Advertising in Microsoft Excel

I was just shown an (admittedly low-key) ad for OneDrive Mobile in Excel.

Just under the ribbon bar, where little notifications bars sometimes show useful information such as when a file is read-only or if a file needs to be Checked-Out to edit, a grey notification bar popped up an Information icon (blue circle with an 'i' in it) with the following text:

TAKE YOUR FILES WITH YOU View, share and edit files wherever you are with the OneDrive mobile app.

Followed by a button labelled "Download OneDrive".

This is on my work laptop, which has OneDrive installed and running.

I don't like this. Maybe I'm oversensitive because I also don't like OneDrive and I don't like advertising. Is this new? Slippery slopes aren't a valid point of argument, but this is yet another step, of many, down said slope.

12 points | by BLKNSLVR 1 day ago

3 comments

  • anon1395 1 day ago
    > Is this new?

    No, Office has been like this since 2016, where you can only autosave on OneDrive.

    • callamdelaney 23 hours ago
      That is utterly hilarious. As if somehow the cloud enables autostave more capably than say, your ssd. Microsoft really is a shitshow.
  • add-sub-mul-div 1 day ago
    Yes and my Ubuntu motd advertises some premium service of theirs. I can choose to be outraged or not outraged, and my life is better if I choose the latter.
    • firefax 18 hours ago
      Why not just use plain Debian? Uses same package manager etc w/o these... "features".
    • szszrk 20 hours ago
      In contrary to other comments, keep using Ubuntu, just use CTRL+l.

      ... or change MOTD (/etc/default/motd-news)

      I'd rather bash Ubuntu for more controversial actions, like pushing snapd by default. Or pretending apps are .deb packages while they are snaps in disguise.

    • tempacc_3839 21 hours ago
      Just use mint
    • callamdelaney 23 hours ago
      Just use arch
  • markus_zhang 15 hours ago
    It has been there for a while. On reason or another, I'm glad I don't need to use Office anymore.