Guess we know who their next target is.
This is because they can't convince the schools to ditch their existing perpetual licenses of previous Office versions in favor of mildly updated ones with built-in cheating machines.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
180 points (97.9% liked)
Fuck AI
5268 readers
2588 users here now
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
«Maximize value» 🤮 This brainrot is destroying our fucking society.
Pugh
They named their company after the noise you make when you realize they sell AI
Book a call with them, then put an AI agent or scripted bot on to waste their time!
That doesn't work when the employee on the other end of the line gets paid for that time.
Sure it does, they're denied a sale, their time is wasted, and it makes the enterprise they work for that much less profitable.
This is how Microsoft has always done this adoption stuff. I'm surprised this is only coming out now. Probably has been happening to the larger institutions for much longer. They get the "next generation" hooked on free product that is part of the education system and then it's just part of what they do naturally.
I was in college when .Net was just being rolled out and we all got free licenses to Visual Studio. Also had licenses for Adobe products and pretty much any other major player. Just had to ask the right IT person how to get a disc and license key. They only worked for 4-5 years before going dormant, but some of us kept in touch with internal staff and got it for several years after that as well.
If you're in college, don't fall for the free taste. There's always a catch.
I'm ok with the free educational license business model, but the product has to be useful for that to work. Who's going to buy dogshit at their job just because they got free dogshit in school? Only dogshit shills, that's who.
It doesn't always need to be useful. If the businesses are bought in, the students got the tools for free or were required to use them during their uni experience, and it's now listed as a requirement on job listings it's suddenly a need in society. That is already happening whether we like it or not.
Yup I know a few people that use ms 360 in uni "because it's free". The same people will be the first ones to ask their superior to buy it for them at work.
Dunno I get it, life's hard enough, but come on.
- Written from linux :P
O365 is a little different because of the utility and backwards compatibility of Excel. My last shop was all Google, but I still had to buy Office for accounting and HR (for some reason).
One can quickly learn their way around other office programs, but Excel is the killer app in office productivity.
I know it's like that, but like Postgres is right there, actually works as a database, and can handle A LOT of data, and has many nice and readable options for data manipulation.
Everybody is losing out by using Excel for data storage instead of Postgres.
"copilot journey"??!!
I abhor that kind of soft, stupid language they use to pretend what they have is worth anything whatsoever.
You just need a hammer and a hard surface... If you don't start asking copilot questions you'll have to put your hand here on this rock so we can hammer it flat!
Fuck this. I'm going to complaint to my schools so my kids don't get forced to use AI.
Trying to sell your widget for "educational purposes" while destroying the educational infrastructure in your country is so american.
This reads as if it's really office 365 they're trying to sell, but the name change are really going to backfire IMHO.
The LA signed up the local primary schools with the free tier of M365 for Education years ago. It gives them access to email and SharePoint, which is all most of them need.
Asking cash-strapped schools to pay for something they can get for free (teachers are all over ChatGPT and Canva) isn't going to get 'em very far, no matter how many orifices they try to jam Copilot into.
What's Pugh?
As in “Pepe le”?
Oh God, they did not think that one through, did they? 🤣
It’s the person who received this emails MS partner.
MS farms implementations out to 3rd parties, so Pugh is a company that will help you get everything setup, provide trainings, try to upsell you, etc.
The partners can be annoying or helpful. One place I worked th partner got MS to pay for a 500k implementation fee for some products.
...i think they're a software vendor...
I think the email is intentionally vague so you'll click the link and they can track your attention. Clickbait, basically. Same reason they don't give you any pricing.