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How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

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Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#161

Post by zorked »

dang wrote: post #159
zorked wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is at the top. Please don't complain about downvoting. "China and Chinese companies have no real culture of user centric privacy." Citation needed. That's one billion individuals you are talking about.

I don't think it's fair to call that borderline racist. That's an extremely strong word; let's not escalate where it isn't needed. The problem with the statement is that it doesn't come with any substantiation, or additional information.

Edited. Feel free to delete my comment, it's redundant now.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#162

Post by stingraycharles »

floatingatoll wrote: post #160
lostmsu wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not "just work" for me. First, it required a separate client, when even Skype does not. Second, it does not support my browser.

Your unstated criteria for "just work" are "just work in browser", which differs from the definition used by the comment you're replying to. That is not universally shared among others, including the non-technical folks that Zoom is being widely adopted by.

You’re being downvoted fairly heavily, which I think is unfair. Even though some other people might not agree, it’s a valid argument to make.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#163

Post by fermienrico »

dang wrote: post #156
fermienrico wrote: post #118

Also, Zoom's entire engineering team is based in China [1]. China and Chinese companies have no real culture of user centric privacy. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707528 Edit: Why downvote me? I am not trying to stir up flame wars. Saying anything against China has become impossible to do on HN. Voices get drowned despite of raising real legitimate concerns about privacy, especially for a tool used by m…

Please don't break the site guidelines [1] by going on about downvoting. Your comment has been heavily upvoted. Meanwhile complaints like that linger on as off-topic and false, and don't garbage-collect themselves. You can use HN Search to verify that HN sees plenty of comments "saying anything against China". The topic is extremely flame-prone because people are wont to hurl generalizations at each other, and worse.…

Understood, thanks and accept my apologies. I have some feedback - please make exceptions when discussing fact based discussions around privacy when it is not tending towards flame wars, especially related to Chinese influence and erosion of privacy. I can see why this can lead to flame wars but that's where you should step in and moderate. I just read your links to people getting harrased if they are Chinese, that's not cool.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#164

Post by jcelerier »

jopolous wrote: post #133

On a simpler level, zoom on macOS sketches me out in lots of ways. My macbook's bluetooth will not connect to my earbuds, but only when zoom is running. Other audio recording/playing apps don't affect things at all. What the heck is going on here?! Scrolling on settings panels is definitely their own home-brewed scrolling functionality. Why?! Was macOS's not cutting it for some reason? The settings menu is very clear…

> My macbook's bluetooth will not connect to my earbuds, but only when zoom is running.

that sounds like something related to this bug : https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2018/airpods-get-stuck-low...

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#165

Post by w1ntermute »

t0mas88 wrote: post #10
aequitas wrote: post #6

Not that I'm in favor of this practice, but the one key feature that conference software must have is: it just works™. Nothing turns you off more from a conferencing solution than: any problem getting it working right now. When there is just the slightest issue, one person not being able to join, one person not getting voice to work, bad audio, your entire team is blocked/distracted. Which results in a collective dis…

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

As someone who has used a variety of VTC products (Zoom, Webex, BlueJeans, Teams, Skype, etc.) for several years on a daily basis (lots of external VTCs with different companies who use different VTC systems), Zoom is by far the best. The audio and video quality is head and shoulders above the rest (both on PC and mobile) and the interface is dead simple for even the least tech-savvy users.

My company uses Zoom, and there have been many instances where, during a VTC call set up by someone at another company (that doesn’t use Zoom), we have switched mid-meeting to Zoom because there’s something wrong with the other VTC system (someone can’t join, can’t hear, can’t speak, can’t share their screen, etc.). And the other options haven’t gotten noticeably better over the years either.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#166

Post by dang »

zorked wrote: post #161
dang wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to call that borderline racist. That's an extremely strong word; let's not escalate where it isn't needed. The problem with the statement is that it doesn't come with any substantiation, or additional information.

Edited. Feel free to delete my comment, it's redundant now.

I think the edited version of your comment is just fine.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#167

Post by whatever_dude »

t0mas88 wrote: post #10
aequitas wrote: post #6

Not that I'm in favor of this practice, but the one key feature that conference software must have is: it just works™. Nothing turns you off more from a conferencing solution than: any problem getting it working right now. When there is just the slightest issue, one person not being able to join, one person not getting voice to work, bad audio, your entire team is blocked/distracted. Which results in a collective dis…

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

Zoom has a browser version as a fallback.

Most people use the standalone app because indeed it "just works". That's why you don't hear much about its browser client.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#168

Post by dang »

fermienrico wrote: post #163
dang wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't break the site guidelines [1] by going on about downvoting. Your comment has been heavily upvoted. Meanwhile complaints like that linger on as off-topic and false, and don't garbage-collect themselves. You can use HN Search to verify that HN sees plenty of comments "saying anything against China". The topic is extremely flame-prone because people are wont to hurl generalizations at each other, and worse.…

Understood, thanks and accept my apologies. I have some feedback - please make exceptions when discussing fact based discussions around privacy when it is not tending towards flame wars, especially related to Chinese influence and erosion of privacy. I can see why this can lead to flame wars but that's where you should step in and moderate. I just read your links to people getting harrased if they are Chinese, that's…

I think my comment addresses this, but perhaps you were replying to an earlier version, or perhaps I wasn't clear enough. What you posted was trending towards flamewar, even though you didn't intend it that way. Telling moderators to "step in and moderate" isn't sufficient to solve this problem. For one thing, we don't come close to seeing all the material that gets posted—there's far too much. We do step in, but we also need users like you to understand the problem a bit differently. If you're going to comment on an inflammatory topic, you need to make sure your comment is substantive, i.e. contains solid information and not just grand claims. And you should be careful to narrow its scope explicitly to what the information supports. Fortunately that should also be enough to make it clear that your intent isn't just to post pejoratives about other people.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#169

Post by basch »

Onawa wrote: post #116
gameofcode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, MS Teams is definitly better placed as an org-wide communication/collaboration tool, not an external one. They really need to make it easier to communicate with people in external orgs, the org switcher is my biggest complaint. FWIW, IT can allow people in certain groups to make their own teams, it's an admin setting.

Working within the US NIH, we are forced to submit a ticket for creating any new teams and the entire Teams/Office 365 ecosystem is entirely crippled for us. All new features take forever to be approved and brought online, as well as additional connectors and apps having to go through an extensive 6+ month-long vetting process before being approved. Makes using Teams quite a hassle, but with Skype for Business being…

Those are all organizational decisions, and not out of the box defaults. Microsoft is trying very hard to persuade organizations not to make those decisions.

Completely free teams creation does come at a cost. It makes data governance much more complicated. People creating duplicate places for things they didnt know already existed. A lack of naming convention, to be able to analyze what exists. Microsoft is pushing for people to just be able to get things done, at the expense of organization.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#170

Post by rickyc091 »

t0mas88 wrote: post #10
aequitas wrote: post #6

Not that I'm in favor of this practice, but the one key feature that conference software must have is: it just works™. Nothing turns you off more from a conferencing solution than: any problem getting it working right now. When there is just the slightest issue, one person not being able to join, one person not getting voice to work, bad audio, your entire team is blocked/distracted. Which results in a collective dis…

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

Google requires you to have a Google account. Kids in middle school (ages 12-14) and younger typically don't have an email address. Zoom, on the other hand, lets you join a call without logging in. You can even join straight from the browser if needed without installing anything.
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