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Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client
- edent 11y agoThis is very disappointing. Skype has been one of those "just works" solutions for calling distant family members - even if they're running underpowered hardware. I currently use https://tel.red/ https://tel.red/ to connect to Lync / "Skype for Business" on Linux. I wonder if that's a possible solution?
- _yy 11y agoGoogle Hangouts is a great alternative. It only needs a browser, too.
- edent 11y ago...and a Google account - which not everyone has / wants. Also, from my experiences, it needs a more powerful computer to run smoothly.
- dogma1138 11y agoI've run Hangouts on a 1st gen netbook (Asus EEE PC) without any performance issues. The only times where performance could be an issue is when you are running a video conference call which technically Skype doesn't really supports (w/o a premium or business account).
- Arnt 11y agoIt depends on the video driver.
- dogma1138 11y agoIt depends on allot of things if you are using some fancy super duper HD camera and hanging out with 10 other people all using the highest possible bit rate streaming also you'll need a good computer with graphics hardware that will support all the required features for hardware acceleration in Chrome. Back then there was almost no video HW acceleration in hangouts anyhow (well in Chrome) not on the silly 1st gen Atom for sure and it still worked fairly well (at about 60% CPU usage IIRC) even with the 720p camera on the EEE PC. And it's not that Skype would be any better in that regards Skype might have slightly bigger selection of video codecs (Google probably had too back when Google Talk had actually a thick client) but Hangouts is limited more or less to video streams that Chrome can handle which usually means current web video formats.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- vanderZwan 11y agoIn fact years ago I switched from Skype to Hangouts because Skype on Linux would crash all the time on my EEE PC, whereas Hangouts just worked.
- leni536 11y agoWell, Skype needs a skype account. Though Google's interconnect between its services is maybe undesirable and a hassle to work around.
- Can_Not 11y agoSkype is not accepting new accounts, you have to make a Microsoft account of some type.
- dantiberian 11y agoI suspect not, Skype for Business shares most of its heritage with Lync, which is an entirely different beast to Skype.
- collyw 11y agoCrappy phones have been decoding voice calls for years now. it shouldn't require powerful hardware.
- oever 11y agoI'm a happy user of VOIP. Instead of using skype, I use SIP for which there are many computer programs. A good convenient program is CSipSimple. https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.csipsimple https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.csipsimple
- thejosh 11y agoCool, but the power of Skype isn't the VOIP part, it's that others use it want to call you.
- oever 11y agoNo, that is not the point. The post here is about Skype not working on Linux. If Skype is the only way to reach a person, that would be a real issue. Luckily nearly everyone still has a normal telephone number on which they can be reached. There are many options to dial to normal telephone numbers all over the world at very low cost. For voice communication, people should use established, vendor-independent standards.
- fenesiistvan 11y agoActually I fully agree with you. Linux should be about open standards and freedom. Skype breaks both. I suggest to everyone to use some VoIP app based on open standards (SIP) and not the vendor locked Skype.
- voltagex_ 11y agoCSIPSimple seems to be abandoned. Happy to be corrected. On my network it wasn't handling NAT rewriting at all so I couldn't connect to my ISP's SIP server.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- flurdy 11y agoAnd this is a surprise?
- merraksh 11y agoIt is not news that complaints are ignored, but it is good news that somebody is raising awareness about it. It is only useful if it appears on HN.
- awalton 11y agoOf course it is. Did you already forget that Microsoft <3's Linux? That the world has completely changed since Nadella joined Microsoft?
- Piskvorrr 11y agoEmbraces Linux.
- rciorba 11y agoGreat! I hope this way less and less people will expect me to use skype.
- farresito 11y agoThe Linux client is pretty disappointing, to be honest. The only reason I keep using Skype is because of friends using it.
- hyperdunc 11y agoThe Xbox client isn't much better. After install, it would only run for me if I specifically did NOT accept the terms and conditions. Account management is also dodgy as hell.
- farresito 11y agoUnless they start doing something, they will lose market. Whatsapp calls has been rising and people in the gaming world are starting to switch to better alternatives. I don't understand why such little effort. It's not like Skype for android is much better either. I've had trouble with it too.
- stuaxo 11y agoThat is really poor, I have skype credit for when I go abroad and need to call the UK from a local number (e.g. Real good with banks or utilities).
- snowpanda 11y agoI had to use Skype for work a lot. But things like this and the fact that I don't trust Skype enough to install it, kept me from using it. So at the time I bought the cheapest Android phone I could find and used it just for Skype, it didnt even have a sim card. And I was always easy to reach for coworkers. Hopefully this helps someone else in the same position. Luckily I dont have to use Skype anymore.
- sbose78 11y agoIf you are using for work, I would recommend HipChat !
- gurra 11y agoSome of my contact lists disappeared the other day. I am using Skype 4.3 on Ubuntu 14.04. I am trying to move most of my communication to Slack, but some clients and friends are still on Skype which makes this a pain for me.
- i336_ 11y agoWhile I'm unsure about the inability to join calls, I can at least agree that the Linux client is terrible. I finally caved a few months ago, got an account, and started using it ("oh wow it handles 's/woops/fixed/', that's awesome")... until the client began freezing, chewing 100% CPU for as long as I patiently left it running, and not getting itself sorted out. Removing ~/.Skype (XDG, anybody?) and re-signing in worked... for about 3 minutes, at which point my profile data re-synced, and the client began choking again. Last I tried the Web-integrated version (Skype icon, top-right of outlook.com et. al., takes a minute to become clickable) I couldn't even type "/me ..." - the line would send verbatim. At that point I gave up completely. I used to use IRC but I find it too Spartan nowadays, but on the other hand I don't want to have to remember what chat tab is in what window, and I can't handle the idea of running 15 isolated instances of Webkit for all the separate chat systems out there, so that kills websites and most current "desktop" chat clients. I don't use the Internet to communicate much, somewhat ironically. Everything drives me to distraction. Notes: - XDG: TL;DR = says stuff should be in ~/.config, ~/.cache, etc. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_Base_Directory_support https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_Base_Directory_supp... - I cannot help but admire the reverse-engineering going on at https://github.com/EionRobb/skype4pidgin/tree/master/skypeweb#skypeweb-plugin-for-pidgin https://github.com/EionRobb/skype4pidgin/tree/master/skypewe... to make the outlook/skype web integration programmatically consumable. I have no idea how it works but the commits are very recent, which is a big positive sign.
- lucaspiller 11y ago> until the client began freezing, chewing 100% CPU for as long as I patiently left it running, and not getting itself sorted out. The same happens for me on iOS and OS X quite often. I disabled mobile data and push notifcations on iOS as it sucked up tonnes of data (I've seen 30MB/day even when I haven't opened the app), and repeated or delayed notifications. Whenever I open a conversation I have to leave it 30s - 1 minute until it updates with the latest messages.
- i336_ 11y agoooh wow. I have to admit, searching for "skype 100% cpu" or similar shows lots of people having this problem on Windows and OS X, so I wonder if I'm not just seeing disasterousness in a shared part of the codebase. I never even touched the mobile app though; 30MB/day is insane. Wow...
- spronkey 11y agoIt's not just the Linux client. The Windows client has terrible usability issues too.
- me_bx 11y agoAt least on that OS it can be installed in a straightforward way. If one really wants to install skype on a 64 bits debian, they need to apply loads of tricks (and risk to bork their system in the process). Last time I attempted that, the package installer prompted me to first uninstall X - the window system - (amongst a whole lot of other crucial software) as incompatible dependencies...
- anon4 11y agoThat seems to be a Debian packaging issue, since all you need to run skype are the 32-bit libs it uses. I run it on Arch with no problem.
- SunShiranui 11y agoSkype has been getting worse and worse over the years. Personally I've switched to Telegram for chats, and I'll be looking for alternatives as far as voice calls are concerned.
- akerro 11y agoI use tox[1] with my family and some friends. https://tox.chat/ https://tox.chat/
- lawl 11y agoI use web.skype.com these days. I don't want that piece of crapware installed on my box, as I don't trust it. The web client works well enough for chat so I can talk to my friends who don't want to move away from it. It does however not support calls since for some reason it needs a browser plugin for that. WebRTC would clearly be too easy. So I just link people a Firefox Hello link whenever they want to use voice.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ryanlol 11y agoDoes the OS X client work well for anyone else? I keep having inability to join calls, getting stuck in calls and at worst even having the client say I'm not in any calls and no sound coming out of my speakers while others can still see me in the call and hear my microphone.
- tome 11y agoThe quality of outbound calls to telephones ("Skype Out" I think) has dropped markedly recently. My respondants can't hear me about half the time. The quality seems to come and go by the week.
- DominikR 11y agoAs someone who works in the VoIP mobile client area for 7 years (though not for Skype) I have to be fair and say that this is unlikely to be Skypes fault. They are known to use state of the art codecs so most likely the issue lies in the PSTN network that you are calling into. For the out calling feature they are relying on Carriers all around the world for the VoIP -> PSTN functionality. It would be another thing if you said that VoIP -> VoIP quality has dropped, here Skype has somewhat more control, although still not perfect control as they rely on the quality of Internet connection between caller and callee.
- tome 11y agoThat's the thing. VoIP -> VoIP is perfect. They really need to choose better PSTNs in that case.
- DominikR 11y agoIf the destination number is in the t-mobile network then they can't chose that the call doesn't go into t-mobiles network. They can control one part of it, the point where their VoIP is transcoded and switched into the network, here could lie the issue. But the issue could also come from the destination end of the network. I generally believe that US and EU carriers are solid enough that calling there shouldn't cause issues, but who knows whom the parent is calling. Could be Afghanistan for all I know and I am not as confident here that there wont be any issues that are definitely out of control for Skype. In some cases the carrier might even wilfully degrade the quality because they want to earn more. They earn less if Skype routes a caller from the US to Afghanistan via IP and lets him call from a Afghan to Afghan number.
- 11y ago
- nakedrobot2 11y agoSkype worked far, far better 10 years ago than it does today. From all indications I've seen, Skype is getting dramatically worse all the time. From a personal standpoint, it crashes for me multiple times a day and I can rarely get group calls working on the first try. Often Skype requires a force-quit and then it crashes twice more when it is being restarted. This is on Mac and Android. Fun fact: I have a friend who worked for Skype in Prague. He said the codebase is a true horror, an extreme mess, and that soon it would "reach a singularity" :-) He also said that there are whole parts of the codebase that he was not allowed to see, all indications pointing to stuff related to routing the traffic through servers of "the man" ;-)
- vanderZwan 11y agoAnd when someone tries to innovate in this live group chat space, they get bought out[0]. I doubt we'll see the features of Talko in Skyp any time soon, and I expect whatever creative buzz they had going over at Talko will surely be killed by the forced reintegration into the Microsoft bureaucracy. [0] http://www.talko.com/ http://www.talko.com/
- Cthulhu_ 11y agoThey /let themselves be bought out/; big difference there. If their ideology was to create a proper Skype competitor, they wouldn't go for the 'quick buck' / become millionaires overnight.
- pjmlp 11y agoYou are quite right, I don't understand the HN/Reddit mentality that only the buyer is to blame when FOSS projects get bought. After all they also took the money.
- vanderZwan 11y agoFair point! However, I stand by my pessimistic view of how things will develop after the buy-out.
- 11y ago
- lyncisnice 11y agoIs this a surprise, really? Lync (their custom, completely incompatibile VOIP solution sold to -- idiots, essentially) only works half-decently on windows. There's an OSX option, but it's just a factual checklist on the product spec, as in reality it's garbage. The best part, is that "skype for business" actually lowers the quality of the product even more. I had my own set of issues with Lync, but it just doubled since we had to transition. And that's for the "business" side.
- ex3ndr 11y agoSad thing is that skype for business/lync is bundled with office products and when we came to some big enterprises they say "we have free lync!". Insane.
- gargravarr 11y agoNot sure I understand the issue here, can someone summarise? Yes, Skype is an utter POS on Linux (90s UI, total incompatibility with any of the fancy things like picture sharing, inability to join group calls etc.) but the link implies the client can no longer participate in calls. I was chatting to a friend just yesterday via the Linux client - they called me and I accepted the call.
- unixhero 11y agoWell inability to join group calls is false. I do group calls on Linux using Skype every day. The client sucks, but it ain't unusable. Screensharing is my biggest concern, it does not work. I can't see other people sharing screens.
- tomc1985 11y agoI like the 90s UI :/ Better than all this modern crap
- bronlund 11y agoWhy people use Skype is beyond me.
- vanderZwan 11y agoBecause they have friends/family who are scared to switch?
- luxpir 11y agoNetwork effects. I've been forced to install the client (Linux) twice for work. Worked fine for calls/chat, but I'm not keen on running it, to say the least. Also, there are project managers in my industry who check availability of freelancers via Skype, rather than email. Remaining logged in keeps you visible with them. I don't do it, and I find it a shame that this is the state of affairs.
- labster 11y agoBecause they work remote, and everyone else at the company uses Skype? That's my situation, so I get to run a Skype client in addition to Google Changouts, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and IRC.
- r3bl 11y agoIt's simple: Skype is big and everyone's using it. Kind of like Facebook. I'll give you an example. When Skype goes down, nobody bats an eye. They just wait for it to start working again. When Tox (or to be more precise, qTox) behaves unexpectedly in a single situation, people come to me and say: "It's shit." (literally, no explanation whatsoever). Since everyone's using it, they think of positively even when it behaves like a complete garbage.
- toyg 11y agoIt's the LinkedIn of IMs, huge in the mainstream business market. Most customers expect people to be reachable on Skype or Skype For Business (Lync). If you are a small business, considering you have to keep it on, might as well use it for internal comms as well.
- 1wd 11y agoWhat else can do group text chat with easily started temporary group voice chat and group desktop sharing all in one?
- haddr 11y agoSkype on Linux is far inferior recently. Mostly due to the fact that the Linux version has been somehow abandoned. It haven't received updates since at least 1 year. For example, one recent change is that when someone sends a picture, on Linux you are sent a link to it, where you have to go to the Skype website and login in order to view it (and login each time you open a link). Sometimes it's a resized version of the picture which makes things worse. Another thing is the screen sharing. On Linux you can't share screen with more that 1 person, making it useless for telcos at work. And there is much more...
- S4M 11y ago>Another thing is the screen sharing. On Linux you can't share screen with more that 1 person, making it useless for telcos at work. And there is much more... Consider yourself lucky, for me screen sharing doesn't seem to work at all.
- manyxcxi 11y agoI gave up on Skype screen sharing forever ago. Even with good connections it would pixelate and distort to being illegible too often. I, frankly haven't found Hangouts much better. We've all but given up on them and use a combo of a free-ish conference app like Uber Conference and Join.Me, Slack, and FaceTime for audio. Except for the one guy with Android, that I then wind up actually having to call from my phone. Ugh, who wants to use a phone these days?
- ricardolopes 11y agoI've switched from Linux to OS X 3 years ago, and even then Skype on Linux was considered abandonware and far inferior to the other OS's versions. It's sad to see it doesn't seem to get any better.
- LoSboccacc 11y agotbf maintaining anything proprietary under linux is a chore, with the ABI changing every year for no reason and yet having to support users having all kind of version combinations. I can see how a company would hate devoting that much resources for pleasing a smaller user base.
- nik736 11y agoThe Mac OS client is COMPLETELY BROKEN. Message orders change constantly, if you type fast the messages are jumping up and down constantly which is annoying since the order sometimes gets messed up. Also the background colours of messages are bugged, sometimes my messages are grey, instead of being blue as they should be. What the fuck?
- coldtea 11y ago"Completely broken" with all caps would mean "you can't make a call" or "calls get cut short" -- not "message order changes" and "sometimes the background of my messages is a different color". (In fact the latter points to some color-code of sorts, e.g. grey = message hasn't been received yet, etc).
- petecooper 11y agoTry an older version? http://www.oldversion.com/mac/skype/ http://www.oldversion.com/mac/skype/
- vardump 11y agoEven though it's far from perfect, OS X client is the best Skype client. Yes, better than Windows client, at least when ran on Windows 10.
- vasili111 11y agoThe reality is that, Skype is a kind of software that is better to use Windows version + WINE than native Linux version.
- schindlabua 11y agoAnd even then, the Windows version is shit too so we should just be switching to a different service.
- vasili111 11y agoSounds good and I would love to do that. But there is no real alternative of Skype right now.
- edent 11y ago> but starting from February 22 the Linux client is unable to join calls Hmmm... My Linux client just made a successful voice & video call to an OSX Skype client. While it would be nice if Skype was properly maintained, I'm not sure quite what the "unable to join calls" bit is all about.
- throwaway2048 11y agojoin existing calls, not initiate new ones.
- StreamBright 11y agoMy biggest disappointment with the business version the fact that it is impossible to turn off the pop up notification when somebody logs in or out from Skype. Before you post me URL from the support website, non of them works, everybody in the office (10+ engineers) tried to disable this but no success. The only way you block that is to put yourself into do not disturb mode, but than non of the legitimate notifications are displayed either. Skype for business is a perfect distraction tool without providing any quality or functionality that other software already have. I just do not understand that in 2016 MS is at this level when it comes to user experience after being in the user facing software business over 40 years.
- shrikant 11y agoDo you mean Skype for Business aka Lync? We use SfB extensively at my workplace, and I don't see these log in/out notifications at all, even when I want to!
- StreamBright 11y agoIt is SfB, lucky you, are you hiring?? :)
- douche 11y agoIf that's Skype For Business, you've got somebody who set it up in a really bizarre way. It's such a clusterfuck of policies and settings that I'm not sure just where that would be set or what powershell gods you have to worship to straighten it out, but that's not the default out-of-the-box behavior. The client is trash, though. Never understood why you can't run multiple accounts, or at least multiple instances without massive hoop-jumping. Aside from some reskins, it's the same as the Lync 2013 client, and that wasn't much of a change on the 2010, or even 2007 client.
- StreamBright 11y agoThanks for this insight, I am going to open a ticket to the desk side support team to figure it out.
- CSDude 11y agoSkype is far inferior to any competitor. I just send a link to people through https://apprtc.appspot.com/ https://apprtc.appspot.com/ to have better video call experience. Skype does not even keep track of notifications cross devices. It was way better in the old days.
- coldtea 11y ago>Skype keeps ignoring people who complain or are having issues with Linux client Well, if they are too few and far between compared to Windows, OS X, iOS and Android then it makes sense. Opportunity cost et al. And, while it's often brought up, I think that when it comes to consumer products (as opposed to server and dev stuff) Linux users don't really have some kind of "extra-influence" to compensate for being a niche group.
- Sir_Substance 11y agoThe deep irony of this is that I prefer the linux client to the windows one (or did until it broke, haven't tried to make a call recently), because it is ad free, clean and simple. I wish there was a reverse-wine I could use to run it on windows.
- Sander_Marechal 11y agoCygwin?
- wallmani 11y agoI don't think you should ever try, but you can give cygwin a shot. You can, supposedly, get most linux packages running on Windows with Cygwin, but it would be almost as much work as Linux From Scratch.
- Sir_Substance 11y agoI don't think I can do this without source access to skype, unless I'm missing something?
- gog 11y agoAnbody have expirience with alternatives that provide group voice calls and support all platforms (win,linux,osx,ios,android)? Group calls are the only thing I use Skype for...
- TheCoreh 11y agohttps://zoom.us https://zoom.us is not bad, from my experience
- exo762 11y agoMicrosoft is doing a service to all of us by destroying Skype. Nobody should use it anyway from the moment MS has bought it with sole purpose of handing data over to NSA&Friends.
- 746F7475 11y agoWanna code an alternative then
- ElijahLynn 11y agoOther than the obvious, Hangouts, which is closed source and probably just as vulnerable: https://appr.tc/ https://appr.tc/ https://github.com/webrtc/apprtc https://github.com/webrtc/apprtc
- 746F7475 11y agoSkype is way better than hangouts first of all. Secondly webrtc requires you to coordinate, it's not like I can just call someone. Just as well we could use TeamSpeak or Ventrilo or any of the old solutions.
- ElijahLynn 11y agoYeah, definitely not the same thing. Just thought I would post it. I much prefer Hangouts over Skype though, plus it performs very well on Ubuntu, unlike Skype.
- mindo 11y agoI'm surprised M$ haven't killed skype like the next day they bought it as they often do when they buy/take over companies and their products. Skype is actually the only M$ product I use, and I would be more than happy to move to anything else as long as there would be a good alternative to it...
- txdv 11y agoHow do they get $ with killing a product? Currently they are placing freaking annoying ads in Skype for freeloaders.
- mindo 11y agoI doubt ads is the main source of revenue. They do sell DIDs, VOIP calls to landline phones and mobiles (with insane rates) so ads (only in few countries) doesn't account for much. M$ bought lots of companies before, that eventually came to EOL even though they were doing pretty well before M$ bought them, it's not particularly about the skype (even though we see it gets worse over the time).
- moonbug 11y agoThe only good communications program MS has ever produced is Comic Chat.
- apatters 11y agoIf the claim that the Linux client is no longer able to join calls is true, I think the Skype team really needs to respond. Microsoft has been doing all sorts of cool things lately and it's odd that the Skype team hasn't been a part of this movement toward a modern, multi-platform world. In my little corner of that world as the owner of an agency which spends money on Skype credit every day and uses Skype for a healthy part of our business communications, if Linux users start having trouble connecting to calls we are done with Skype immediately. There are enough alternatives out there nowadays that we will drop this tool.
- phillc73 11y ago> If the claim that the Linux client is no longer able to join calls is true, I think the Skype team really needs to respond. I made a call this morning (6 hours ago) and it worked[0] at that time. I'm not on the same machine right now, but it is a Debian 8 64-bit build. Just installing Skype was a total pain. If there was a viable alternative that had all the services Skype offers (Skype-Out and local numbers as well as the usual video/voice calling) I'd switch to it. However, I also need to convince my 70 year old Mum, on the other side of the world, who still uses Windows XP, because she's "used to it", and doesn't own a smartphone to switch too. I've just seen ring.cx mentioned above and might investigate further. [0] Worked: The person on the other end could hear and see me.
- pbhjpbhj 11y agoRing.CX sounds like it would be a sex-chat phone line, ... Shouldn't matter but it does, it's the GIMP effect.
- junto 11y agoThis might not be the ops problem but the following solved this for me. I had used a bunch of firewall rules to block ads. Inadvertently that blocker blocked key IPs and domains that Skype requires to make group calls and chats. Switching those off made Skype work normally again.
- mkrfox 11y agoTelegram already has all the pieces needed to add voice chat on all the platforms it supports. I wouldn't be surprised if eating Skype's lunch is part of their monetization plan.
- amelius 11y agoHow well does video chatting work within the browser nowadays? If it works well, then I would say Skype's days are numbered.
- Aoyagi 11y agoGood. The sooner Skype ends, the better.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- rdsubhas 11y agoI've been educating as many people (especially Management and Business people) as I can to switch over from Skype to any other alternative (like Hangouts). Because Skype is: * A memory hog * A bandwidth hog (its really inefficient about network usage, and uses a lot of bandwidth even when idle) * Has much lower call quality (a consequence of the above), just try having a call in Hangouts or Skype and notice that Hangouts has much lower audio lag, doesn't kick out people constantly even when screen sharing, etc * Is now owned by Microsoft * Never cared about privacy or security (not that Hangouts does, but Skype just sets a very very low precedent) * Group Messaging is a mess * Individual Messaging is a mess The list goes on and on. Its 2016, and "Let's Skype" is not cool anymore. There are much better options available.
- mrmondo 11y agoYou read my mind, while we are 99% an open source organisation we have a couple of managers that are strangely MS centric, if it has their stamp on it - it has to be 'enterprise grade' and there for the only serious option for them.
- ygra 11y agoBut Skype is a consumer offering. The "enterprise-grade" product is Skype for Business (formerly Lync), which is a completely different product and codebase (and thus, presumably, with completely different bugs and annoyances).
- omegaham 11y agoI actually don't mind Lync where I work, although I exclusively use it for IMing and sending pictures of chips back and forth. I'd personally prefer an IRC chat that everyone is logged into, but my guess is that the less technologically-inclined folks on my shift would definitely prefer Lync, and it's fine for my purposes anyway.
- crazyabtliv 11y agoNot true. Lync is a piece of shit. My current company uses Sky pe for business and guess what is the most annoying aspect: messages don't reach the other end sometimes!!!!! It also freezes, a LOT. We finally forced our manager to let us use Slack and we love it.
- sandGorgon 11y agoyes the linux client sucks... bu the OTHER linux client (i.e. Android) works beautifully. Which is why I cant wait for things like RemixOS or Intel's Android Linux [1]. With predictions that mobile chips will approach PS4 performance in 2017 [2], I cant help but wonder again if Valve made a colossal mistake in not basing SteamOS on desktop android. [1] http://liliputing.com/2016/02/intels-android-smartphone-prototype-is-also-a-linux-desktop-pc.html http://liliputing.com/2016/02/intels-android-smartphone-prot... [2] http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/16/mobile-devices-will-be-more-powerful-than-playstation-4-xbox-one-in-2017-arm-forecasts/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/16/mobile-devices-will-be-mor...
- maweki 11y agoI can no longer log in into skype for linux. Using the same username/password on Android works fine. No use in the Linux client.
- Zash 11y agoSkype hasn't been a pain on Linux since the Microsoft takeover. It was a huge pain long before. XMPP with http://swift.im/ http://swift.im/ and http://conversations.im/ http://conversations.im/ is much more pleasant.
- mrmondo 11y agoSwift.im looks interesting, thanks for the link. At work most of us use Adium with our XMPP servers, those stuck on Windows have to use pidgin at present which is truly awful so I'll take a look at this for them.
- _druu 11y agoWould've retweeted if it wasn't for the #thanksBill hashtag... I haven't been on Windoze since I don't know how long. And the Mac Client is superb. Linux client, absolute desaster, indeed. But still, this has absolutely nothing to do with Bill.
- mvonthron 11y agoAbsolutely! And to be honest, the Linux client disgrace predates Microsoft take over.
- ars 11y agoNo it does not. I used skype for work for hours a day, until Microsoft bought them. They put out a terrible Linux version which was so bad I had to downgrade. I then refused to upgrade until I got daily notifications that my old version would be disabled from connecting. I upgraded, as forced, and that was the last time I was able to make calls or do screen sharing. Chat still works. It worked before Microsoft, it did not work after Microsoft.
- rplnt 11y agoI noticed the huge #ThanksBill title bellow expected to find M$ in the text itself.. so.. yeah.
- Kenji 11y agoThey keep ignoring all their users, Windows too. A couple of weeks ago, they shipped a completely broken version that would crash regularly and scramble the message order randomly if the messages were sent within ~1 minute. Hello QA? Where are you? Hello beta testing? You cannot ship a program this broken to all your users?!
- kempe 11y agoSkype always crashes when you log of a windows machine.
- kempe 11y agoSkype always crashes when you log of a windows machine.
- pentae 11y agoWhat I don’t understand is - Why is there not a serious competitor to Skype? If there was a cross-platform Skype clone that worked on OSX, Linux, Windows, iOS and Android that was stable and secure - the whole world would jump onto it. All it has to do is not be a bloated piece of crap like Skype. Instead, everything else out there is fragmented. We’re all waiting, get on it already!
- theinternetman 11y agoProbably because there isn't any money in it so every company that can afford has to use it as a device to push their other products. e.g how Hangouts was designed to push G+ and Chrome usage.
- junto 11y agoIndeed. There are lots of apps that cover parts of its functionality, but not all. We keep trying to introduce new alternatives at work, but to date nothing has passed the test. Calls, group calls, chat, group chat, video, screenshare. For one communications client those are the boxes it needs to tick. Any suggestions?
- thirdsun 11y agoNo suggestions, but I think those features scream "Slack" in my opinion. It would make a lot of sense to have those features in a service that is the center of communication for many teams anyway.
- balabaster 11y agoI've been using Slack (https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/) for a while too... it does everything useful, and everything it doesn't do natively, there's an integration for. You can do: - Private chat with one or more parties - Open Group chat via channels (both private and public channels) - Voice/Video via numerous integrations including Bluejeans, Appear.in, Skype, Hangouts, you name it. - ChatOps via services like IFTT & Zapier or even your own custom bridge into your network. - Get notifications right in Slack from your source control, build servers, JIRA, Confluence and any number of other services via webhook integrations. - A billion other wicked cool integrations (https://slack.com/apps https://slack.com/apps) that allow you to do just about anything, including the eternally useless, often inappropriate and highly amusing Giphy. - It's free(ish)... the featureset is restricted on the free account, but it has enough to be useful to small startups even of adhoc members. For teams there is a small per user/per month charge which unlocks a wealth of enterprise ready features. - It's searchable Highly recommended and well worth a look for small and large teams alike.
- mrmondo 11y agoI'm surprised people still even use Skype, I went really down hill around 5 or so years ago. It's slow, bulky, closed source and it has been disclosed by Edward Snowden and Wikileaks to have ties directly into the prism program with the NSA.
- kohanz 11y agoMy thoughts exactly. There have been better alternatives out there for a few years now. Whenever a client or customer requests a Skype call these days, there are always a few raised eyebrows.
- alkonaut 11y agoI'd replace it in a heartbeat if something ticked all the boxes. - good persistent group chat - good voice quality - single contact list & app for voice+text chat - free (beer)
- mixmastamyk 11y agoAnd what are they?
- andrey_utkin 11y agoSounds like great justification for my business contacts why I cannot have a voice call in Skype with them. Could anybody please give a link to official bugreport or serious announcement about breakage of calls? User of XMPP (Jabber) with transport to Skype.
- georgeek 11y agoThey might be pushing users away from the Linux/Mac apps towads an online version of skype. Which is actually the easiest way to use their service, when you absolutely have to.
- gerardnll 11y agoMacOS is also a competidor and I don't have any issues with it neither Skype has stopped updating the app.
- binarez 11y agoSome (most?) of my contacts are not showing up online when I use the official Skype client on Linux. I use the web client: https://web.skype.com/ https://web.skype.com/
- betimsl 11y agoI'm a Linux user and I don't sign that.
- chtfn 11y agoI recommend trying jitsi (meet.jit.si) for conferences with features. Ring is a new one, that looks very promising for secure multiplatform p2p one-on-one communication. (ring.cx) On my phone, I use CsipSimple with my trusty VOIP provider Diamondcard.us.
- nickforall 11y agoThank you very much for sharing, we're overwhelmed by all the tweets.
- ElijahLynn 11y agoStop using Skype. The NSA allegedly collects all Skype traffic anyways. Do you really want that? "The full capture of voice traffic began in February of 2011 for “Skype in” and “Skype out” calls—calls between a Skype user and a land line or cellphone through a gateway to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), captured through warranted taps into Microsoft’s gateways. But in July of 2011, the NSA added the capability of capturing peer-to-peer Skype communications—meaning that the NSA gained the ability to capture peer-to-peer traffic and decrypt it using keys provided by Microsoft through the PRISM warrant request." http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/newly-published-nsa-documents-show-agency-could-grab-all-skype-traffic/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/newly-published-n...
- dethos 11y agoYes, there are far better alternatives out there, so if we could stop using skype and switch to something else, would be a great move here. However, the network effect is strong with this one, so it is impractical to make the switch.
- pbhjpbhj 11y agoIndeed I originally used it because it was cross platform, buy in meant relatives are now trained and comfortable with it. Personally I like HTTPS://appear.in for voice chat but one needs the phonebook, voicemail, online-indicator and such parts for it all to work efficiently.
- Someone1234 11y ago> Yes, there are far better alternatives out there, so if we could stop using skype and switch to something else, would be a great move here. What? There are secure text-only clients, but voice/video/group video? Where is the more secure version of those? Or is this going to go down the road of "set up your own VoIP service" again? People always say there are tons of alternatives to Skype... Where are these alternatives and why aren't they popular?
- Relys 11y ago
- mcs_ 11y ago46 active contacts and 12 blocked account in my Skype 4.3.0.37 (2014 Skype and/or Microsoft Patents Pending) Family: Wife (mac), Mom(ubuntu) and Sister(win) All - Family = work or business (i can safely say that 90% are OS from MS). Do I want all those contacts in my slack ? No i don't. Do I want to change to another very powerful chat system? Well, sometimes connect sqlite3 to find a conversation is not really what i want to do but the problem is to use chat system as storage for important communication so, No I don't what another shitty chat system. My "rest folder" contains current work, future work, very good and bad work experiences from the past and maybe unplanned new jobs. People are still there in green every morning cause they may want support or want to give jobs and after they pay they tends to use less email and more (shitty) chat systems. In my case skype is only for work and i don't what to confuse the clear skype sound in my phone with something else that the work. Remove those contacts today means lose money tomorrow, i cannot remove that program and it is immediately installed after vim and git. So after declaring to be a slave of skype like many others, I don't ask microsoft to change it, to fix it, to improve it or do it more cool or modern. I ask for my freedom: We need public, usable and having a sane license API to build something _better_ around it and remove that green icon from the status bar or my GNU/Linux Mint.
- oddvar 11y agoWhat if there was a free, interoperable protocol that could connect anything to anything? That's what we are trying to achieve with Matrix (https://matrix.org https://matrix.org) - making apps connect either natively or via gateways/bridges. We already have bridges to IRC, Slack, and libpurple! Ideally we would connect all services to each other, but obvs we can only do so for those who offer an API. In Matrix, you can set up a WebRTC call with any Matrix-user, and the user can take the call in whatever Matrix-client he wants. We already have open source clients for web, iOS and Android!
- mcs_ 11y agothanks for the reply. will look at that but still, in this moment and with the current api of skype, an instance of it must run in background somewhere.
- jaimehrubiks 11y agoSkype was a grate sofware, now it is just a sad and buggy software
- rhabarba 11y agoHow many Linux issues are required before people stop using Linux?
- PaulHoule 11y agoSkype is getting pretty bad on windows too. Try it on a PlayStation vita.
- cm3 11y agoFor an excellent and disruption-free experience I use Mumble and if I have to WebRTC, but the browser experience isn't as stable, performant and reliable. Nothing beats Mumble if video isn't a requirement. You can join free Mumble servers, host your own or rent a server. It's open source, so you're not at the whim of a company and integration with your operating system is much better. update 1: https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Features https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Features It has encryption which cannot be disabled and the advanced audio features make it well suited for reliable and pleasant day to day use. It's low-latency and instead of a centrally managed contact database like most commercial services have Mumble uses certificates for authentication and identification of your friends across servers. update 2: There are alternative server implementations, one in C and another one in Go, meant to run on OpenWRT in terms of hardware requirements.
- arca_vorago 11y agoI run mumble as well, it really is awesome as long as you dont need video, like you said. I constantly tell people about it, because I refuse to use a non foss app for communication on my pc. (Ventrillo, teamspeak, etc) I have poked around with Jitsi but its setup is too complicated for normal users.
- cookiecaper 11y agoMumble/Murmur is awesome, but I was always having issues with it. It seems to take a lot of fiddling on the client and server sides before you can get a good connection that works. It needs a lot of polish before it will be usable for mainstream.
- pfooti 11y agoI use mumble for a lot of informal communication stuff, I installed a server on a $5 digital ocean droplet, and it works quite well.
- Gratsby 11y agoWow. My previous job had no phones only skype and most of us just had linux on our desktops. There is a solution - Cisco Jabber. They have a hosted solution now. I can't find a link currently and I haven't used it since we have it on-premise. But I did talk with someone recently who worked on their cloud product.
- neppo 11y agoI started using appear.in for quick video telephony. The beauty with this one is that you don't need an account, you just send a invitation link via slack or mail
- jaimehrubiks 11y agoDiscord is the best alternative, or at least it will be. It lacks 1to1 calls yet but they will be implemented. There are no plans for video or screen share yet i think though
- svendlarssen 11y agoI've been complaining since Nov last year without any result. It's terrible and I really hope Skype will do something about it.
- toxican 11y agoThe longer MS ignores Skype on linux, the happier I'll be. Unlike the Windows version, it's at least usable and a great deal more stable (in my experience, anyway)
- lucb1e 11y agoPrecisely. Like Pidgin using the MSN network, it didn't have any of the problems that Windows Live Messenger had (like shutting down when Microsoft wished it and forcing you over to Skype - the network itself kept running just fine for 2 years after that point).
- jayarcanum 11y agoSkype on linux is akin to taking fertility drugs on birth control. It's super dumb and always feels dirty for no reason. It installs 127 packages and then removes only 112, leaving me saying I knew this was a mistake so that I could waste 15 minutes with TopTal because they can't get on a hangout. Skype is owned by the original nerd's evil empire what do you expect. Never should have tainted my system...
- lucb1e 11y agoHonestly I'm really happy they haven't updated the client. Looking at the Windows client, I was happy they left a more serious and professional client for the Linux users. Of course when you can't make calls anymore, it might be time to update the failing component...
- ohitsdom 11y agoSkype on Windows is awful. Frequent crashes, shared screens drop all the time, and very inefficient. Only reason it's not uninstalled is that we have to use it at work.
- ghostek 11y agoSkype for Linux was declared dead under Palmer's, resources reduced to a minimum and new versions and features blocked. Skype CEOs and CTOs at that time are equally responsible, made millions and disappeared. It's been an uphill battle since, you can found some linux developers on LinkedIn and ask them. A joke that goes around is that Skype could die soon this year unless it turns profitable. Anyway, from a business perspective MS doesn't understand or value Linux desktop, so nothing to be surprised here.
- martin-adams 11y ago>> but starting from February 22 the Linux client is unable to join calls My colleague using Ubuntu managed to join a call I made to her with no issue. There must be more to it I guess.
- theinternetman 11y agoSkype feels like it runs just as well on my brand new laptop as it used to do on my 9 year old machine. As in not well at all and whenever any progress has been made with computing speed the Skype team have refactored their app to perform just as poorly on the new hardware. Also why is the "Skype Home" part of the app just a facebook advert? I don't have an FB account so Skype tells me to get one every time I open it. Seemingly FB is more important than my contacts.
- joeyspn 11y agoMeet Jitsi... https://meet.jit.si/ https://meet.jit.si/ It's a nice FOSS alternative for group calling.
- Torgo 11y agoDoesn't group calling require a bridge plugin on your XMPP server? I set up Jitsi to do point to point (encrypted) video between two of our offices to replace Skype, and it worked fantastic.
- mikescandy 11y agoI guess the userbase is not worth investing. (As a Windows phone user, this is something I hear quite often)
- t0mislav 11y agoIt's time to simply abandon this sucker. It won't be easy, but I hope better alternative will emerge.
- kelvin0 11y agoUnder the best of circumstances, Skype on WINDOWS is at best barely functional (I know we use it every day for remote business meetings). So I can hardly be surprised any other OS's client is so broken ... 8.5 Billion! http://www.wired.com/2011/05/microsoft-buys-skype-2/ http://www.wired.com/2011/05/microsoft-buys-skype-2/
- cevaris 11y agoAt this point isnt't like asking Microsoft to port over Word to Linux?
- dschiptsov 11y agoWhy, it is Microsoft. Rudimentary Linux support is mere PR actions, be it for Skype or .Net or whatever. Their strategy, obviously, is still platform lock-in.
- stuaxo 11y agoI took a call on it an hour ago, seems to be working fine ?
- balabaster 11y agoThere are viable alternatives to Skype. I've been using Slack (https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/) for a while too... it does everything useful that you could ask of a chat application and works very much like IRC worked back in the day. Everything it doesn't do natively, there's an integration for, just like with IRC bots. You can do: - Private chat with one or more parties - Open Group chat via channels (both private and public channels) - Voice/Video via numerous integrations including Bluejeans, Appear.in, Skype, Hangouts, you name it. - ChatOps via services like IFTT & Zapier or even your own custom bridge into your network. - Get notifications right in Slack from your source control, build servers, JIRA, Confluence and any number of other services via webhook integrations. - A billion other wicked cool integrations (https://slack.com/apps https://slack.com/apps) that allow you to do just about anything, including the eternally useless, often inappropriate and highly amusing Giphy. - It's free(ish)... the featureset is restricted on the free account, but even with the free account it has enough to be seriously useful to even loosely defined teams of adhoc members. For enterprise requirements there is a small per user/per month charge which unlocks a wealth of enterprise ready features. - It's archivable & searchable Highly recommended and well worth a look for small and large teams alike. It's more targeted at teams, but for circles of friends, it works nicely too. Because of the way it's structured, it works more like a web based, centrally hosted IRC server than Skype, as such it doesn't really have the same network effect, but it's so much more flexible than Skype in every other respect.
- manyxcxi 11y agoSlack is nice and very useful. As you mention there are a ton of integrations- there's cool new uses every day, but I don't see why it would need to be part of your audio/video/conference flow other than as links to join or something of the sort. For instance, to get everyone into a Join.Me conference I just copy/paste the link into the channel and people connect from their browser/desktop app/phone app- but it would've been the same with email. I feel like the audio/video is the one place where Slack doesn't really add value to the flow, other than what Slack already does- makes it easier to give the connection info to your group/channel.
- bad_user 11y ago> It's free(ish) The free tier has a very limited history, which defeats the point of using Slack, since you lose your history. And there's really no point in using Slack if you don't have a history you can rely on, might as well use IRC. And once you start paying, $7-$15 per user/month is not what I'd call cheap. It's cheap compared to a salary, but such costs pile up. > Voice/Video via numerous integrations including Bluejeans, Appear.in, Skype, Hangouts, you name it. Which is another way of saying that it doesn't solve the problems that Skype does, so it's not an alternative.
- shmerl 11y agoDon't complain. Ditch it.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- _pmf_ 11y ago> Skype keeps ignoring people who complain or are having issues with Linux client All 234 of them!
- orbitingpluto 11y agoAll 234 of them... who are left?
- aurelien 11y agoignore skype and use ekiga.
- gravypod 11y agoI've seen my friends slowly drift away from Skype. At this point when I install a new operating system, I just use web.skype.com to get in touch with my friends that haven''t moved onto something else. It works the same on all platforms, but I don't know if many people know about the web client. It's really helpful.
- JupiterMoon 11y agoDoesn't work for me on Linux (I can't make calls).
- gravypod 11y agoOh, well that might be a problem. I'm young enough that all my friends hate the sound of each others voices. I only use the messaging platform.
- superskierpat 11y agoCant wait for the various tox clients to stabilize.
- minusSeven 11y agoThis is not just limited to linux. I use skype occasionally on blackberry and their app on blackberry is despicable. They made slight bug fixes 6 months back after some 2 years of not updating the app. Now it works but still experience lot of crashes. They never bothered to release a native app and people just the android ported one.
- sean-duffy 11y agoWhen I used to use Skype on OSX I always hated it, people talk about iTunes being bloatware but the amount of resources Skype used was obscene. The final straw was a bug they never fixed that would log me out of Facebook in Safari every time I opened Skype. It was something to do with the fact that I'd foolishly linked my Skype and Facebook accounts in the past, I'm not sure if even to this day they ever fixed that.
- odbol_ 11y agoOh come on, they ignore people who complain about the iOS client too. They just ignore everyone and refuse to iterate or innovate. Personally, I don't understand why people pay to use them when Google Hangouts has so many better features and a clearer UI.
- andreapaiola 11y agoObviously... It's Microsoft...
- buro9 11y agoI have to do a fair number of remote interviews, and Skype is the way this is supposed to happen. I also use Linux. The net result is that Skype is not how this happens. I usually just offer Google Hangouts as an alternative or phone the person.
- afarrell 11y agoHave you tried appear.in ? It doesn't require an account and it allows screensharing also.
- ck2 11y agoTwitter is a technical support system for Skype? For anything? What's with "ThanksBill" - meaning Bill Gates? What has he had anything to do with modern Microsoft for the past decade?
- Houshalter 11y agoSkype on Windows is also a disaster. I only use it to instant message, not call, and it still takes multiple minutes to start up. I really want an alternative but have been lazy about making the switch. Maybe today will be the day I do that. Any good alternative IM clients with cross platform support?
- rekoros 11y agoJust a note that you can use any other client supported by http://sameroom.io http://sameroom.io to connect to Skype. https://sameroom.io/attend https://sameroom.io/attend lets you auto-create Slack channels for each incoming Skype conversation. We have some individual use discounts - just ask in support.
- matzipan 11y agoThe Skype app crashes so frequently. When it finally decides to work, the microphone doesn't work. If you feel really really brave, you can try putting the app to background, except that might cause your video feed to not work anymore. Remember those files somebody sent you 3 months ago? Well, you haven't recieved them on this device yet. This is true for Windows, Linux and Android. In an update about a month ago, Windows 10 introduced the "Messaging" and "Video" apps. Which were both based on Skype infrastructure. They.didn't.work. Which makes me wonder if they ever tested them before even releasing them. To be fair, Hangouts has gotten a bit better, but it still feels like there's nobody actually actively working on any of the apps. Or at least, nobody who is working on the app dogfoods it. But this app is no stranger to ignoring your microphone, or showing you that you're still in a conversation which has ended several hours ago. Facebook Messenger has not disappointed me yet, which might make it the strongest and most stable contender to date.
- Ace17 11y agoTime to switch to Tox-im!
- Shorel 11y agoI'm glad it still works. Web skype is my fail-safe, but of course it will have no audio or video.
- mnml_ 11y agoFacebook for work will be #1 in a few years
- washadjeffmad 11y agoI've never used Skype. Is there something it does better or differently than any other VOIP/messaging client that's made their poor Linux support such a popular issue, other than it was better before Windows bought it? My current daily means of communication on Linux is Google Voice/Hangouts, but I've also used others over the years, like GnomeMeeting/Ekiga, TeamViewer, and TeamSpeak. They've all worked fairly easily and without issue. With all the options, could someone explain why Skype matters?
- biot 11y agoThere is one thing that Skype is particularly good at that other VoIP/messaging clients aren't: talking to users who have Skype accounts. Your question is little different than suggesting there are many alternative social networks to Facebook, so why don't people just use those instead?
- ecopoesis 11y agoSkype on the Mac is also terrible. * Doesn't integrate with Keychain, so I always have to login. * When logging in, pressing TAB when in the username field submits the form rather then go to password field. * Now I've failed my login enough that I need to reset my password. And Live doesn't let me reuse an old password, guaranteeing I'll lock myself out next time. * Even better, my Xbox won't login in now, so I either have to do this stupid dance again, or just use the Playstation.
- entelechy0 11y agoI've been having problems with the OSX client as well. Skype is garbageware
- ddade 11y agoOK, Google Voice it is, then.
- slizard 11y agoNot sure if they fixed it in the meantime, but it work for me right now with client version 4.3.0.37.