Microsoft Teams for Linux. Is it any good?

mephistopoa

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 11, 2010
Messages
122
Microsoft just released the first version of Teams client for linux after so much demand and countless requests by the community. How does it stack up against the Windows version? Is it any good?

 
Teams for Windows is a monstrosity itself let alone for Linux.

It is not a lightweight application by any means, also consider how many different technologies it is pulling together. What would you suggest to use in place?
 
7 years inactive, and suddenly on here starting multiple threads about a junk MS collaboration product?
 
I don't see anything disrespectful. I do see a lack of interest in it though.
 
if you are not interested, you are welcome to ignore the topic move on then and leave it for people that may find it useful. Same as what you would do in real life in a social situation.

For this unfamiliar, and since someone linked office, what does this program do? I would be willing to give it a shot on my Linux machine for a test, if you wanted.
 
For this unfamiliar, and since someone linked office, what does this program do? I would be willing to give it a shot on my Linux machine for a test, if you wanted.
It's a web portal for office. I still haven't heard why this is better than opening a browser and going the MS office website.
 
This could be useful. We use Teams extensively at my work, though what my team uses it for specifically the web interface works fine. Be nice to have an actual working client program.
 
Popped up on my wife's desktop, which uses a license from her school.

Still don't know WTF it does.
 
For this unfamiliar, and since someone linked office, what does this program do? I would be willing to give it a shot on my Linux machine for a test, if you wanted.

Popped up on my wife's desktop, which uses a license from her school.

Still don't know WTF it does.

Microsoft killed the basic messenger app (most recently named Skype) that's been mature and stable since about 1997 and replaced it with a bloated clunky mess called Teams. It's a "team collaboration tool" that ties into all your messaging, personal documents, scheduling, email, etc. If your IT department allows it you can make work teams in it to facilitate collaboration. It is supposed to replace internal emails and storage shares with chat and file transfer (sort of). You can use neat animations and stickers in chat now, but don't use too many because you can never delete anything in chat and too many will slow down your system (per our training).

For the sake of the thread I won't list my dislikes, but it is a work in progress and I haven't talked to a single coworker that likes the new software. Our corporate training was a mess. On the bright side now I get weekly emails full of statistics for them to tell me how to do my job better, which for my role is more confusing than helpful. For example, I know that my average email response time is about 15 minutes. According to Microsoft I am being unproductive and my response time should be a minimum of two hours--which is a pretty good idea when a large portion of your role entails expedited logistics so the best thing to do is sit on your thumbs.

It's great! :LOL: I could never think of a valid reason to use it outside of work purposes.
 
Microsoft killed the basic messenger app (most recently named Skype) that's been mature and stable since about 1997 and replaced it with a bloated clunky mess called Teams. It's a "team collaboration tool" that ties into all your messaging, personal documents, scheduling, email, etc. If your IT department allows it you can make work teams in it to facilitate collaboration. It is supposed to replace internal emails and storage shares with chat and file transfer (sort of). You can use neat animations and stickers in chat now, but don't use too many because you can never delete anything in chat and too many will slow down your system (per our training).

For the sake of the thread I won't list my dislikes, but it is a work in progress and I haven't talked to a single coworker that likes the new software. Our corporate training was a mess. On the bright side now I get weekly emails full of statistics for them to tell me how to do my job better, which for my role is more confusing than helpful. For example, I know that my average email response time is about 15 minutes. According to Microsoft I am being unproductive and my response time should be a minimum of two hours--which is a pretty good idea when a large portion of your role entails expedited logistics so the best thing to do is sit on your thumbs.

It's great! :LOL: I could never think of a valid reason to use it outside of work purposes.

That's not all it does though. I use it daily for work and I actually like it for work and work only. Not sure why a "native" version of Teams is needed though for Linux. The web version works just fine and the "native" is nothing but the web version wrapped with Electron anyways. :p

Teams is basically Slack on steroids. The collaboration is actually very powerful. We tie all of our Project SharePoint sites into Teams so all collaboration happens there. We can access all of the project files through Teams etc, etc. I can see where it's not ideal for some companies or situations but in the right environment it's very powerful which is why we use it.
 
That's not all it does though. I use it daily for work and I actually like it for work and work only. Not sure why a "native" version of Teams is needed though for Linux. The web version works just fine and the "native" is nothing but the web version wrapped with Electron anyways. :p

Teams is basically Slack on steroids. The collaboration is actually very powerful. We tie all of our Project SharePoint sites into Teams so all collaboration happens there. We can access all of the project files through Teams etc, etc. I can see where it's not ideal for some companies or situations but in the right environment it's very powerful which is why we use it.

I believe the Electron wrapper uses less memory?
 
the real question is, is Teams itself any good?
Depends. Do you want a dead simple chat and collaboration space with an incredibly easy API available?
Or do you want clunky, difficult to use, really stupid and weird limits, and lacking in simple features, but probably free with your O365 subscription? ;)
 
I actually really like Google Hangouts...Aaaaand, they're getting rid of it.

My Gawd Google are retarded.
 
For this unfamiliar, and since someone linked office, what does this program do? I would be willing to give it a shot on my Linux machine for a test, if you wanted.

It's supposed to be like slack or discord. It's UI/UX needs some serious TLC IMO as it is a study in death by whitespace. But that is now. MS has lots of plans for it and most of them that have been stated or hinted at revolve around leveraging the integration layer that will eventually glue together all the major 365 components and then some. It could do cool stuff. We will see if it actually does.
 
Like all other software Teams has its place. A lot depends on the company and what infrastructure they have.
Is teams all it could be, nope. Is zoom a whole lot better. Well no, Is that abortion Google is pushing much better. Nope. And why would anyone want Google recording you team and internal meetings and pulling data from them?

I have not used Teams for Linux but it makes sense for Microsoft to add it. Probably they would have been better getting one fo the Linux groups actually implement it. Based on mast experience there are likely to be plenty of growing pains.

As an aside. Have to agree with the OP here. Quit crapping on the thread becuase you are stuck up about anything Microsoft. You don't have to like it but as many mothers used to say. If you don't have something constructive to add, zip it.
 
Since this has been resurfaced, I'll add some updated info.

Teams ui is still death by whitespace. It is also now replacing lynx aka Skype for business.

Integration of o365 features had gotten much better, and inviting and sharing with outside collaborators is light years ahead of where it was when this thread first opened. Cleaning up after your collaboration is still kind of a pain in the butt, but it's improving.

As for the Linux client, this covid work from home situation has a lot more people using teams. Our Linux users have been rather complementary of it lately. Not our Linux types who are of the "everything past pine is an abomination" bent, but they are miserable fuckers anyway.

The fancy technology is getting more feature complete but they still really need to revise the ui/ux elements.
 
I'd be surprised if Microsoft Teams for Linux is good, because for Windows its wretched.
It's probably the same thing. Electron based, I'd bet. Same between the web, windows, and Linux versions. As someone noted, Slack + Zoom = Teams. Also as noted, death by whitespace. It has gotten a bit better and more useful, but ~6 months ago, my group was evaluating what to use and we actually went to discord for chat/collaboration o.0.
 
Like all other software Teams has its place. A lot depends on the company and what infrastructure they have.
Is teams all it could be, nope. Is zoom a whole lot better. Well no, Is that abortion Google is pushing much better. Nope. And why would anyone want Google recording you team and internal meetings and pulling data from them?

I have not used Teams for Linux but it makes sense for Microsoft to add it. Probably they would have been better getting one fo the Linux groups actually implement it. Based on mast experience there are likely to be plenty of growing pains.

As an aside. Have to agree with the OP here. Quit crapping on the thread becuase you are stuck up about anything Microsoft. You don't have to like it but as many mothers used to say. If you don't have something constructive to add, zip it.

I don't see anyone crapping on this thread. I use teams everyday at work and it is literally the worst software product I have ever used. Microsoft had messenger and Skype, both which where far superior to teams but it seems like they are hellbent on producing the worst chatting software ever created.

It would be nice if Microsoft actually brought something of value over to linux, say, like, the office 365 suite. However, that would make too much sense.
 
It works pretty well. I'm fulltime Linux and use Teams. Camera, microphone, all works. Doesn't have that fancy "backgound" thing, but you can at least set up a "fake" cam and use things like WebCamOid, if you want to look silly.
 
If you are just comparing teams to another chat software and ignoring all other tools it has. Teams is not just chat, video or collaboration. It is a canvas to access information that otherwise would be in several different places.

Good luck using Skype to manage a project
 
If you are just comparing teams to another chat software and ignoring all other tools it has. Teams is not just chat, video or collaboration. It is a canvas to access information that otherwise would be in several different places.

Good luck using Skype to manage a project

Ssssshhhhh...let the children have their say.

We use it at work, the more we use it the more we like it.
 
It works pretty well. I'm fulltime Linux and use Teams. Camera, microphone, all works. Doesn't have that fancy "backgound" thing, but you can at least set up a "fake" cam and use things like WebCamOid, if you want to look silly.

I use OBS studio for that anyway even in Windows. I use a green screen, then I get logos, my images, no jerky background AI removal stuff happening, and it works as I expect. It adds a tiny bit of delay, but it does a fantastic job.
 
Ssssshhhhh...let the children have their say.

We use it at work, the more we use it the more we like it.
Yep sometimes a big part of it is the learning curve. As in the past just about all software I have used over the years has limitations. Microsoft has messed things up pretty badly a few times. But them again so has Adobe, Apple, Linux, etc... Software is only as good as the humans behind it and the sales guys drive the tech guys to release stuff before it is usually ready.
I didn't particularly like Win 10 at first but after working with it you learn how to work around the childish controls built in so you can do what you wanted to do int he first place. It grew on me as well and no reason to not upgrade.
 
This could be useful. We use Teams extensively at my work, though what my team uses it for specifically the web interface works fine. Be nice to have an actual working client program.

Ya'll run linux? I've never encountered anyone who actually did work in a linux environment, and that includes 3 dockercon's. Just get a mac
 
Ya'll run linux? I've never encountered anyone who actually did work in a linux environment, and that includes 3 dockercon's. Just get a mac
A few sysops types and development guys use it. We have one guy in our department that uses it. I'd say institutionally, we're about 95% Windows, 4.99% Mac, and .01% Linux for desktop/laptop usage.
 
A few sysops types and development guys use it. We have one guy in our department that uses it. I'd say institutionally, we're about 95% Windows, 4.99% Mac, and .01% Linux for desktop/laptop usage.

I'd buy those numbers. Well, here lately in development and devops, i'm seeing probably 30% apple, maybe higher. My company(20-25k employees) has started buying macs for developers and we are old school, cheap as all hell. Definitely helps for docker stuff.

** edit ** Back on topic, the mac Teams client(kinda linux) is just as shit as the windows client.
 
Hello

Does anybody know why I cannot record meetings with teams using the Linux teams app (with a free account) but I can record on Windows 10 (using the same account) ?
The answer from MS is that only paid versions of teams account can record meetings but that does not seem to be true as recording works well but only on windows.
Is there anything I could do to use my free account and be able to record meetings on the Linux app?
Thank you.
 
Like most things Microsoft, barely supported on Windows and then less so on other platforms.... just the way it is.

With regards to "recording", you can certainly use standard Linux recorders, like SimpleScreenRecorder.

Microsoft likes to "release" software..... upgrade? maintain? support?..... not so much.
 
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