What is the crowd's opinion of Microsoft Teams?

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Teams.. Replaces Skype for Business in the future.

https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

Microsoft is in the process of retiring Skype for Business and replacing it with a new product called Microsoft Teams, so you should use that instead. You don't need a server, and you can sign up for free here:

https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

If you have any more questions about Microsoft Teams, the best place to ask them is in /r/MicrosoftTeams.

Have you looked into Microsoft Teams (basically a Skype for business replacement)? Do you have access through that with your Microsoft Office Suite? Look into that first because I believe you can do group video chats with it and also share your computer screen, if necessary.

If you don't have access, I believe Facebook messenger, Google Hangouts, and Google Duo all allow group video calls.

As for streaming it on Facebook and such, I am not entirely sure how to go about that (never done it before). But you may need a second device. One for streaming to Facebook, the other to video chat off.

Most people have been working from home once or twice a week anyway for as long as I've been here, so the transition hasn't been that jarring for us.

Everyone has laptops or is able to RDP into their workstations via the VPN. We run meetings via Teams.

> I use VS code and with the SFTP extension to remote edit the code on the local machine but need to go back to a Terminal to run it.

I've done this too but we've since gotten our build+deploy pipelines to be relatively self-service and pretty fast. Granted deploying our ~2GB monolith doesn't perform super duper well over a strained VPN connection, most of our developers are comfortable working with code that exists on some remote workstation and don't have that problem.

Just saw Microsoft Teams is free! They have almost everything you’re looking for. https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software?OCID=AID2000924_OLA_23653873_269853567_130115884&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Apple uses Apple solutions for that of which I am glad I don't know what they are. Most fortune 500's use Skype for Businesses's, it's called Microsoft Teams. Nice software, comes with MS365.

> Employees are generally less-efficient...

That's debatable. I have hourly interruptions at the office and would have zero at home. Besides, you shouldn't hire people that only work when the boss is watching.

> The time and expense of setting up ... a robust and secure remote-access/virtual-machine environment capable of supporting a substantial number of remote employees

Please. This is not the huge technical hurdle you're making it out to be. VPN access has been around for decades and if you're not already leveraging a virtual environment in some capacity, I'm not sure why we're talking. Also, I'm proposing a percentage of employees to use it on any given day, not all of them.

> Not having someone in the office to discuss problems/situations in person can be frustrating for those in the office

Like I said, this would be for a percentage of the work week. If it's a problem that requires my physical body in front of your face, maybe it can wait until tomorrow? If not, try Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams. Phones are also still a thing.

> Those factors, among others, make working remotely prohibitive for the sake of convenience or helping a municipality with its traffic problem.

You honestly believe this? We have all the means for a percentage of the workforce to be productive without wasting hours on the road, consuming fossil fuels, and impeding others. Commuting in many cases is a waste of time and energy that can and should be applied to being productive in other ways.

I guess you'd like to pour more asphalt and/or pack people onto trains? Fine. In the meantime, how about we have a discussion on how to lessen the impact of increasing traffic volume for the next twenty years.