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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

#101

Post by atmosx »

cheez wrote: post #97
cdnsteve wrote: post #93

We 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.

I have a different experience. It was bad before MS came in and got way worst after - except the icon. The icon now is way more slick! But that won't cut it...

Plus, I would never use it professionally since Skype (and MS in general) are the extreme low in regards to privacy.

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

#102

Post by yeukhon »

nrjames wrote: post #73
yeukhon wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of enterprise claim to run their own services, but in reality, they outsource to third party to host them, for example, centurylink for active directory or some vendor for managed exchange servers. Heck, a lot of companies bought 365 and Box. People use Skype for communication, passwords are being thrown all over emails and chats. Code are on GitHub. While there is auditing in place, the reality is, a lot of en…

Yep, I'm well aware of all of that because I sit on our "Cloud Technology Advisory Committee," which feels like a scene from Brazil. However, many here work with sensitive PHI and various types of classified data, so the concerns are bound to contractual agreements with clients and our ability to win work is contingent upon standing up to audits that verify our claims regarding data ownership, security, etc. I wouldn…

Certainly. Another option is HipChat, which you can host on-premise. I actually prefer HipChat because of the simplistic UI. Now both Slack and HipChat support video call is a great plus because I don't have to switch between tools. Slack UI is noisy to me, but the growing ecosystem is fantastic. Ugh.

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

#103

Post by kcorbitt »

Klathmon wrote: post #88
baddox wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack seems to have mostly eclipsed Hipchat, at least among Silicon Valley startups, but integrations probably weren't a huge factor in that. Slack does have a nicer flow for integrations, but Hipchat worked quite well (and actually had much-missed features like customizing the background color of messages; it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature).

>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.

HipChat's colored messages made it easy to see the error messages in a stream of mostly unimportant notifications. Slack kinda lets you do the same thing with a vertical colored bar to the left of the message, but important/error messages are much less visually distinct.

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

#104

Post by abawany »

Coding_Cat wrote: post #40
abawany wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 agai…

I remember performing the periodic AppData cleanup in 2009/2010 but haven't had to do that in the last few years. It was during that time that the chat delay issues were very common as well. From my point of view, while the Microsoft takeover and remake initially brought difficulties with login, the recent versions were not too bad apart from the Windows 8 Store version mess. But that is just my experience.

While I personally don't use the chat functionality that often anymore, the few times I have used it (say when an interview was being done over Skype), it worked ok but I realize that is hardly a high-use model. I agree that other messaging solutions such as Hangouts, HipChat, Slack, GroupMe, and etc. appear to perform much more seamlessly without needing to be aware of idiosyncrasies.

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

#106

Post by rb808 »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #55

What a disaster that would have been. The people that use Slack are much younger than the enterprise customers that Microsoft has. It would have been another failed acquisition. Plus we used Slack and moved aggressively back to HipChat. I thought it was fine but there's no real difference between Slack and Hipchat.

Xbox & minecraft users are often much youger that Slack users and that acquisition worked well.

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

#107

Post by [deleted] »

atmosx wrote: post #101
cheez wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have a different experience. It was bad before MS came in and got way worst after - except the icon. The icon now is way more slick! But that won't cut it... Plus, I would never use it professionally since Skype (and MS in general) are the extreme low in regards to privacy.

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by jklinger410 »

cdnsteve wrote: post #93

We 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.

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

#109

Post by aylons »

Splines wrote: post #75
untog wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always assumed that the acquisition failed horribly. The apps are still the same code as pre-acquisition, and I'll bet a lot of the original developers left pretty sharpish. It's quite possible that the original codebase is an absolute train wreck, it's not as if it was ever an amazing app, after all. I wonder if MS acquired Skype today (i.e. "The New Microsoft") whether they'd have been more successful.

Skype has a ton of legacy (just look at this list: http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/ ) - supporting that can't be easy. WhatsApp will probably face similar problems in 5-10 years, if they want to maintain compatibility with the myriad of clients they have in the wild.

> WhatsApp will probably face similar problems in 5-10 years, if they want to maintain compatibility with the myriad of clients they have in the wild.

They don't. They just announced dropping support for Blackberry and S60.

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

#110

Post by randomsearch »

vitaut wrote: post #105

Skype reliability has deteriorated considerably over the years. We have switched over to Google Hangouts which is more reliable and has better video quality.

Can second this. Switched recently after bandwidth issues made Skype unusable.
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