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Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

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Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#31

Post by CaptSpify »

moheeb wrote: post #19
untog wrote: post #4

Sad thing is that Slack would be a far better fit for Microsoft, given that it's primarily business-focused. I've used Skype for work but only because it's the only option we've had, not because anyone actually wants to use it. Hangouts and Slack are so much more business-friendly. That said, I think MS made the right call given that they already own Skype. It could be good - great, even - if they actually tried . Th…

I don't understand why Skype is so crappy. Most Microsoft software is at the very least average, with several products being industry standards. Why is Skype so different?

Agreed that it's weird. IME, Microsoft is always best when they have healthy competition. They only get crappy when they are the monopoly, so why is it different for skype?

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#32

Post by minionslave »

moheeb wrote: post #19
untog wrote: post #4

Sad thing is that Slack would be a far better fit for Microsoft, given that it's primarily business-focused. I've used Skype for work but only because it's the only option we've had, not because anyone actually wants to use it. Hangouts and Slack are so much more business-friendly. That said, I think MS made the right call given that they already own Skype. It could be good - great, even - if they actually tried . Th…

I don't understand why Skype is so crappy. Most Microsoft software is at the very least average, with several products being industry standards. Why is Skype so different?

Every software project is maintained by different teams, sometimes different departments. For example the Office team is managed differently from the Bing team. Just like the Visual Studio team will have a different management from the Skype one.

It is possible that the skype team has a different standard, different priorities imposed by the managers.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#33

Post by kozukumi »

ue_ wrote: post #20
chollida1 wrote: post #7

I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…

>get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool I wonder if this rule holds just as much for IRC - for most FOSS projects, IRC is the go-to choice, and it's been that way for a long time.

The reason IRC is still king is because it is so damn simple. You can plug literally anything into it as a bot. When I was at Facebook we used IRC extensively for builds, deployments, testing, etc. It is just ridiculously simple to plug any part of your infrastructure into it that using anything else just feels like a waste of time.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#34

Post by jefflinwood »

Here's a list of Microsoft's announced acquisitions:

https://www.microsoft.com/investor/Stock/AcquisitonHistory/A... (warning, asked for an MS Login first)

From their results from previous acquisitions, I don't understand what they think they would get by purchasing Slack (unless it is a purely defensive move against Slack developing an in-house document collaboration service, Office 365/Google Docs style).

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#35

Post by hyperliner »

chollida1 wrote: post #7

I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…

This is a very interesting point. Is there any IP in Slack? Or can Microsoft build it in Office / Skype / etc etc and basically block Slack off of the enterprise?

Building the ecosystem would be tough, but the capability seems doable by Microsoft or any other company with resources (Google?).

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#36

Post by gshulegaard »

chollida1 wrote: post #7

I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…

> It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool.

You've definitely got a point there. Although I do want to mention that part of the reason Slack eclipsed other tools was, in part, its Websocket based protocol. They have created a fairly complete unified messaging application because of it (IMO).

They were the first movers in the area. I don't know if I would provide much of a meaningful discussion regarding the longer term viability of Slack, but I think they have a chance to be meaningful, maybe even dominate in 10 years time.

They are already Websocket based and they are moving towards WebRTC support...if they take that direction and add P2P support to provide truly secure encrypted communications where certificates are negotiated P2P, then I think they will explode to even greater heights than they have already achieved. Of course, this is not a simple task, but the business implications of truly secure communications channels would be compelling for most corporate enterprises.

Now this is not the same as 100% secure endpoints, but it would be a massive step in the right direction.

Edit: Forgot to add P2P link... https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/WebRT...

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#37

Post by Syrup-tan »

sand500 wrote: post #8

Switched from Skype to Discord for gaming. No regrets.

The unofficial API community is also really great, and there are a plethora of libraries to choose from to get something working quickly.

https://blog.discordapp.com/the-robot-revolution-has-unoffic...

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#38

Post by lmm »

yeukhon wrote: post #28
ue_ wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool I wonder if this rule holds just as much for IRC - for most FOSS projects, IRC is the go-to choice, and it's been that way for a long time.

IRC is my favorite, but IRC is bad for company, because you have to manage your own IRC server (you don't want to host your company stuff on freenode, do you). Also, IRC doesn't come with any integration with third party tools. Unless you have a very willing hacker willing to build the integration from scratch, IRC is bad. Not that you would never find a use case to write custom bot on Slack for your need, but I imag…

Established OSS tools like Jenkins already have IRC integration.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#39

Post by horsecaptin »

I've always thought of Skype as a personal product that was also used for business, and Slack as a primarily business oriented product. I'm afraid if Skype gets more features rammed into it for groupware, then it'll be even more bloated.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#40

Post by Coding_Cat »

abawany wrote: post #30
moheeb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why Skype is so crappy. Most Microsoft software is at the very least average, with several products being industry standards. Why is Skype so different?

For me Skype has been great for years. Sure the Windows Store version was unusable but switching back to the regular version fixed issues for me. I saw it used at my last workplace to great savings - they used it to speak to their offshore person for free. We switched to Slack there but Skype continued to be used for voice communications. Microsoft also owns GroupMe (www.groupme.com) and that solution has been pretty…

That doesn't sound so much as Skype being good as VOIP being good too you. Skype itself in my experience, and all those I know, has been abhorrent. Chat messages appearing out of order and once literally months later, incorrect status indicators, automatic noise cancelling messes up the volume sometimes (it seems to happen when the signal/noise plummets for a bit) forcing you to recall to get usable audio levels again, multi-platform support is a joke, having to delete %appdata% every other update in order to be able to log in, intrusive ads, a lack of audio device at startup seems to freeze up any windows audio afterwards until Skype is killed (This could be Windows itself ofc, but it's both Microsoft)...

As an aside, this is regular old Skype, I've heard it being said that "Skype for Business" is a completely different program.

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