Not exactly surprising reading...
So someone sues Microsoft and immediately we have the usual accusations of "monopoly abuse" being flung about...
Personally, I hate the idea of monopolies... politics and everything else aside, they create an environment that is hostile to innovation - IE6, I'm looking at you here! But having made the jump from Slack to Teams (thanks to a buy-out and corporate decision), I have to agree that Slack simply did not offer the facilities a lot of people required in order to operate in the COVID-19 environment at a competing price.
Whether that was a deliberate decision, or that they have no choice due to their size versus the of Microsoft is not really relevant here; as I established some time ago when I was still making mobile games and apps, unless there is some killer feature they require, people will always go for what is cheapest. Zoom is proof enough of this - free video conferencing at just the time it was needed most have definitely pushed it into a "king" position, and (as far as I'm aware) there's no word of them suing Microsoft for anti-competitive behaviour.
Yes, I fully acknowledge that Microsoft have previously exhibited very dubious practices, and indeed continue to do so - while I loathe the way privacy has become part and parcel of life on the web, to bake it into an actual operating system is an entirely different level of evil - but in this instance, I can't help but think that this boils down to sour grapes on the part of Slack.
And as for all those commenting on here about monopoly abuse... how many of you own Android phones and use the browser that came bundled with the phone when you got it? Just sayin'...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
