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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

#271

Post by goldenkey »

asgardiator wrote: post #266
area51org wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Moreso that open source sprouts by necessity mostly. IRC buildbots and other integrations have been around forever. It's just that Slack paid for the integrations that really makes it shine. Money, and well the work->integrations it buys, really talks.

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

#272

Post by goldenkey »

hrez wrote: post #125
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.

Skype is most bloated app on my desktop excluding browsers. Currently it takes 169Mb of memory doing nothing.

Skype was actually quite decent years ago. It appears that with every new version it became more and more of a bloated buggy piece of shit. I use it mostly to talk to friends. Havent gone more than a couple days without it seg faulting. I LOVE that quirky sound buffer loop that repeats 'hey u still there' 10 times over as the piece of bloatware crashes. RIP skype.

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

#273

Post by dbg31415 »

Woah woah woah. Comparing Slack to Skype... it's not just apples to oranges... it's comparing Iron Man's Jarvis to a rotary telephone.

Slack is how we bring together all of our project data -- from all of our tools -- in one place, and how we automate tasks like daily Scrum and contract creation. Slack asks us, "Hey what are you working on today? What are your blockers?" and builds an automated list. We can ask Slack to do work for us, like, "Slack, create an MSA from our template and send it Joe at Clientcorp." A million other uses. Slack is great and saving SO much time.

Skype sits unused and spams me every month asking me to put in more quarters for some bizarre concept of "long-distance" phone calls. And honestly the UX is so horrible, it's going to take a total re-launch to make it something I'd even consider installing again.

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

#274

Post by zaphar »

ant6n wrote: post #229
avtar wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mobile clients, persistent chat history when switching clients/devices, search, @mentions notify you when you're away from your desk, and easy integrations with lots of services. P.S. I mainly use IRC everyday :)

"persistent" up to 10,000 messages per team.

Forever if you pay for it.

i.e. they have a revenue stream.

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

#275

Post by Pxtl »

hvass wrote: post #179
kough wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was forced to use Lync (due to an acquisition) in 2014 it was absolutely fucking terrible. The OS X client failed to report online status correctly, couldn't participate in most group chats or video or audio calls, and crashed regularly. Also weirdly non-native UI. And, no linux client to speak of - for a startup like the one I worked for where many devs used linux, that was a nonstarter. Has the story improve…

So much this. We are currently using Lync and to quote you: absolutely fucking terrible.

12 clicks to view an attached image! 13 and you accidentally cancel it and it must be re-sent.

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

#276

Post by Pxtl »

orf wrote: post #242
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…

You want to really torture yourself? You want to stare into the abyss? Try making a Lync bot. Anyone who was tried will understand what I say when I say it's the worst thing you can possibly experience as a programmer.

Yeah, I looked into making a check-ins/coder-reviews and builds bot.

Nope.

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

#277

Post by herbst »

Skype is old and broken on Linux, and the worst battery nightmare on Android. I could not even use it if i wanted to.

Slack on the other side just works everywhere i could ever need it, including a lot of automation tasks.

How could skype even get popular with the crappy API they offer?

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

#278

Post by ethbro »

douche wrote: post #254
0x0 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL, "lync.exe" a.k.a. "Skype for Business". 1. The worst brand management this side of 1984. "Skype for Business" has nothing to do with Skype and the .exe is still called "lync.exe" 2. SDK: Trying to use the C# SDK for even simple tasks leaves your app deadlocking or spinning 100% CPU in threads you didn't create or throwing native exceptions that doesn't make any sense as they are referencing raw hex 0x12345678 po…

That SDK is just awful. The sample applications don't even compile, and the documentation is woeful. Tends to make the Lync client leak memory like a sieve, to boot - which is loads of fun, since there is no way to ensure that anything gets cleaned up properly, not an IDisposable in sight. If it wasn't such a huge PITA to find a compatible SIP library, or write one from scratch, I'd have dumped it long ago. Sadly, I'…

> Sadly, I've had to do enough with it that I'm probably an "expert" at it now...

I think this explains a lot of poorly designed but complex enterprise software (e.g. MS). People eventually learn to deal -> poor design becomes less of a pain point -> less incentive to fix issues.

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

#279

Post by lmm »

dave2000 wrote: post #148
lmm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly Slack's success is the utter failure of every alternative on the UX side. MSN messenger was perhaps wrong-footed by the shift to multi-device, but none of the other tools have such an excuse. It's not a generational thing, it's an incredible level of, there's no other word, incompetence on the part of the makers of major messaging software (Skype in particular).

MSN had big flashing ads. When I first saw that I assumed I was dealing with another windows install with malware on it. I've paid for the OS, why have I got this freemium crap? Slack has no way of letting me know who's read the messages. Come on, it's 2016. I asked them about this and they told me the only solution is it get each contact to add a sunglasses icon as they read each message! What a joke.

I think that's the right thing to do from a privacy standpoint. I don't want people to be able to tell whether I've read their messages to me.

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

#280

Post by astrostl »

goldenkey wrote: post #271
asgardiator wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only surprising thing about it is that someone didn't make it sooner. ... is that not the hallmark of a great product?

Moreso that open source sprouts by necessity mostly. IRC buildbots and other integrations have been around forever. It's just that Slack paid for the integrations that really makes it shine. Money, and well the work->integrations it buys, really talks.

UI/UX.
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