Skype has dropped linux. SKype is now dead to me and those I work with. Dustbin of history.
Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
121–130 of 285 posts
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
My gut says that Stewart doesn't take an 8B offer. But that, of course, raises the question of what number he does take. It's very hard to know.
It also raises the question of how much ownership he retains of the company and how much of this would actually be his decision (vs. his investors looking for an exit) given that they've raised a Series E round and have taken ~$340M in funding [1]. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/slack#/entity
Remember that the Series E round was on a very large valuation. He surely gave up a much greater % in the early days when the company was still working on a game.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#123Slack would have been a great investment for Microsoft.
Still, I look at Skype and realize that Slack would have probably declined in quality after an acquisition. Kind of glad it didn't pan out.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
>it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature I hear this saying a lot, and every time I just can't take it seriously. This is the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting customizable background colors for messages on a messaging platform. It's just not something I or anyone I know about cares about. I just can't see how that would be considered a high importance feature by anyone.
I seem to remember AIM allowing customized fonts and background colors around 15 years ago... Just sayin'
And a Porsche from 1992 can outrun a current day Prius, it doesn't make one better than the other...
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#125We initially used Skype on our team to communicate with others. However, the software was horribly buggy on OSX. Slack has become part of our main toolchain. It works, has the basic features you need and doesn't get in our way. The integrations are great and we'll continue to use them. Unless Microsoft rebuilds Skype for the ground up, I don't see us leaving Slack for it. They had their chance, and they dropped the b…
Microsoft had their chance and dropped the ball on a lot of things, but they always figure it out. Skype on OSX looks much better now and I suspect if they're focusing on Skype instead of spending $8B, then you're looking at serious competition.
Skype is most bloated app on my desktop excluding browsers.
Currently it takes 169Mb of memory doing nothing.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many new FOSS projects are now using Slack instead of IRC, with a variety of methods for auto-inviting members of the public instead of Slack's intent of manually managing users. Another popular one now is Discord, which is Slack-like but anecdotally better for large sets of users because of a more robust admin/permissions scheme.
I use Discord for gaming (which seems to be their main market?) and it is amazing how nice it is. I wonder if Slack could just buy them and integrate the voice features into Slack, or introduce their own similar functionality. The voice stuff is seriously very nice and something that Slack doesn't do at all.
Slack has voice in beta.
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/216771908-Making-vo...
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many new FOSS projects are now using Slack instead of IRC, with a variety of methods for auto-inviting members of the public instead of Slack's intent of manually managing users. Another popular one now is Discord, which is Slack-like but anecdotally better for large sets of users because of a more robust admin/permissions scheme.
I use Discord for gaming (which seems to be their main market?) and it is amazing how nice it is. I wonder if Slack could just buy them and integrate the voice features into Slack, or introduce their own similar functionality. The voice stuff is seriously very nice and something that Slack doesn't do at all.
Slack bought screenhero and is apparently working on integrating the screen sharing and audio into Slack.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#128We initially used Skype on our team to communicate with others. However, the software was horribly buggy on OSX. Slack has become part of our main toolchain. It works, has the basic features you need and doesn't get in our way. The integrations are great and we'll continue to use them. Unless Microsoft rebuilds Skype for the ground up, I don't see us leaving Slack for it. They had their chance, and they dropped the b…
As far as I know most people use Skype for business calls. Maybe "team communication" was something that can be done with Skype, but I don't really think it's their core focus. I think what them not buying Slack is implying is that they will start to try and actually compete with Slack directly. Instead of just internet telephony.
It's also used for video games a lot, but between leaking your IP and allowing esports players to get DDOSed, and just generally being not a great fit, Discord is getting more popular.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#129The real question is, would Stewart B. take the offer? Anyone who cares about their product knows a sale to MS is a death knell for innovation. Becoming a hit like Slack is such a rare opportunity. I mean, why are you in this business if not for a chance to build a transformative platform? Which is what Slack has right now, a chance.
My gut says that Stewart doesn't take an 8B offer. But that, of course, raises the question of what number he does take. It's very hard to know.
remember that Stewart is a Canadian and that 8 Billion US dollars is approximately 2.6 Trillion Canadian loonies, that's just about enough to get him a nice 2 bedroom condo somewhere near downtown Vancouver ;)
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#130Please focus on Skype, it's a mess. Now that we are no longer using HipChat, the buggiest application I use on a regular basis is Skype.
Would mind commenting on why you do not use HipChat anymore? Curious...
I kept getting logged out a couple of times a day, HipChat support recommended reverting to 3.X and "ignoring the upgrade popups". That didn't really help. It times out over night so the first thing you have to do in the morning is remember to "refresh" your HipChat connection. It doesn't flag conversations as having new content while you are away so catching up means visiting every room. It flushed my configuration a few times, so I had to reopen all the rooms I'm in and reconfigure all my settings.
Basically it became I tool I maintained instead of a tool that made my life easier.