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Microsoft is killing Skype

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Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#411

Post by etempleton »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #405
etempleton wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the bigger issue is legacy software on Windows. It is Windows biggest moat and also their biggest albatross. So many companies and individuals rely on a specific piece of software that will never be ported to ARM. Microsoft can’t force the conversion. Developers have no incentive to support both until there is a critical mass of users and there will never be a critical mass of users unless ARM is 3x better th…

They really should do a clean slate OS where native apps are all C# and legacy stuff is run in a VM. An ARM Xbox would also help develop a gaming ecosystem without the massive legacy concerns.

But then they lose their moat. Why not Linux then? Why not Mac OS?

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#412

Post by Lammy »

bayindirh wrote: post #217
hnlurker22 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you hire leet code engineers and they become managers. Look at Google now. This isn't some magical outcome of big corps. A big corp is practically the people who work there.

Microsoft is built on completely different ethos and evolved from there. (I think it was Paul Allen is who said it) "Microsoft is a corporation built upon the idea of intellectual property ". So being closed source, aggressive safeguarding of IP and locking users in is the DNA of Microsoft. Yes, company is made of people, but there's also a foundational DNA. When you keep that DNA alive, the company changes and eats…

> "Microsoft is a corporation built upon the idea of intellectual property".

Relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#413

Post by ein0p »

orev wrote: post #406
ein0p wrote: post #400

Seems unwise. I'd at least try to sell it instead. It's a very popular brand still. You don't just "kill" things like that - brands are very difficult to build.

The user base is what’s valuable, and Microsoft wants them moving to Teams. Selling it would undermine that since they would lose the users.

I don't think anyone would willingly move to that turd. Anyone who has to be on it is already on it.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#414

Post by basisword »

orev wrote: post #403
dkyc wrote: post #200

It's valid to think of this as Microsoft sort of squandering a unique opportunity to become the ubiquitous video conferencing standard by not investing in Skype, back when it had a market-leading position. Another way to look at this is that even though they bungled this, they still managed to become that solution through Teams. Even though they failed to compete with Skype, got leapfrogged by Slack, and then again b…

The way Microsoft “won” with Teams was through monopolistic bundling it into Windows and Office. To this day most people don’t like using Teams for chat, but because it’s there by default there’s not a good reason to go through the hassle of bringing on another product.

>> To this day most people don’t like using Teams for chat

People will say the same thing about Slack, email, and any other messaging system they are forced to use. People love to complain, especially if they're coming to a product after using a different one at a previous job.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#416

Post by martinsnow »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #152
spwa4 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. There's a business reason hardware companies like Nokia got killed (because it wasn't just Nokia. Lots of telco hardware companies were making handsets before and aren't anymore). That seems to me to be that Nokia didn't know how to make $100/user/year by controlling the software like MS and Google do (MS with "enterprise" sales and ads, Google with ads) Also makes the choice for Microsoft, as opposed to any…

I think you just hating and out of touch with reality (if this is not satire) cause how much less substance this comment are the simple reason they die is because they sucks, that's just it. HN user just overthinking this simple reason the CONSUMER want user just want something that's good, that's why nokia and blackberry die not because they got killed by another big corpo, but because they can't adapt

Yeah sales speak for themselves

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#417

Post by codedokode »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #314
legitster wrote: post #270

Skype is the epitome of technical debt. Millions of lines of code for a service that isn't technically difficult to provide anymore. When I was at Microsoft, I was told working on Skype was about as popular as being sent to a gulag. The value of the brand is so strong, I am surprised they never launched a "2.0" version built from scratch and without all the vestigial tails.

This Joel on Software blog post is now 25 years old, https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... , but when it first came out it was widely viewed as gospel. I'm generally a big fan of Joel Spolsky, but in retrospect, I think this advice is just wrong, and I think Skype is a perfect counterpoint. That is, sometimes a rewrite is a horrible idea, but at the same time sometimes not doing a rewrite is…

Skype probably was rewritten multiple times - C++ client was replaced with Electron, and server API was broken many times as well. The reason Microsoft shuts down Skype is not because there is too much technical debt but because there are few paying customers and because there are new messengers like Telegram.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#418

Post by arp242 »

eythian wrote: post #251
jimmydddd wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yes, in many parts of Europe, people commonly use the word "coke" as a generic term for soda, similar to how it is used in the American South, essentially referring to any type of cola beverage rather than just the Coca-Cola brand; this is because Coca-Cola is so widely recognized across the continent." --Google's ai thing

Interesting, where I lived (NZ), "coke" was the typical term for Coca-Cola (not generic soda, but you may be asked if Pepsi is OK), however in NL where I live now it's pretty universally "cola", and I think that's also not generic. Can't speak to other European countries though, I've never noticed.

I'd use "cola" in Dutch to refer to the generic type of drink, which is pretty much universal in Dutch AFAIK. But I would use "coke" in English. I'm not sure where I picked that up: I've lived in a combination of England/Ireland/NZ over many years, and to be honest I'm not actually sure how it's used there. Maybe just from US films?

Although what I really wanted was a Pepsi, but she wouldn't give it to me. All I wanted was a Pepsi! AND SHE WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO ME!

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#419

Post by martinsnow »

robertlagrant wrote: post #105
KingOfCoders wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Loved my yellow Lumia 920. I thought the panels and scrolling start screen was much better (concurrently used Android and iOS at that time). Just like with Zune, it was not part of MS strategy and therefor dropped. You need to keep working on something like this for years to make it successful. Large companies though drop products that are not a huge success after two years, associated with such products is a career…

If I remember correctly, the CEO at the time Steve Ballmer said they were betting the farm on mobile and ARM-based tablet computing. They went very hard on mobile until SatNad came along and killed it. (Former Touch Diamond user here.)

You bring up bad memories. I fucking hated my htc touch diamond. It was pretty but man was it slow.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#420

Post by Lammy »

falcor84 wrote: post #244
Timpy wrote: post #240

Back in the Windows 7 days I installed Skype on my parents computer before moving abroad, their user experience was basically like receiving a phone call. Even though they weren't tech savvy we never had any issues. I would call them, and if they were home and near the computer, they could answer it and we'd be video chatting. A year or so ago I found this to be impossible, there was no application for desktop that w…

On a related note, a bit over a decade ago I had installed logmein on my parents' computer to be able to easily help them with any IT issues. But they since pivoted away from personal accounts and I never found anything else as straightforward. I feel that in a lot of ways tech has regressed. EDIT: I just found that logmein actually offer a personal product again, named GoToMyPC, but what used to be entirely free at…

> I just found that logmein actually offer a personal product again, named GoToMyPC

I 'member this being advertized on TechTV back in The Day. It's interesting to see the focus on PDAs now that the product category is entirely dead: https://web.archive.org/web/20031209031959/http://www.techtv...

…but didn't realize it's quite as old as it is (1998) and had never heard of “ExpertCity”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoToMyPC

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