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Google Ending Support for Jamboard

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#221

Post by imchillyb »

hot_gril wrote: post #201
maxsilver wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Windows still exists, and can open executable compiled for it 25+ years ago. Microsoft Office still exists, and can still open Word / Excel / etc files from 25+ years ago. Adobe Photoshop still exists, and can open PSD files created 25+ years ago. Microsoft Xbox One X still exists, and is backwards compatible with titles from the OG Xbox release, as far back as 22 years ago - https://www.xbox.com/en-us/game…

Meanwhile Microsoft killed my Minecraft account that had been peacefully existing since 2012. Botched migration to MS accounts locked out everyone who no longer had access to their old email addresses.

All of what you just stated, every single issue, was addressed with emails, on-screen notifications, and MS Account notifications. Every single issue.

The migration between Mojang and Microsoft took several years to complete.

---

> Since 2021, millions of Java Edition players have switched over from their old accounts to Microsoft accounts.

> https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/sections/12617909134221

> I don't have access to the email on my Mojang account

> If you do not have access to the email that is used to log in to your Mojang account, you will not be able to complete the migration. You will need to change the email on your account first. For instructions on how to do this, see: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360035056531-Ch...

> If you cannot change your Mojang account email, have your transaction ID or gift code available and contact Minecraft support.

---

2 years is plenty of time to migrate.

If someone waited until the very last moment to migrate, then that is not a Microsoft issue, but a diligence issue with the user.

Be more diligent with life, and these types of issues just don't occur with any frequency.

Here's a line from my favorite over-the-window plaque: "A lack of preparation on your part does not equal an emergency for me."

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#222

Post by fragmede »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #148
cj wrote: post #121

I bought a Jamboard for our small 20 person half remote company before Covid. Jamboard was definitely ahead of its time. Giant (bigger than your living room TV) touch screen monitor with a camera, speakers and microphone built in. I think this is an example where the market need is clearly there (does anyone like the state of remote brainstorming/remote whiteboarding?) but Google is deciding not to capture the market…

Does that work as a whiteboard you can scribble on with the results shown in real time on N other devices synchronised with it? As the one thing I miss from the office is a shared whiteboard. Quite sloppy conflict resolution would work out adequately, people would expect a mess when they scribble on the same area. Not this one obviously as google are shutting it down, but if the tech works someone else is probably se…

Yes! Price aside, if everyone has the hardware, it's like having a whiteboard that everyone can stand at and draw on and "discuss" (argue) over which boxes should go where.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#223

Post by samtho »

yardie wrote: post #198
samtho wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in IoT and my single goal working in the industry is to do as much as I can (which will likely still be small) to make devices that are entirely separable from the cloud by enabling the use of different services and by being local-fist. Imagine if private organizations built their own road network and then sold you a car that can only be driven on that road. Once that company goes out of business, the road van…

I'm working on a IoT startup and we'd prefer to rent you the equipment as part of the service. That way there is no confusion. Having customers buy equipment they really don't own seems ridiculous to me.

This is also acceptable to me, especially if it’s X per month for service and device (including device replacement if needed). I also like how it reduces capex for a business that is looking to connect their devices and just needs a plug-and-play system.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#224

Post by jeroenhd »

fragmede wrote: post #204
mmkos wrote: post #127

It's about time we had legislation (at least in the EU) that mandated an option to be able to use physical products in an offline mode. Features that require a connection to the Internet should only be an augmentation at most and not the core without which the product cannot work.

Or some way to force opening up the software upon the product's death. The hardware is great and I'd love to pick one up for cheap for my home office to use for Zoom meetings.

With the price these things were sold for and the type of companies that bought them, I expect someone to buy these things and hack them to work with Jitsi or some other open source solution not long after the cloud service shuts down.

It may be worth tracking down if any stores still stock these things and what companies have invested in many of them, so you can try to get a deal on the hardware after the sunset date.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#225

Post by hot_gril »

jasonjayr wrote: post #191
admax88qqq wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it still runs, and can be used usefully if I've built something on top of it. That's because somebody else put in the effort to emulate the pieces requires for DOS. The vendor you bought DOS from is not building your VM software so that you can continue to use DOS.

Yes? So? The stack from boot-to-emulator can be 100% owned + managed by an organization or individual (and in fact, can be 100% OSS, except for whatever binary blobs are needed). Doesn't have to be crafted from bespoke bytes + bits to count. The important piece is that once this is running, there no one else that can prevent it from operating, except the organization or individual managing it (and perhaps dubious leg…

Say someone provides unofficial Jamboard support, with no cloud. What would that look like, and how many people are going to actually use that vs just changing to a new thing?

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#226

Post by supportengineer »

speed_spread wrote: post #187
JonChesterfield wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of us are in trouble when they kill android.

Android is open-source, we could fall back to one of the alternate distros. Actually, we'd be better off without the Google services crap! The real reason we'd be fucked is that we'd lose mobile access to our Google-stored info, this is where the lock-in is. You can migrate, but it's _work_ and god are we lazy.

Thanks for the periodic reminder to do a Takeout today.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#227

Post by jeroenhd »

crazygringo wrote: post #163
cush wrote: post #160

A week after Microsoft announces their new version of Surface Hub https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/surface-it-pro-blog/s...

That's so strange. I wonder what makes this product category seem like a good investment for Microsoft but not for Google? Since it occupies the same functional role in the office suite. Not to mention Google had the additional market of schools where it integrated seamlessly with Chromebooks. It's very hard to understand why they'd be going in such different directions.

Microsoft tends to go longer term than Google. Even with smartphones they have multi-year support cycles laid out before devices hit the stores.

Google hardware is developed and sold like as if it was software. If an idea doesn't work, shut it down and migrate to something that may do the trick. I suspect the fast turnover rate of Google employees to have something to do with it as well; after five years, most people working on a product will have left the company.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#228

Post by ipsi »

eschneider wrote: post #172
samtho wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in IoT and my single goal working in the industry is to do as much as I can (which will likely still be small) to make devices that are entirely separable from the cloud by enabling the use of different services and by being local-fist. Imagine if private organizations built their own road network and then sold you a car that can only be driven on that road. Once that company goes out of business, the road van…

I work in IoT as well and definitely try to implement as much as possible locally as well. What companies seem to forget is that any part of the product that's cloud hosted becomes an ongoing cost that goes up in proportion to the number of devices sold. The less you have in the cloud (generally) the better the economics for the manufacturer.

It's an interesting one because anyone developing a software-only product has the opposite incentive - putting as much on the cloud as possible reduces support costs - no more "it says it's compatible with Windows, but doesn't run on my 20-year old laptop!" or having to field support requests from ancient versions. Plus it provides cover for charging users monthly, and there's a good chance your hosting costs are less than the cost of supporting a locally installed version.

The more complex your software is, the more true this is - self-hosted enterprise software is not only more work to setup (ergo, more support tickets) but installed on a vast array of configurations (e.g., bare-metal K8s, OpenShift, GKE, Docker Swarm, EC2, ECS, etc, etc), only a portion of which are economical to test against and which will generate a steady stream of unique issues. Having an "enterprise-ready" SaaS product is expensive, sure, but probably less expensive than supporting hundreds or thousands of customers setting up their own unique version of your product.

On the other side, it's not possible to move hardware to the cloud so the core support costs don't - can't - go away. Adding cloud in that case is adding ongoing hosting costs and support costs and is at best reducing the volume of support requests, but adding "Cloud" won't eliminate whole classes of customer support like it could with a software-only product.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#229

Post by hotnfresh »

crazygringo wrote: post #163
cush wrote: post #160

A week after Microsoft announces their new version of Surface Hub https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/surface-it-pro-blog/s...

That's so strange. I wonder what makes this product category seem like a good investment for Microsoft but not for Google? Since it occupies the same functional role in the office suite. Not to mention Google had the additional market of schools where it integrated seamlessly with Chromebooks. It's very hard to understand why they'd be going in such different directions.

Outside looking in, Google seems nearly entirely unable to get people to work on things that aren’t new and shiny. Maintenance and polish get little or no attention, and half-assed when they give them any attention at all. Even Android suffers from this, though it’s big enough it trundles on regardless—the parts that get attention are things that can be treated as launches (UI overhauls and such—which usually are only half-baked as far as the developer-facing side, and don’t see much improvement after launch)

Microsoft has the organizational ability to get their workers to give a shit about maintenance and polish, and take it seriously. They have plenty of trouble of their own (I am far from a MS fan) but they don’t suffer that particular pathology—they’re not consistently perfect at it, certainly, but they’re also not consistently totally unable to do it, as Google seem to be.

[edit] to head off nitpicks, google does show an ability to focus on one big area, of course: ads/search. Though, ask anyone who uses their ad platform and I expect you’ll get a pile of complaints about shit that absolutely should not be as broken as it is. The parts that get ongoing attention are service reliability and anything that makes the revenue line measurable go up-and-right the instant it’s enabled.

Re: Google Ending Support for Jamboard

#230

Post by buildsjets »

We have one of these at work. I've never seen it used. Not even once. Mostly it gets in the way of seeing the traditional whiteboard behind it, which does get extensively used. Maybe we can use the $600 a year licensing fee toward buying some fresh dry erase markers, I'm pretty sure my employer has not bought any office supplies since the beginning of the pandemic.
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