- Still can't use Webex across Linux, Windows and Mac in 2020.
- Same goes for Skype, plus half the users who have Skype don't realise it's Linc and the two are completely different.
2. It's far more bandwidth efficient than things like Slack.
The codecs are much more resilient, this applies (from what I can tell) to all the embedded options that are just using the browser.
3. It's going to be around.
- Google Hangouts has previously been renamed and deprioritised. They also dropped their low-bandwidth codecs and cpu usage went through the roof in my personal experience.
I'm unclear on some of the items against Zoom. But there's a lot of hate and emotion around it in the last 10 days - my sense is that some people have an axe to grind - I'm always cautious of a crowd with pitchforks.
Also it's simple. If I want to add someone to a meeting, I just punch in their cell phone number. They get a call and the AI voice thing says "Press 1 to enter the meeting.". And they press 1. And boom they are in.
No extra software to download, no jumbling around with meeting codes, no "are you the meeting leader" bs. Straightforward and simple UX.
Crazy theory, so just hear me out for a second. Maybe the fact that they do some things that violate security is the reason that "it just works". I'm not saying Zoom shouldn't do better here, I'm just saying that there are probably legitimate product/business reasons.
From Steve Yegge's platform rant:[0]
Like anything else big and important in life, Accessibility has an evil twin who, jilted by the unbalanced affection displayed by their parents in their youth, has grown into an equally powerful Arch-Nemesis (yes, there's more than one nemesis to accessibility) named Security. And boy howdy are the two ever at odds.
But I'll argue that Accessibility is actually more important than Security because dialing Accessibility to zero means you have no product at all, whereas dialing Security to zero can still get you a reasonably successful product such as the Playstation Network.
I don't think "it's going to be around" is the main reason people are using Zoom instead of Hangouts: regardless of how you interpret Google's confusing messaging here, Hangouts is clearly not going to disappear while lots of people are relying on it in the middle of a pandemic.
Instead I think it's that Zoom is better: easier to join, it can show you more faces at once, more controls for the meeting owner, lower CPU usage, etc.
(Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)
You should do 30 seconds of research. Zoom has a long history of shady bullshit.
The “pitchforks” are people who pay attention and do not trust Zoom for established reasons. We are now forced to use it because I guess business in 2020 requires the ability to look like you’re on a beach in your sweat pants.
Video/sound quality is much better than any alternative I have tried. You can see video from up to 25 (or even more now?) people at the same time. It's easy for people to set it up and join meetings. Easy to share screens/audio.
Second this.I used to use Skype back in the day and even with astronomical Internet at the time it used be painful. Zoom managed to pull it off somehow.
1. It's actually cross-platform:
- Still can't use Webex across Linux, Windows and Mac in 2020.
- Same goes for Skype, plus half the users who have Skype don't realise it's Linc and the two are completely different.
2. It's far more bandwidth efficient than things like Slack.
The codecs are much more resilient, this applies (from what I can tell) to all the embedded options that are just using the browser.
3. It's going to be around.
- Google Hangouts has previously been renamed and deprioritised. They also dropped their low-bandwidth codecs and cpu usage went through the roof in my personal experience.
I'm unclear on some of the items against Zoom. But there's a lot of hate and emotion around it in the last 10 days - my sense is that some people have an axe to grind - I'm always cautious of a crowd with pitchforks.