Google bans Zoom from employees' computers • Hacker News Board

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#101

Post by rad_gruchalski » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

tazjin wrote: post #86

softwaredoug wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I would get downvoted. But folks seriously don’t remember the pain before Zoom. And the current pain anytime we have to use a GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Webex or other tool that barely functions. Human interaction that actually works right now is so important. And I simply have a hard time trusting another product to actually do the call reliably

Google Meet is the only one of these that has always worked reliably for me. Doesn't require any strange clients, works in most browsers, never randomly fails to move just some person's audio and so on. Disclaimer: I work for Alphabet, but already held this opinion before I did.

> worked reliably for me

Every second time I’m using it, I either don’t hear the other people, or people do not hear me. YMMV.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#102

Post by seanalltogether » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #44

softwaredoug wrote: post #30

God please don't make me use a non-zoom video conferencing tool! I have used about a dozen over the years in my role as a consultant, and Zoom has been by far the most reliable. I’m hopeful lots of good can come from the scrutiny, but please Zoom get your act together so I don’t have to use some other buggy thing that doesn’t actually work.

I knew I would get downvoted. But folks seriously don’t remember the pain before Zoom. And the current pain anytime we have to use a GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Webex or other tool that barely functions. Human interaction that actually works right now is so important. And I simply have a hard time trusting another product to actually do the call reliably

I'm surprised to hear that google meet doesn't work well for others. We've used it exclusively with all our clients for the past 5 years simply because its integrated into google calendar, but we've never had any reliability problems with it. Most problems we have are based around people trying to figure out how to unmute their conference room mic.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#103

Post by jMyles » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

QUFB wrote: post #83

Some thoughts: 1. Google's threat model may not be your threat model, and it definitely isn't the threat model of my daughter's school. A corporation like Google may be concerned using native applications, written in unsafe languages, written by developers from other corporations in China. That said, Zoom isn't wrong for everyone. 2. Google is motivated to push their own solution for obvious reasons. 3. Tavis, or oth…

> Google's threat model may not be your threat model, and it definitely isn't the threat model of my daughter's school. A corporation like Google may be concerned using native applications, written in unsafe languages, written by developers from other corporations in China. That said, Zoom isn't wrong for everyone.

Google's threat model surely differs in some way from a school, but the specific threats you named seem like threats equally applicable to the surfaces identifiable in the threat model of a school.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#104

Post by pmlnr » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #45

epa wrote: post #32

Hangouts is not that bad

Yeah, it's working, sometimes for most of the participants. Than turns your computer into a toaster before it clogs it completely.

> Than turns your computer into a toaster

That kinda applies to any modern client. H.323 and SIP are ok, but webrtc is brutal.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#105

Post by tazjin » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #101

tazjin wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Meet is the only one of these that has always worked reliably for me. Doesn't require any strange clients, works in most browsers, never randomly fails to move just some person's audio and so on. Disclaimer: I work for Alphabet, but already held this opinion before I did.

> worked reliably for me Every second time I’m using it, I either don’t hear the other people, or people do not hear me. YMMV.

If you have these issues, especially so frequently, I'd wager it's a problem on your end.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#106

Post by lanevorockz » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #30

God please don't make me use a non-zoom video conferencing tool! I have used about a dozen over the years in my role as a consultant, and Zoom has been by far the most reliable. I’m hopeful lots of good can come from the scrutiny, but please Zoom get your act together so I don’t have to use some other buggy thing that doesn’t actually work.

There is the thing that all Zoom keys are kept and maintained in China. I wonder if this is not the main concern.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#107

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #44

softwaredoug wrote: post #30

God please don't make me use a non-zoom video conferencing tool! I have used about a dozen over the years in my role as a consultant, and Zoom has been by far the most reliable. I’m hopeful lots of good can come from the scrutiny, but please Zoom get your act together so I don’t have to use some other buggy thing that doesn’t actually work.

I knew I would get downvoted. But folks seriously don’t remember the pain before Zoom. And the current pain anytime we have to use a GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Webex or other tool that barely functions. Human interaction that actually works right now is so important. And I simply have a hard time trusting another product to actually do the call reliably

[deleted]

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#108

Post by sclo » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #30

God please don't make me use a non-zoom video conferencing tool! I have used about a dozen over the years in my role as a consultant, and Zoom has been by far the most reliable. I’m hopeful lots of good can come from the scrutiny, but please Zoom get your act together so I don’t have to use some other buggy thing that doesn’t actually work.

I agree.

We have this or skype for b as approved. 10% of all meetings in skype bugs out and at least one person can not hear the rest or gets kicked out or can not see the others in the meeting. Or someone is presenting and a mandatory update is being rolled out and computer restarts but this is more related to the OS.

Zoom just works and you hear each others so much better. Stable and working. Lets hope all these new features makes it more secure.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#109

Post by closeparen » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #69

chvid wrote: post #55

Is there any technical merit to this ban? Why would forcing use of web version mitigate any concerns? (The concerns I have heard are lack of proper end-to-end encryption, servers in China and the possibility to join chatrooms by guessing a name (zoom-bombing)).

Seems perfectly sensible to ban all software that is not pre-approved by IT, InfoSec and Legal. You can't safely assume all your employees are properly assessing the risks unless that is their actual job. If you only allow what you know then you can reason about your risk.

Google’s reputation as an employer stems in large part from rejecting that belief, and more generally the enterprise bureaucratic culture it lives in.

Engineers aren’t clamoring to get into the kinds of companies where IT needs to pre-approve software for their workstations.

Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers

#110

Post by satya71 » Wed, Apr 08, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

tazjin wrote: post #86

softwaredoug wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I would get downvoted. But folks seriously don’t remember the pain before Zoom. And the current pain anytime we have to use a GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Webex or other tool that barely functions. Human interaction that actually works right now is so important. And I simply have a hard time trusting another product to actually do the call reliably

Google Meet is the only one of these that has always worked reliably for me. Doesn't require any strange clients, works in most browsers, never randomly fails to move just some person's audio and so on. Disclaimer: I work for Alphabet, but already held this opinion before I did.

It's missing too many features to be usable. No remote control. The speaker detection is terrible. Audio quality is bad. We only use it because we are cheap and it comes free.