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When Slack first came out, and everyone got all excited about it, I was quite skeptical. I've been using Skype (and lots of other IM systems) for years; do I r
by reuven 10y ago
When Slack first came out, and everyone got all excited about it, I was quite skeptical. I've been using Skype (and lots of other IM systems) for years; do I really want or need something new?
The answer, for me at least, was yes: Slack is new, different, and better. And nearly all of that difference is because of a vastly better UI, on my desktop, in my browser, and on my phone.
So, did Google Chat work? Sure. Did it do the right things in a narrow technical sense? Absolutely. But without the slick, inviting, easy-to-use UI, it wasn't going to go anywhere. And now that Slack has critical mass, it's hard to imagine Google catching up.
- nly 10y agoUltimately slack is just a proprietary IRC, with a solution for message persistence falling out its centralized design. IRCCloud and ZNC both solve the same problem. Its slick as hell, but still a walled garden.
- reuven 10y agoYes, this is my greatest regret and problem with Slack: Someone could have made amazing IRC clients (and servers), and kept it open to the world. It's a shame that a solved problem with open-source tools has been turned into a billion-dollar proprietary company.