Working with information today could be hundreds of times better if there were serious open standards. Switching away from outdated proprietary junk, to an open source version of that junk is great, but late. And, let's hope, its the start of real change. To catch up to where we should have been decades ago if we hadn't been held back by lazy MS et al. Digital information should zip between people and have real meaning. Not have to go through a thick layer of IT, and files and formats, and redundant copies, and silos and having to know tech to get things done. Peoples expectations are so low, they are satisfied with the crap we have today.

Teams is just an incomprehensible version of Discord. What's the open source version of that? Matrix?

I get it! It’s a fucking terrible program. At the moment I’ve got two instances of it running, one old and one new. Why the fuck? Why doesn’t all the old things transfer to the new one?

It’s also a joke to maneuver. The different subjects have “hidden” subcategories that aren’t supposed to be hidden but are! So you have two extra clicks to find the folder.. it’s a giant fucking joke that a company the size of MS can’t make this tolerable.

You’re way off here. Microsoft are the industry leaders in this space because they’re so far ahead of everyone else because they focus on this stuff. They’re far from lazy, they’re the opposite in fact. As someone who manages the whole MS suite from entra to dev ops all the way to managed instance dbs and defender and everything in between daily, their integration across everything and their pace of updates is insane.

What products specifically are you calling “outdated junk” and why?

SteamOS is not a good desktop distribution, which isn't surprising as it's not supposed to be one. It's specialised for handhelds.

Go install Ubuntu or something, really anything, ideally don't have an Nvidia GPU, install steam, done. SteamOS has no special sauce regarding running games.

I have a Dell laptop from 2013 I'm running Mint on 🫡

Granted, I'm only using it for web browsing and note taking, but still.

Channels get hidden when they’re inactive for a decent amount of time. To see them you just view all the channels in a team. Not really hard. Can also just then tick to always show it. This is a PICNIC situation.

I’m guessing your 2 instances are the personal one that is included with windows, and then the work one. You can’t have 2 instances of the same one installed.

Incomprehensible? How? It’s got team/channel chats, private chats, and meetings. What makes it stand out is, like everything else MS does, the integration across all their services.

It definitely needs some improvement, but “incomprehensible” it isn’t.

and therefore automatically multi-platform

But not necessarily multibrowser.

Damn those people developing only for Chrome.

Legal liability for when the service, inevitably, gets breached. If the government hosts it, they're liable. If the vendor hosts it, the vendor is liable. Simple as money matters.

So you're saying that other options do exist but some companies don't want to use them because Microsoft is very popular, which is kind of a circular thing, and I understand, but it's a sign of laziness, not quality.

Teams is just an incomprehensible version of Discord. What's the open source version of that? Matrix?

Yes, but only in Europe, and no Americans are allowed.

Do you like work for Microsoft or something, you’re all over this post

You’re way off here. Microsoft are the industry leaders in this space because they’re so far ahead of everyone else because they focus on this stuff. They’re far from lazy, they’re the opposite in fact. As someone who manages the whole MS suite from entra to dev ops all the way to managed instance dbs and defender and everything in between daily, their integration across everything and their pace of updates is insane.

What products specifically are you calling “outdated junk” and why?

Teams is just a copy of old functionality. It doesn't offer anything new. Especially considering their funds and reach. Yet it just promotes the old document / paper world. I'm sure that is intentional. As they need to keep office going. The world should have moved on from documents by now.

What on earth are you talking about by “promotes the old document/paper world”?

Today, when people deal with information digitally, we should be in control in the way we need it. Individual pieces of information should be easy to send, edit, automate, consume and share, without IT getting in the way. Sadly the old files, silos, incompatibility, and systems designed for printing paper documents is still dominant. MS need that. To keep their dominance from the days when they grew powerful and got caught abusing their their monopoly position.
We need to move past this mess as soon as we can.

You wrote all of that without actually saying anything.

How does any of….. that….. apply to this situation? Microsoft are one of the biggest pushers of “all digital” there is.

Their priority is sustaining profit. Which needs them to keep the status quo, not innovate. Teams is not innovation.
If you are satisfied with what we have today, the next generation of digital information will really surprise you. Yet it would have been available 30 years ago if not for big business monopolies and lack of imagination among techies.