little (actually big) experiment. I'm switching over to all Microsoft services and products; Edge, email, music, Office, and apps. Does anyone have any tips or recommendations? Or some good websites that are dedicated to being all in on Microsoft, maybe some aspirin to use as I migrate over lol?

Am I crazy???
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I don't recommend this. LOL. I can't recommend it. Google offers better services for this, IMO. I do not use any of this stuff, especially the launcher. Never happening. I still use Office, but thats about it. I would run Linux before Windows Server, unless I needed domain controller in a medium to large enterprise environment. I don't see the need. With Azure you get some interesting stuff, and I guess, similarly with Office 365, but it is similar to other offerings. The difference is, is that if you have an Android phone, having Microsoft as your main platform becomes a pain in the butt, since you already have Google contacts, etc. If this changes, maybe I'd consider it, but probably not. Don't get me wrong. I like Windows and Microsoft products. But I'm not entirely sold on "entering their ecosystem and never leaving"!
 

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Axel PC

Axel PC

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Lol yeah I knew there'd be some head aches but since I'm running Windows 10 I figured why not.

I agree that Google's services are better in that they run smoother, more intuitive interface, more polished and up to date.

Cortana is neat and fun at the simple weather and tell me a joke stuff. But can't compete with Google's ability to continue to ask questions about the same topic.

I can't decide whether to use Mail/Calendar or Outlook on my laptop. That'd be so confusing for someone new to this. And both calendars can't hold a candle to Google calendar: features, nice looking UI, and consistency across devices.

Edge... OMG. I want it to work well. But it's slow with menus opening, certain extensions I use are annoying slow. But I do enjoy surfing the web on it.


But I'm gonna stick out a few more weeks see what else I can complain about. And post here about it. You can post the I told you so comments lol.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 

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Axel PC

Axel PC

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So I've been all-in on Microsoft services and they've come a long way since this post.

Browser: Edge is great for both iOS and Windows!
Email: Outlook mobile is a great app on iOS. I use a PWA of Outlook on my Windows laptop.
Calendar: Outlook email calendar has all the features of Google's calendar. However, I just wish it was available as a separate app.
Office: Office 365 is great, always has been.
Cloud backup: OneDrive, since I pay for 365 I have 1TB of cloud storage for 6 family members. This has been a lifesaver!
Music: lol well we all know what happened to Microsoft in that area. I use Spotify for music.
ToDo: is one of my favorite Microsoft apps. Don't use/waste paper, I love the minimal interface, syncs with my iPhone and Windows laptop.
News: Microsoft News, Sports, and Money. I'm not so crazy about them. They've come a long way and I've grown used to using them and it shows me what I want. I just don't like the flow or layout of the stories. I like how Google News shows everything. But it's the same stuff. I've experimented with both and I'm getting the same content shown to me.
Misc:
  • Yammer, is pretty neat but that's for work and even then I find myself using it a lot to stay up on certain groups and just information with work and interaction on it.
  • Teams: I work from home now because of Covid. I mostly use Teams on my work laptop. However, there have been several times when having it on my phone was a lifesaver (IT issues with work laptop) and just keeping up with work situations via Teams.
  • Xbox: Xbox Game Pass and Xbox app. I use this a lot to manage my account and my kids along with communicating with them to be quiet when they're yelling "let's go!" ugh smh lol.
  • Microsoft Translator: the layout isn't as nice as Googles but it gets the job done just fine.
  • Microsoft Authenticator: I use it for work not personally. I would if it could sync across devices as Authy does.
  • Microsoft Lens: I use this app a lot. I used to scan paperwork (bills, letters, quotes, etc.) into PDFs to save on my laptop. Now I just use this app and it's more convenient than pulling out the scanner.
  • Bing iOS search app. It's neat and I'll use it every now and then to see what the feed shows me. But I just use Edge.

So how have other's experiences with Microsoft services been?
 

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