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Microsoft reportedly have Discord in their sights to acquire

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Do you use Discord? Well if these reports are to be trusted, it looks like they might get a new owner under Microsoft.

In an article on Bloomberg which cites anonymous sources "familiar with the matter", Microsoft are apparently in talks to buy Discord for more than $10 billion USD. This follows from another article from VentureBeat that claims Discord has been exploring options for a sale and has "signed an exclusive acquisition discussion with one party". Earlier this month the WSJ talked about how Discord revenue has increased quite a lot to $130 million in 2020 (up from $45 million in 2019) but it's not actually profitable yet.

For the Linux support of Discord, if Microsoft did acquire it we don't expect much to change. Discord's Linux client is full of issues that never get solved so Microsoft can't do much worse - we could even see an improvement perhaps. Nowadays Microsoft aren't exactly the same when it comes to Linux with the likes of Teams, Visual Studio Code and Edge all on Linux in some form. Microsoft are also the owners of GitHub which huge parts of the open source community entirely rely on.

Still, with all the acquisitions Microsoft has done, that's a lot to have under a single roof. This continued consolidation across the gaming industry is pretty concerning. Some companies really do end up with far too much influence and power.

How do you feel about this?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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slaapliedje Mar 23, 2021
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Kithop
Quoting: GuestNeat, hadn't heard of that one. One advantage Tox has over it though is decentralization and possibly anonymity. You don't have to use anyone's specific server, i.e. everyone is a server since it's purely p2p.

Once the next major release of toxcore is out, group chats will have file sharing, so it will be more Element-like in that regard. But cool that there seem to be some other secure options out there. ^n.n^

Yeah, taking a real quick look at that, it reminds me that I've also played around with Jami in the past (previously GNU Ring), but honestly the thing I like about Matrix is that it is a bit more persisent/organized in that you can administer a server, moderate it, etc. - I'm thinking more for organizing a gaming guild, or a convention... something that blurs the lines between business-focused Slack/Teams, but with better voice UI.

Just doing ad-hoc group chats, yeah - that's got a few more options, thankfully.
Ah okie, yep can't have persistence without storage, and Tox doesn't have p2p storage implemented, most likely intentionally since anonymity, privacy, and security is the goal. You also can't have users directly joining a group chat and instead they have to have one of the users of the group add them to their private contact list first. Sounds like Element might be better in that case for organizing furmeets, furry cons, etc then.
Avatar matches.
slaapliedje Mar 23, 2021
Quoting: PublicNuisanceI refused to touch Discord before this and would not see this as a reason to start.
I stayed away from it for a long time as well... and then more and more of the projects I hang out around have decided to start using it (like Foundry VTT, AtariVCS, GURPS, etc). That's the only reason I ever created an account. But much like most other chat systems, I make up info. :P
riidom Mar 23, 2021
Discord can go to hell, if you ask me.

I hoped for a worse name than Microsoft, but seems to be all we get. I hope they fuck it up gloriously and people mass-migrate to things like discourse and matrix.

Yes, probably not every kid and their dog can create their own servers then, but there is no free lunch anyway, right.
slaapliedje Mar 23, 2021
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Kithop
Quoting: GuestNeat, hadn't heard of that one. One advantage Tox has over it though is decentralization and possibly anonymity. You don't have to use anyone's specific server, i.e. everyone is a server since it's purely p2p.

Once the next major release of toxcore is out, group chats will have file sharing, so it will be more Element-like in that regard. But cool that there seem to be some other secure options out there. ^n.n^

Yeah, taking a real quick look at that, it reminds me that I've also played around with Jami in the past (previously GNU Ring), but honestly the thing I like about Matrix is that it is a bit more persisent/organized in that you can administer a server, moderate it, etc. - I'm thinking more for organizing a gaming guild, or a convention... something that blurs the lines between business-focused Slack/Teams, but with better voice UI.

Just doing ad-hoc group chats, yeah - that's got a few more options, thankfully.
Ah okie, yep can't have persistence without storage, and Tox doesn't have p2p storage implemented, most likely intentionally since anonymity, privacy, and security is the goal. You also can't have users directly joining a group chat and instead they have to have one of the users of the group add them to their private contact list first. Sounds like Element might be better in that case for organizing furmeets, furry cons, etc then.
Avatar matches.
Why are you pointing out the obvious, that we're furs? X3
I'm already on Element. Actually I was using the Librem Chat client, but it's a little weird, seems Element sets up the encryption keys a lot easier.
Phlebiac Mar 24, 2021
Quoting: PhiladelphusI'll grudgingly admit they've managed not to run GitHub into the ground yet

They put Nat Friedman in charge of it; he's an old GNOME hacker, that ended up at Microsoft as part of the Ximian/Xamarin acquisition.
slaapliedje Mar 24, 2021
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: scaineI closed my GitHub account the moment that deal went through and I'll do the same if this happens to Discord. It's a shame, as I like the Discord experience, even though I gave up on their client (I only run it in the web now), but as an old, jaded long time techie, I won't have anything to do with Microsoft. Nothing they do absolves them of the hurt they bring to this industry day in and day out with their legal strong-arming, proprietary lock in, aggressive acquisitions and baffling licensing. They can "love Linux" all they want, I'll have nothing to do with them.
its amazing that their love for linux so far has been one sided. sided to microsofts best interest of course. everything has been centered around making linux things run smoother, and better on windows. to attract linux developers, to windows, to develop their linux things, on windows. none of it has actually benefited linux at all.

if microsoft truly loved linux like they claim, they would start opening up some important stuff. like directx. contribute to wine, etc. if they actively contributed to wine, i would feel far more comfortable with their work on WSL for example.
And WSL still runs like garbage on it :P
furaxhornyx Mar 24, 2021
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So sad news... I moved to Discord after Skype became such a mess under Microsoft's direction. Now I should probably start looking elsewhere as well, but my friends will probably want to stay with Discord because "it works" (they use the full-fledged Windows version)

TheSHEEEP Mar 24, 2021
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Hmmm, mixed bag.
Github is fine after their acquisition. As is Minecraft (if not better, actually).
Skype just went downhill after MS took over.

Those are honestly the only projects that MS bought that I had any personal interest in.

I don't really care enough for Discord to react one way or the other.
I'll just keep using it as needed, unless it becomes crappy now.
dvd Mar 24, 2021
I'm only using signal now as a skype alternative, even managed to get some family members using it. If you only use such software for group voice chat, there is also mumble, and a myriad of other open technologies that can fit your needs.
Kymus Mar 24, 2021
Fuck that. I really like Discord and run more than one server for different projects. If this goes through, I'll be looking at alternatives. I was planning on paying for Nitro, but not if Microsoft buys up Discord. This is really disappointing.
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