What happened at TEC & MEC? Paul gives us the low-down

First up this week, Paul and I chat about TEC – and how valuable it was to attend for him; and we contrast that to Microsoft conferences like Ignite. Paul talks about how TEC provides deep, real-world expertise and having expanded from technologies like Identity, covers a large range of Microsoft-related topics, and keeps things independent. And was MEC, the Microsoft Exchange Community Airlift, one last hurrah for Exchange? Paul thinks not necessarily and is expecting that Microsoft will continue with MEC-style Exchange events for the foreseeable future.

Find out more about TEC if you missed it and the Microsoft Exchange Community Airlift

A reminder at MEC & TEC: Basic Auth is still on death row 

It won’t be the last time we say it – but Basic Auth is on the way out, so just a friendly reminder in case you missed the previous 972 times we told you… if you’ve not done anything yet, watch this:

Greg Taylor reminds you in his MEC session, available on-demand here

Citizen Developers Flock to the Power Platform Conference in Orlando 

And not just citizen developers – pro coders, low-coders, and many more attended the Power Platform conference, an independent conference focused on Power Apps, Power Automate, and everything it relates to.

I discuss with Paul some of the stats shared, including nuggets like there are “7.4 million monthly no-code, low-code, and pro-code App Makers”. Who that’s made up of and what they’re doing, we aren’t so sure. But with some additional governance features and the ability to nominate internal experts, you might find you have better tools available to find out what’s going on.

Power Apps brings collaboration to center stage with 3 big announcements | Microsoft Power Apps 

Teams on Linux Retires 

We doubt that many Linux-on-the-desktop fan(s) will be losing sleep over message center announcement 412007. Microsoft plans to retire the very much neglected Linux Teams client in early December. It’s been in public preview for several years, lacks many new features, and has not been mentioned in Microsoft’s “Teams v2” client announcements.

Microsoft will be recommending using the PWA or web version of Teams instead – which is most likely what you will be using if you are using Teams on a Linux device. From personal experience, Teams on the web works well on Chromium OS devices including low-powered Raspberry Pi 4, and just about works on the browser in a Tesla (also Linux-based).

Teams gets scheduled send  – IM becomes “M”

Teams chats are often referred to as Instant Messages; but unlike Skype for Business, they don’t require the user to be online to receive them and persist between sessions. However, the expectation is usually that they are instantly sent, even if read later. Soon you’ll be able to treat Teams messages as “little emails” with the ability, borrowed from Outlook, to schedule when the messages are “sent”. We don’t recommend using scheduled send to pop over a “hi” message at 1 AM to a colleague who’s annoyed you though; but on a serious note, it is a great way for night owls (or other folks working across timezones) to send messages in a way that’s considerate of other people’s working hours.

Exchange Online PowerShell V3 Module General Availability 

It is time to update your scripts – the Exchange Online PowerShell Module V3 with fast REST API calls is generally available to use.

On the show, Paul and I explain why the REST API calls make a positive difference compared to older-style Remote PowerShell cmdlets.

Microsoft GA the new Exchange Online PowerShell Module

And Finally: Teams Ringtone Remix Turns Paul Robichaux into Paul Oakenfold

Yes, we’ve got a bit of dance music on the podcast this week – it turns out that a remix of the Teams Ringtone is actually not bad! We take a listen on the show as we wrap up.

Will Microsoft Teams top the dance charts as a crazy-frog style one-hit wonder? Probably not, but this is better than you might expect..

Join us in two weeks’ time for the next episode!

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About the Author

Steve Goodman

Chief Editor for Audio and Video Content and Technology Writer for Practical 365, focused on Microsoft 365. A nine-time Microsoft MVP, author of several Exchange Server books and regular conference speaker, including at Microsoft conferences including Ignite, TechEd and Future Decoded. Steve has worked with Microsoft technology for over 20 years beginning and has been writing about Exchange and the earliest iterations of Office 365 since its inception. Steve helps customers plan their digital transformation journey and gets hands on with Microsoft Teams, Exchange and Identity projects.

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