On 11/9/19 6:48 PM, Jeff Green wrote: > Sorry, didn't meant to upset people. I don't think anyone was upset. Some of us (AKA I) tend to be a little passionate sometimes. :) > In IBM DevOps, we use slack as a valuable tool to not just send > emoticons but plug into a host of collaborative tools to share ideas, > help one another via group web conferencing, screen sharing and much > much more. Yeah, if you need that, sure, a tool like that is fine (we use Zoom where I work for much the same thing.) But if you *only* need chat, I don't think using closed protocols is a good thing. I also get really annoyed at the restrictions of tools like Slack and Zoom. There are a host of integrations that I've trivially done with IRC that are impossible with those tools. To give you one example, I want to be marked away when I lock my screen and marked back when I unlock it. That was a few lines of scripting in my IRC client, but impossible (AFAIK) in Slack or Zoom. There are tons of libraries in your favourite scripting language that let you write useful IRC bots, but the commercial counterparts' APIs are much more restrictive, in my experience. > Figured a tool like slack might spark up some buzz in the > group as there are many Dev's who use Linux in mixed environments for > many different purposes, not just a single o/s, all open environment. I believe all major OSes have IRC clients, no? Worst-case, you use a web-based IRC portal. > Some days I do wish our world was like that though, it would certainly > make things easier in some ways. Wishing is one thing; doing is the only way to effect change! :) Regards, Dianne. To unsubscribe send a blank message to linux+unsubscribe [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To get help send a blank message to linux+help [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To visit the archives: https://lists.linux-ottawa.org