'Teams'

[Davey]

A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon, I am in East
Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one other participant is in
Sydney, OZ. One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
MS programme. Is it any good? Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?
Is it safe, which is what I usually worry about with anything MS.
I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?
Any guidance welcome, I know nothing about it.
TIA.
--
Davey.

[Java Jive]

Can't comment on Teams, but we used Zoom for family meetings throughout
the pandemic. You can get up to 40 mins a time for free. Only gripe I
have with it is that, like so much modern software that began on
Linux/mobile phone OSs, it puts executable code in your user profile,
which I consider a security hazard, so after installation moved it into
a sub of 'Program Files' to run from there, a process which had to be
repeated manually every time it updated itself.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

[Java Jive]

But of course I was forgetting this is a Linux group anyway, so my gripe
might well be considered irrelevant, and even if not, I'm not sure where
would be the best place whither to move the executable code.

[Marco Moock]

Am 04.01.2023 schrieb Davey <da...@example.invalid>:

> One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
> MS programme. Is it any good?

It works, but privacy isn't good, the traffic goes through MS's servers.

> Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?

If it has a compatible browser (Chrome should work), then yes.

I use it on Linux with Firefox. The Linux app (an electron based "web
browser" app) has been discontinued.

> Is it safe, which is what I usually worry about with anything
> MS. I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?
> Any guidance welcome, I know nothing about it.

IIRC teams is the successor for Skype for Business, but normal Skype
still exists.

[Davey]

Thank you for the information, it is much appreciated.
When I fire up Skype on my tablet, it sits there all ready and
waiting, so seems to be still active. I will insist that Skype is used
for this meeting.

--
Davey.

[Andy Burns]

Davey wrote:

> I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?

More or less ... I find it's "a bit much" on a phone, so I tend to install it,
use it, uninstall it whenever I'm somewhere that I need to use it on a phone.

You can install it on a PC, or use it in a web browser.

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 04/01/2023 22:50, Davey wrote:

> A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon, I am in East
> Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one other participant is in
> Sydney, OZ. One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
> MS programme. Is it any good?

Avoid, there is an active AI reading responses (it creepily autosuggests
chat to use if you have nothing to write) and machine generated
transcripts of conversations are easy to setup and abuse, particularly
if someone unknown has administrator rights. If you are using this in a
company, you can bet your Boss knows pretty well everything about you,
the behaviour monitoring goes quite deep.

You just need a communications tool, end-to-end encrypted.

Have a look at WebEx from Cisico.
https://www.webex.com/

Or WhatsApp?

Zoom security during lockdown was found to be a bit of a joke. Dunno if
it has improved, but folks private meetings would occasionally get
gatecrashed.

--
Adrian C

[Anton Shepelev]

Java Jive:

> Can't comment on Teams, but we used Zoom for family
> meetings throughout the pandemic. You can get up to 40
> mins a time for free.

After the 40 minutes elapse, you need only reconnect to get
another 40 minutes, so it is practically unlimited.

--
() ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\ www.asciiribbon.org -- against proprietary attachments

[Anton Shepelev]

Davey:

> A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon,
> I am in East Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one
> other participant is in Sydney, OZ. One of the others has
> suggested 'Teams', which I see is an MS programme. Is it
> any good? Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?

I personally dislike Teams for its slggishness and ugliness,
but it does works on Android devices. Have you considered
meeting in an IRC channel?

[Anton Shepelev]

Andy Burns to Davey:

> > I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?
>
> More or less ... I find it's "a bit much" on a phone, so I
> tend to install it, use it, uninstall it whenever I'm
> somewhere that I need to use it on a phone.

And I simply remove all permissions from it, to keep it low-
down.

[Davey]

On Thu, 5 Jan 2023 23:35:53 +0300
Anton Shepelev <anto...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Davey:
>
> > A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon,
> > I am in East Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one
> > other participant is in Sydney, OZ. One of the others has
> > suggested 'Teams', which I see is an MS programme. Is it
> > any good? Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?
>
> I personally dislike Teams for its slggishness and ugliness,
> but it does works on Android devices. Have you considered
> meeting in an IRC channel?
>

No, because I have no idea what that means. But the other participants
agree to use Skype, so 'Teams' is (are?) to be ignored.
--
Davey.

[Chris]

Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> On 04/01/2023 22:50, Davey wrote:
>> A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon, I am in East
>> Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one other participant is in
>> Sydney, OZ. One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
>> MS programme. Is it any good?
>
> Avoid, there is an active AI reading responses (it creepily autosuggests
> chat to use if you have nothing to write) and machine generated
> transcripts of conversations are easy to setup and abuse, particularly
> if someone unknown has administrator rights.

The transcripts are actually incredibly useful if you need to confirm notes
or write minutes. You do have to be careful who you invite to meetings.

> If you are using this in a
> company, you can bet your Boss knows pretty well everything about you,
> the behaviour monitoring goes quite deep.

Doubtful.

> You just need a communications tool, end-to-end encrypted.
>
> Have a look at WebEx from Cisico.
> https://www.webex.com/
>
> Or WhatsApp?

You're joking, right? This is owned by Meta and if you don't trust MS you
should run a mile from this.

> Zoom security during lockdown was found to be a bit of a joke. Dunno if
> it has improved, but folks private meetings would occasionally get
> gatecrashed.

That was because meeting codes were easily guessed. It's definitely
improved but not sure how it compares with Teams overall, but I guess
they're all much of a muchness.

[Chris]

Teams is more of a project collaboration tool so is maybe a bit much for a
simple meeting.

Zoom is pretty much the de facto for this, but google meet, amazon chime
plus others are alternatives.

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 07/01/2023 14:04, Chris wrote:

> Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:

> The transcripts are actually incredibly useful if you need to confirm notes
> or write minutes. You do have to be careful who you invite to meetings.
>
>> If you are using this in a
>> company, you can bet your Boss knows pretty well everything about you,
>> the behaviour monitoring goes quite deep.
>
> Doubtful.
>

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-teams-overview


https://financesonline.com/news/microsoft-execs-hit-employee-monitoring-a-microsoft-teams-feature

Etc... Etc... Google is littered with software services providing
additional tracking features. Employees just don't know.

--
Adrian C

[Chris]

There's a difference between being able to and actually doing it.

[Jason H]

Me (and the team that use it) are perhaps a bit more positive about
Teams than most here. Probably because we were forced to use Skype For
Business before it. Anyway, if your Galaxy Tablet is fairly recent, and
Android or Windows, there's an app. If Linux, just use it in Firefox or
Chrome, as suggested above. There are also Android and iOS/iPadOS apps.
Mostly, it just works. My main bugbear is the search function in chat
is bloody awful. Safe depends on your definition of safe...

I'd prefer WhatsApp, but I assume the business doesn't get to see, let
alone own, anything we do in that.

Regards,
J

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 23.01.23 um 21:20 schrieb Jason H:

WA is an absolute NoGo and very unprofessional in a business context. A
lot of user *strictly refuse* to use the proprietary WA for security and
privacy reasons.

And as you said: Safe depends on *your definition* of safe...


--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 23.01.23 um 21:20 schrieb Jason H:

> On 1/4/23 22:50, Davey wrote:
>> A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon, I am in East
>> Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one other participant is in
>> Sydney, OZ. One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
>> MS programme. Is it any good? Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?
>> Is it safe, which is what I usually worry about with anything MS.
>> I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?
>> Any guidance welcome, I know nothing about it.
>> TIA.
>
> Me (and the team that use it) are perhaps a bit more positive about
> Teams than most here.

Today the knock-out of $MS$ and Services like Outlook, Office 365, Teams
and others does not help to build trust and confidence. Neither with
consumer nor with businesses.

[Jason H]

Nearly got me out of being on (virtual) parade at 08:30...

[Chris]

I doubt it would make any difference to business. What's the alternative?
All the big solutions suffer from outages of one sort or another. This one
was relatively minor.

[Chris]

Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
> Am 23.01.23 um 21:20 schrieb Jason H:
>> On 1/4/23 22:50, Davey wrote:
>>> A group of which I am a member needs to hold an AGM soon, I am in East
>>> Anglia, the meeting is near London, and one other participant is in
>>> Sydney, OZ. One of the others has suggested 'Teams', which I see is an
>>> MS programme. Is it any good? Can I use it on my Samsung Galaxy tablet?
>>> Is it safe, which is what I usually worry about with anything MS.
>>> I used Skype before, is 'Teams' a development of this?
>>> Any guidance welcome, I know nothing about it.
>>> TIA.
>>
>> Me (and the team that use it) are perhaps a bit more positive about
>> Teams than most here. Probably because we were forced to use Skype For
>> Business before it. Anyway, if your Galaxy Tablet is fairly recent, and
>> Android or Windows, there's an app. If Linux, just use it in Firefox or
>> Chrome, as suggested above. There are also Android and iOS/iPadOS apps.
>> Mostly, it just works. My main bugbear is the search function in chat
>> is bloody awful. Safe depends on your definition of safe...
>>
>> I'd prefer WhatsApp, but I assume the business doesn't get to see, let
>> alone own, anything we do in that.
>
> WA is an absolute NoGo and very unprofessional in a business context.

Agree. There's no way to separate work and home with WA.

Also has none of the project/team compartmentalisation which Teams is very
good at.

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 26.01.23 um 18:19 schrieb Chris:

> Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
>> Today the knock-out of $MS$ and Services like Outlook, Office 365, Teams
>> and others does not help to build trust and confidence. Neither with
>> consumer nor with businesses.
>
> I doubt it would make any difference to business. What's the alternative?
> All the big solutions suffer from outages of one sort or another. This one
> was relatively minor.

I tend to disagree. There are alternatives. Good ones btw.

[Chris]

Notable that you don't give any examples. What are these good alternatives?

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 27.01.23 um 09:02 schrieb Chris:

> Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
>> I tend to disagree. There are alternatives. Good ones btw.
>
> Notable that you don't give any examples. What are these good alternatives?

I didn't and I won't because it is already OT.
It was a major outage: The whole world for almost half a day without
Exchange, TEmas and much much more. If $MS$ would have to pay for the
damage, they would be gone. Gone forever.

[Chris]

Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
> Am 27.01.23 um 09:02 schrieb Chris:
>> Joerg Lorenz <hugy...@gmx.ch> wrote:
>>> I tend to disagree. There are alternatives. Good ones btw.
>>
>> Notable that you don't give any examples. What are these good alternatives?
>
> I didn't and I won't because it is already OT.

Narrator: Joerg can't.

> It was a major outage: The whole world for almost half a day without
> Exchange, TEmas and much much more.

Hardly. It was a blip.

> If $MS$ would have to pay for the
> damage, they would be gone. Gone forever.

What damage exactly?

[Anton Shepelev]

Joerg Lorenz:

> It was a major outage: The whole world for almost half a
> day without Exchange, TEmas and much much more.

That is what you get for monopolism and reliance upon
proprietary software that locks you inside it very own
ecosystem. A little diversity and interchangeablity (due to
open standards) would have prevented it. For example, is my
major Usenet server is goes down, I temporarily switch to
another.

[Joerg Lorenz]

Am 28.01.23 um 21:49 schrieb Anton Shepelev:

> Joerg Lorenz:
>
>> It was a major outage: The whole world for almost half a
>> day without Exchange, TEmas and much much more.
>
> That is what you get for monopolism and reliance upon
> proprietary software that locks you inside it very own
> ecosystem. A little diversity and interchangeablity (due to
> open standards) would have prevented it. For example, is my
> major Usenet server is goes down, I temporarily switch to
> another.

+1
Despite I like Macs I have two Linux-Machines on standby and I always
prefer Open Source over closed and proprietary software. Always.

Open Source is very often really crossplatform: FF, TB, LO and many
more. Makes life much much easier and much safer and more secure.