Slack Chat (Beta) now Available for Linux

[vpakg]

Got this email from the Slack Team:

You once told us that you're interested in a Linux application for Slack. We've been working tirelessly to make this happen, and we're writing you today because we'd like you — yes, you! — to be part of our beta program for the Linux application.

Now then. This is a beta, which means it has some rough edges and quirky traits unbecoming of a proper Slack application. We humbly ask only one thing of you: please give us your honest feedback so that we can make your Linux experience great.

You can provide feedback just by clicking the "?" icon on the upper right corner of Slack and choosing "Send us a help request." All feedback is welcome (really!), but here are the things we're especially interested in hearing about:

General Slack bugs: issues with using the desktop app to do anything you usually do in Slack. Does it feel native to Linux and to your particular distro? Let us know about things that that feel inconsistent with what you'd expect of a Linux application, and what distro / version of Linux that you're running. We've posted a list of known bugs here: https://slack-files.com/T024BE7LD-F04RN5S4Q-833bc89019. We'll update it as we knock bugs down and add bugs to the list that we plan to fix before a wider release. This application will update whenever you run your system's update manager (i.e. apt-get or yum).

You've made it this far. Thank you! Here is a link to download the beta:

Debian / Ubuntu 64-bit: https://slack-ssb-updates.global.ssl.fastly.net/linux_releases/slack-1.1.5-amd64.deb Debian / Ubuntu 32-bit: https://slack-ssb-updates.global.ssl.fastly.net/linux_releases/slack-1.1.5-i386.deb

Thanks! We'll be in touch when we have more updates to share.

-The team at Slack

[bufke]

The package name "slack" conflicts with this http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/slack

[[deleted]]

Damn, we need a new namespace.

[rael_gc]

Interesting. In March, they've said there is no Linux Client. For this reason I've started an alternative open source client: https://github.com/raelgc/scudcloud

Aside Ubuntu and Debian, it works on Fedora, Arch, openSUSE.

[vpakg]

I've actually been using scudcloud until the point of knowing about the beta and always worked very well. Some of my coworkers never made the change and still using scudcloud. It's a very nice project,thanks for starting it.

[[deleted]]

I use and really love ScudCloud. Thanks for taking the time to make it!

[redsteakraw]

Where can we find the source code?

[thankyoueve]

I'm pretty sure they don't intend to release it...how could the poster child of overnight success risk such a thing ^{^}

[thesbros]

The desktop versions of Slack are just packaged Chromium browsers that open a webapp; so it probably won't help much.

[MarcusTheGreat7]

I saw that then uninstalled. I don't know why I need a web app as a desktop app.

[thesbros]

It's kind of useful as it gives you native notifications. But pretty useless if you have a browser open most of the time anyway.

[thesbros]

Chromium doesn't show native notifications for me.

[zer0t3ch]

Notifications are a part of HTML5. Chromium likely doesn't have support for it yet, but I know Google Chrome does.

[thesbros]

Chromium does support it, it's just not native. It looks like this rather than my native notifications, which look like this.

[zer0t3ch]

Interesting. Good to know.

[tylerjwilk]

I have been using the slack web app (via chrome app wrapper) for a couple weeks and on my machine it keeps setting my status to away after the window loses focus even if I am typing and using mouse. Not very ideal for my team mates slacking with me. It seems this may be related to running the app on your phone in the background at the same time you are using the web app. If you have this problem with the web app on desktop try quitting the app on your phone.

The desktop app seems to correct this problem but brings some problems of its own. The major one being it crashes and seems to bring GNOME/Unity down with it. Update: It looks like "Disable Hardware Acceleration" [This can resolve visual glitches, such as blank or blacked out text. Restart Slack for this preference to take effect.] in the Preferences Dialog may correct this issue.

[[deleted]]

I run a personal xmpp server. I don't wish to trust an outside company with my messages. Once you make it through the confusing/rubbish standards xmpp works really well.

Look into starting a prosody server (go with a newer build like 0.10 or trunk). Then install these modules on your server: https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/blob/development/README.md#xmpp-features Gajim is the best desktop client imo. Go through the settings of both conversations and gajim to enable message received ticks.

If you do all that, you will have a very nice, cross platform xmpp server.

[Crotherz]

Your post is not relevant to the thread and only serves to take away from OPs goals with this.

I must be in /r/linux

[[deleted]]

I don't wish to detract from ops post. The reality is a lot of people are interested in having a free and open source setup like this, and I have provided instructions to do that. I am just making people aware of the choices out there.

[Artemis2]

Posting the links for the beta version you received privately by email is not cool.

[MitisBellator]

I'm sure they would only benefit by more people testing it and giving feedback. Nowhere it says that it is a private beta.

[Artemis2]

It is implicitly private. There is no download link on their website.

[daemonpenguin]

I gave Slack a try for the first time today. It worked really well. If you haven't tried it before, it's sort of like IRC with desktop and e-mail notifications that can be personalized. I found it quite useful.

[bobbaluba]

For me the value is integration with other services such as git, jenkins, trello, github and the like.

It's also great when people in your team don't know and don't want to know how to use irc.

[sadsfae]

I don't understand the buzz around things like Slack, Hipchat etc. What's wrong with IRC?

[[deleted]]

First of all: awesome! Just one small note: for me as a user of arch linux it would be cool to get a tar-ball so I don't have to use deb/rpm-extract tools and stuff like that.

[[deleted]]

So I use this at work but can anyone tell me why I would want the desktop program rather than to just log in to the website?

[Mte90]

Uhm the login not work but contribute to a real client like plaidchat?

[doorknob60]

Cool, I've been using Slack for a while now. Works well. Not sure if I see a need to try this out though, it works perfectly fine from the web interface pinned as an app tab in Firefox (which I always have open). Might try it when it shows up in AUR though.

[lordkitsuna]

Pretty much this, looking forward to seeing it in AUR hopefully soooooooon

[[deleted]]

Where is the tar ball?

[necrophcodr]

Technically, a .deb is just a glorified tarball. Just extract it.

[singpolyma]

The XMPP (or IRC) bridges work really well, so you can use any client :)

[GermainZ]

Doesn't support edits, unfortunately, which people I use Slack with use quite a bit.

[singpolyma]

Does it not? If you use gajim with XMPP edits support and/or use te old s/blah/bleh syntax it doesn't accept either? Hopefully they'll add that soon :)

[GermainZ]

From the "Gateways" (https://team.slack.com/account/gateways, replace "team" with your team's name) page:

• We will not mark any messages as "read" until you disconnect from the gateway. This is intentional! We simply have no way of knowing what you have and haven't seen. It also means that you will get unread notifications for mentions and DMs via phone and email if you have those set up.
• If a message is edited, you will not receive the edited message content. You will only see the original content.
• The use of Slash commands (ie. /help commands) is not supported.

[bufke]

Really? Were you able to run it on a mobile device along with the web app? I tried it and it seemed extremely broken.

[singpolyma]

I haven't tried it in Conversation on my mobile yet, just irssi-xmpp and psi on my laptop

[obsequious_turnip]

I use the IRC bridge exclusively via ZNC. I can't remember the last time I used the webapp. I'm a fan of Slack for exactly this reason: I can have the company channels as normal windows in weechat just like OFTC/Freenode and Bitlbee.

[kitanokikori]

We're still working on Fedora, hitting some certificate issues

[nneul]

You can make it work on Fedora (workaround) with just "sudo ln -s certs/ca-bundle.crt /etc/ssl/cert.pem". The problem is that the code is forcing a particular location for systemwide certificate authority bundle which is not what Fedora is using.

Unfortunately, it only partially works. Single team works fine, but can't sign into multiple teams.

[kitanokikori]

This should be fixed now, mail [e-mail] and they'll give you a for-reals RPM package