Available in public preview, Microsoft just added Linux support for their unified communication and collaboration platform Microsoft Teams.
Starting today, Microsoft Teams is available for Linux users in public preview, enabling high quality collaboration experiences for the open source community at work and in educational institutions. Users can download the native Linux packages in .deb and .rpm formats here. We are constantly improving based on community feedback, so please download and submit feedback based on your experience.
The Microsoft Teams client is the first Office app that is coming to Linux desktops, and will support all of Teams’ core capabilities. Teams is the hub for teamwork that brings together chat, video meetings, calling, and collaboration on Office 365 documents and business processes within a single, integrated experience.
Marissa Salazar, Microsoft
This isn't just appearing out of nowhere though, Microsoft has been working with select companies (like Volvo Cars) over the course of a few months with the Linux client of Teams. It seems there was enough interest to bring it over to Linux. Sounds like a similar story with Unity, when they officially announced the Linux Editor being in Preview a few months ago due to increasing demand. You can find the official announcement here.
Not gaming news of course but we do often cover lots of Linux-related cool stuff. It's good to see Microsoft begin to slowly change and accept Linux, even using it themselves and integrating it into Windows with the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Heck, even their new web browser Edge is going to be coming to Linux. Every step like this, brings down another barrier for developers of all kinds using Linux, don't underestimate the importance of it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Kimyrielle Dec 10, 2019
Sir_Diealot Dec 10, 2019
Teams is pretty bad though, I have to use it at work and there are frequent issues with login, call quality, etc. and lack of common features like a useful search.
Still good for me that there is some movement, it's pretty much the only thing I depend on for work that is not available for Linux.
rustybroomhandle Dec 10, 2019
Microsoft is moving towards a "devices and cloud services" model. The ultimate idea being that one can use all of these services on any operating system. If they can get companies to buy into this, then they can compete with Google's Chromebook. Microsoft doesn't care about Windows so much any more, what they care about is being able to push their cloud services, and to be able to tax others who want to run software via their cloud.
The missing element with those, though, has always been AAA gaming, but between Stadia and Microsoft's xCloud they are catering to people who want AAA gaming on their low powered devices.
What this will result it eventually if they get what they want, is that high powered home PCs will be pretty much just used by a few people with specific use cases. This hardware will also likely be way more expensive, since wholesale components for these will be targeted at server farms, not consumers.
To recap the master goals:
- nobody installs software any more, it's all cloud
- most consumers will not use PCs, but closed appliances
- PC gaming in its current form dies
Will any of this happen as planned? Maybe, maybe not. But even Valve is preparing for this possibility.
walther von stolzing Dec 10, 2019
In the Steve Ballmer era, I'd have suggested someone to go check the temperature in hell, but these days, I am not even surprised anymore. The new management's strategy is a lot less Windows-centric.
Ballmer? Temperature? Hell? OF COURSE!
They must've had the heat too high; that's why he was sweating profusely like that.
The Microsoft Teams client is the first Office app that is coming to Linux desktops, and will support all of Teams’ core capabilities.
This is the part that interested me. I didn't even know about this "Teams" software. But Microsoft Office is still a big limiting factor for Linux. Word, Power Point and Excel on Linux would be huge.
Of course, what I really want is for Office to stop shitting all over standards and making their files incompatible with every other software.
In the Steve Ballmer era, I'd have suggested someone to go check the temperature in hell, but these days, I am not even surprised anymore. The new management's strategy is a lot less Windows-centric.
Looks like Phil Spencer is still stuck in Ballmer's times though. He is your regular old nasty MS type, who sees lock-in as a glorified goal. Likely because of him, MS didn't support Vulkan initiative.
Last edited by Shmerl on 10 December 2019 at 6:23 pm UTC
It never really occurred to me that Microsoft Teams was anything besides bloatware.
Last edited by Botonoski on 10 December 2019 at 6:39 pm UTC
It's not a bad thing but I prefer FOSS.
Meh, uses gtk3. I'll keep running teams at work on a Windows client.
Why you don't like GTK3? What would you prefer instead?
Of course, what I really want is for Office to stop shitting all over standards and making their files incompatible with every other software.Same, I’m a lot more interested in Microsoft opening up their standards or switching to open standards than in installing their software on Linux. I like LibreOffice just fine but it still shits the bed when I receive MS Office files with frames and absolute-positioned content.
Looks like Phil Spencer is still stuck in Ballmer's times though. He is your regular old nasty MS type, who sees lock-in as a glorified goal. Likely because of him, MS didn't support Vulkan initiative.
DirectX, Microsoft Office (and maybe a shady contract with Adobe) are still a great source of revenue for then. Opening any of this would be a great shoot in the foot for Windows and big loss of money from "gamers"/companies/designers, so don't expect then to support a multi platform project like Vulkan until DirectX (or Windows as we know today) become financially "irrelevant".
HAHAHAHA, HAHAHA, HA, oh that was a good laugh.
Actual secure chat solution:
https://tox.chat/
Interesting
Can you setup your own server ?
Or is it peer to peer communication ?
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