Mildly Infuriating

You have a better, equally integrated solution?

I mean, we do. Linux OS, Libre Office, Apache servers, Linux Cloud Service of Choice, PostgreSQL.

But you need techs familiar with those systems and businesses eager to implement Linux at a foundational level early on in the company's development. Because a lot of businesses outsource their IT early on, and because a lot of end-user hardware has Microsoft pre-installed, and because the major IT outsourcers all get big kickbacks from Microsoft to be the default solutions, and because Microsoft has embedded itself at the university level at a global scale, and because Microsoft has successfully lobbied itself as the premier US contractor of choice for federal and state IT setups, it can be harder to find professionals willing and able to configure a Linux environment. This is assuming the company founders even think to ask for alternatives.

That's not to say it never happens. FFS, some of the biggest competitors to Microsoft - Amazon and Google most notably - have relied on Linux/PostgreSQL architecture to keep their overhead low and their integrations non-exclusive. But they're exceptional precisely because they laid the groundwork early.

The problem isn't that integrated solutions don't exist. The problem is that most CTOs don't embrace them early on in the company's development and find themselves trapped in the Microsoft ecosystem well after the point a transition would be easy.

I'm transitioning my (very small) office to OnlyOffice and OwnCloud this summer. I have a lot of autonomy so I can basically just make the decision.

I'm choosing OnlyOffice over LibreOffice because it's a more similar to 360 an I will have to help the staff with very little tech literacy through the transition.

We're not ready to transition the OS just yet (and may not be able to), but as the hardware ages, we may change over some of the less essential systems. Probably Ubuntu or Zorin.

The integration is Microsoft's monopoly behaviour which anti-trust organisation no longer put a stop to. There are alternatives but they struggle to match the level of integration Microsoft can achieve owning and making all of the office suite.

However European local and regional government have been moving over to Office alternatives such as Collabora, Onlyoffice and Libreoffice. Collabora & Onlyoffice are particularly designed for online use and collaboration.

There are also alternatives to the Exchange email system, with Nextcloud one of a few that can either be bought as a service or self deployed by organisations and individuals.

The biggest benefits are total control and privacy of data, plus better cost. Microsoft clients don't generally get any of this, with the increasing push to integrate online services and try to forcably up-sell by bundling in stuff customers don't need but have to buy to get the things they want or need. Microsoft rely on inertia and vendor lock-in; once you become dependent on their services it makes it seem impossible to get out and move to a new system.

You're the employee? Why would it matter to you what they use? Do your job, go home.