Microsoft Debuts Skype for Business Preview on Mac With Outlook Integration

Thank god! It's taken long enough and Lync 2011 for mac sucks.

You are one a a few million. Every single mac user at my company has issues on a regular basis. Even PC users have problems.

I see my co-worker is online and I send a message, oh wait they are offline and the message didn't get through, thanks Skype!

Or I'll send a message then send another message within a few seconds there is this awful loading icon that lasts like 10 seconds before my message goes through. I have 16gb ram, i7 cpu, gigabit ethernet port on google fiber, why the eff does it take 10 seconds to send a few bits of data 150ft across the office in 2016?

I'm trying to convince by company to switch to Slack and it looks like they may take that route once ScreenHero is integrated.

Sounds like you have issues with your deployment or are talking about Skype for consumers. I was a Skype for Business/Lync engineer at Microsoft for 6 years, and can show you deployments where hundreds of thousands of people are using it without issue on a daily basis for critical functions. That IM you send is not peer to peer, it traverses the network to your datacenter, then to the other user. It's not a few bits of data, ever, considering end to end encryption.

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

It's mostly unrelated to Skype, at least for now. It was recently rebranded, and not for the first time:

Versions

* 2015 - Skype for Business Server 2015
* 2012 - Lync Server 2013 (RTM 11 October 2012)
* 2010 - Lync Server 2010
* 2009 - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
* 2007 - Office Communications Server 2007
* 2006 - Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1
* 2005 - Live Communications Server 2005, codenamed Vienna
* 2003 - Live Communications Server 2003


(Always a surefire sign a product isn't working but the managers really want it to: keep rebranding it!)

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

You don't seem to understand that SfB is an on-premise solution like Exchange. For many organizations, they will not use anything cloud based and want complete control over their clients from end to end. You won't see SfB going that direction for a long, long, long time - the product road map extends for over a decade from now.

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

What problems are you seeing? It's standard at my company. I use it at least ten times a day; no problems.