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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

#261

Post by bbcbasic »

bitJericho wrote: post #245
spdustin wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft products are filled with references left behind by what I can only assume to be developers who were just hoping to get on a different product team after their next review. SharePoint's virtual path for its SOAP services is "_vti_bin". VTI = Vermeer Technologies Incorporated, the makers of FrontPage and the FrontPage Server Extensions. Then there was Groove (brought in Ray Ozzie's luggage) that was renamed S…

I knew OneDrive was going to be the punchline -_- So much wasted time.

Can you or the GP explain?

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

#262

Post by bitJericho »

bbcbasic wrote: post #261
bitJericho wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew OneDrive was going to be the punchline -_- So much wasted time.

Can you or the GP explain?

OneDrive For Business is pretty much unusable:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2ex10y/onedrive_f...

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

#263

Post by akamel »

mawburn wrote: post #166
Negative1 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Unless Microsoft rebuilds Skype for the ground up" This. This exactly. Is it really unbelievable to assume Microsoft wouldn't attempt to build their own IRC+ clone and save a few billion while they are at it? I do agree with you, Slack is much better than Skype, but I would add that Lync is just as good. I went from Lync to Slack (after changing jobs) and I would say that Lync not only works just as well but has mor…

I couldn't copy a line of text on Lync without it randomly grabbing other random lines from earlier in the conversation. Not the line above it, or the last thing I said. Just completely random things that either person had said, that may have been 2 or 3 messages ago, or maybe 2 or 3 hundred messages ago. This was on Windows 7. The problem seems to have been solved when we upgraded to Skype for Business a few months…

I had to use various versions of Lync for 9 years... copy/paste never worked!

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

#264

Post by rleigh »

bad_user wrote: post #56
untog wrote: post #4

Sad thing is that Slack would be a far better fit for Microsoft, given that it's primarily business-focused. I've used Skype for work but only because it's the only option we've had, not because anyone actually wants to use it. Hangouts and Slack are so much more business-friendly. That said, I think MS made the right call given that they already own Skype. It could be good - great, even - if they actually tried . Th…

I really hate Skype, but unfortunately Skype has no alternative for group audio / video calls, with the occasional screen sharing. Hangouts seemed promising, but it's worse. But I can tell you that at our company we are giving up on Slack, but not on Skype. > rebuilding every native app they have from the ground up, every single one is awful On Mac OS X, which is what I use, it's acceptable. I found it to be fairly a…

My group switched from Skype to Zoom (.us) a year or so back. We did try using Hangouts for a few months, but we found the browser plugin pretty terrible for pegging the CPU at 100%, even when not in use. In comparison, Zoom has vastly better video and audio quality, allows group chats with very large numbers of participants, and allows screen sharing and chat on the side.

Shame really, we used to be pretty heavy cross-platform users of Skype. But it had annoying problems with group limits and audio quality before the Microsoft acquisition, and that quality seemed to take a nosedive shortly afterward. On the positive side, there are at least better alternatives cropping up.

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

#265

Post by ansjun »

j_koreth wrote: post #23
moheeb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why Skype is so crappy. Most Microsoft software is at the very least average, with several products being industry standards. Why is Skype so different?

Oddly enough Skype got bad under Microsoft's ownership too

Microsoft has a proven track record on buying and ruining perfectly fine startups/products. Skype, Yammer etc.

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

#266

Post by asgardiator »

area51org wrote: post #260
dasil003 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a huge practical improvement over IRC. The integrations are turn-key for most things, very powerful, and deep search integration, so it can become your one-stop shop for things. It realistically has the possibility to replace Dropbox and email for internal collaboration. The channels, groups, and notifications preferences make it possible to structure your team for maximum signal to noise across both desktop and…

Every feature you mention was available in the '90s. I'm not saying Slack is bad, just that it's nothing impressive or innovative. The only surprising thing about it is that someone didn't make it sooner.

> The only surprising thing about it is that someone didn't make it sooner.

... is that not the hallmark of a great product?

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

#268

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

intrasight wrote: post #133

All my enterprise clients are MSFT shops. They will make due with whatever collaboration tools that MSFT provides. Also, they would never use a product from a company named "Slack".

Exactly. To some extent, all Microsoft has to do is make their product offering good enough to prevent folks from leaving for products like Slack or Hipchat. Skype for business allows you to send ims, files, share your screen and clumsily do group chats. It does most everything people need to do well enough and it comes pre-installed with Office.

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

#270

Post by hacknat »

Slack works on Linux, which is a big deal for some teams. Before people jump on me, stating, "Linux market share for dev machines is too small to matter." Consider that there are some members of organizations who need to use it. Is an org going to leave those users out in the dark? Slack working on Linux is quite convenient for my team, which has some Linux and OSX users. Lync and Skype on Linux just don't work (at least, I couldn't get them working).
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