I started my career in 2016. Since then, with the exception of my time at Network to Code, I have used Outlook as my mail client. I have also used it in German the entire time. This morning I opened my work calendar and looked at a colleagues week to schedule an appointment. They had 3 appointments across the entire week, I presume blockers or reminders. All of them marked as “free” in English, just that the translation suddenly, after being correct for those 10 years I have been using Outlook, was no longer the correct “frei” (free as in freedom), but had become the “kostenlos” (free as in beer). This is, of course, wildly incorrect and incredibly amusing.

Pasted image 20260821095800

To make it even better, the same word shows up correctly when I go to create a new appointment.

Pasted image 20260821095740

I would love to know what prompted (heh) this change!