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Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

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Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#31

Post by taspeotis »

tozeur wrote: post #27

The one video chat app alternative no ones talking about because the majority of HNers don’t work in Microsoft shops: Teams, with 44 million DAU.

We use it, it's fine. Although it gets some hate with the executives because we can't have more than four people on screen at any one time. I think they lament they can't have a panopticon of everybody at once? There's a blog post from Microsoft with a nebulous commitment to increase it to nine.

Honestly I don't care about seeing who's in the meeting beside who's speaking so four is plenty.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#32

Post by ultimoo »

rshnotsecure wrote: post #20

Zoom has about 130,000 subdomains. Cisco, established 20 years earlier and operating in the same space and many more, has 45,000. About 40-50k of Zoom's subdomains are customers. Company.Zoom.Us. About 5k of the subdomains reference MMR. Likely this means "Meet Me Rooms" which are seen in data centers. About 200 contain the word tracking, 300 the word face, and 400 the word elasticsearch. Something like 700 contain t…

This is some great sleuthing! Thanks for sharing it. If you don't mind me asking, how did you list out all the 130k subdomains?

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#33

Post by notJim »

Traster wrote: post #22
tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

Zoom has gone from being a boring piece of enterprise software to being central in lots of engineers lives and unfortunately they were in the "grow quickly and apologise later" section of their development cycle when they suddenly were big and were apologizing . They prioritzed ease of use on the engineering side, and corporate sales on the business side. They never planned ot be mission critical, but don't think for…

> They never planned ot be mission critical

How do you figure? Wouldn't any enterprise-focused video conferencing software be considered mission critical?

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#34

Post by notJim »

jdlyga wrote: post #2

We use BlueJeans at work, and for my part time master's program. It doesn't have virtual backgrounds like Zoom, but it is very reliable and easy to use.

We used to use BlueJeans where I worked, and the UX was awful compared to zoom. Just bog standard baffling stuff you expect from a video conferencing app, which Zoom finally got away from.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#36

Post by [deleted] »

rshnotsecure wrote: post #20

Zoom has about 130,000 subdomains. Cisco, established 20 years earlier and operating in the same space and many more, has 45,000. About 40-50k of Zoom's subdomains are customers. Company.Zoom.Us. About 5k of the subdomains reference MMR. Likely this means "Meet Me Rooms" which are seen in data centers. About 200 contain the word tracking, 300 the word face, and 400 the word elasticsearch. Something like 700 contain t…

[deleted]

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#37

Post by tylerhou »

notJim wrote: post #33
Traster wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zoom has gone from being a boring piece of enterprise software to being central in lots of engineers lives and unfortunately they were in the "grow quickly and apologise later" section of their development cycle when they suddenly were big and were apologizing . They prioritzed ease of use on the engineering side, and corporate sales on the business side. They never planned ot be mission critical, but don't think for…

> They never planned ot be mission critical How do you figure? Wouldn't any enterprise-focused video conferencing software be considered mission critical?

Before COVID most non-remote companies could still function if their VC was broken; now it's impossible without VC.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#38

Post by dntbnmpls »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #6

Reliability goes a long way and Zoom is very reliable, especially considering the recent spike of users. I value privacy, but I think the jury is still out on this company. They need time to react to the public scolding they're enduring as of late. Hopefully things change for the better and they take security more seriously after this. EDIT: A word

> Reliability goes a long way and Zoom is very reliable, especially considering the recent spike of users.

Sad but true. Also, most of the tech industry knows this. That's why they ( especially startups ) forgo security for growth. Perversely, one of the signs you've succeeded as a startup is people complain about security. It means that your product has grown so much that it reached those who are concerned about security. It means your product is no longer for hobbyists but a tool for serious business/government/etc use.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#39

Post by dig1 »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #6

Reliability goes a long way and Zoom is very reliable, especially considering the recent spike of users. I value privacy, but I think the jury is still out on this company. They need time to react to the public scolding they're enduring as of late. Hopefully things change for the better and they take security more seriously after this. EDIT: A word

Had a meeting tonight with over 50 participants. Screen sharing. Not a single hitch or problem.

In the past tried multiple times with Hangouts (dies after you get more than 4 on board), jitsi meet (not good with bad connections), Slack (good luck with video), Hipchat (video doesn't work for more than 3 participants) and Skype (connection drops). On one of my previous gigs, we ditched everything and took Mumble + google docs for showcase.

Before Zoom, Skype was good enough, until they messed it up. My presumption is that all of these tools are developed in perfect environment: ideal network, minimal latency, close peers, single OS. As soon as you start to drift from those presumptions, complete breakdown happens.

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