4 ms·

New Skype for Linux client released, built on Web technology

34 points by vezycash 10y ago

tkubacki 10y ago
No screesharing though - seems like simple webview over web.skype.com
andrewclunn 10y ago
About freaking time. One less headache for us Linux users. I am loving this new Microsoft that recognizes that not everyone uses Windows.
out_of_protocol 10y ago
So, one more js-based app. After Atom/Slack it became obvious there will be plenty of them (Webkit The RAM Eater) for every purpose. I'd like to hear any technical details available. Is it "offline" package like Atom? or "simple webview over web.skype.com" as mentioned before? etc
- _RPM 10y ago
  Atom is seriously way too slow for me. I've gone back to VIM.
  - out_of_protocol 10y ago
    Try Visual Studio Code - written on javascript as well but way faster. Can't beat vim ofc
    - Macha 10y ago
      Yeah, I dropped Atom because even a heavily plugin-loaded IntelliJ was outperforming it, but vs code is not that much slower than vim on my devices.
sparky_ 10y ago
I really hate this trend of packaging every web app into its own WebKit instance.
2bluesc 10y ago
It's worth mentioning that the Skype for Linux Alpha FAQ[0] mentions that this build is (finally) 64-bit and 32-bit support may not come. I for one welcome this. The last time I installed Skype on Arch Linux it installed 200MB+ of lib32 dependencies[1]. I'm sure this will be replaced with 100MB of web browser stuff, but perhaps a step forward and simplifies the lives of package maintainers. [0] https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34656/more-information-about-skype-for-linux-alpha https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34656/more-information-ab... see "How has Skype for Linux Alpha been tested?" [1] https://twitter.com/2bluesc/status/738073923120594945 https://twitter.com/2bluesc/status/738073923120594945
towb 10y ago
Not that exciting after running this for over a year: chromium --app=http://web.skype.com
wink 10y ago
Hmm, the web-based skype didn't work for me only 2 weeks ago and I got a "this does not work on Linux" error. Let's see if this works, when I need skype again...
santix 10y ago
It's basically a closed-source Ghetto Skype[0]. Thanks, Microsoft! [0]: https://github.com/stanfieldr/ghetto-skype https://github.com/stanfieldr/ghetto-skype

34 points by vezycash 10y ago

No screesharing though - seems like simple webview over web.skype.com

About freaking time. One less headache for us Linux users. I am loving this new Microsoft that recognizes that not everyone uses Windows.

out_of_protocol 10y ago

So, one more js-based app. After Atom/Slack it became obvious there will be plenty of them (Webkit The RAM Eater) for every purpose. I'd like to hear any technical details available. Is it "offline" package like Atom? or "simple webview over web.skype.com" as mentioned before? etc

_RPM 10y ago
Atom is seriously way too slow for me. I've gone back to VIM.
- out_of_protocol 10y ago
  Try Visual Studio Code - written on javascript as well but way faster. Can't beat vim ofc
  - Macha 10y ago
    Yeah, I dropped Atom because even a heavily plugin-loaded IntelliJ was outperforming it, but vs code is not that much slower than vim on my devices.

sparky_ 10y ago

I really hate this trend of packaging every web app into its own WebKit instance.

2bluesc 10y ago

It's worth mentioning that the Skype for Linux Alpha FAQ[0] mentions that this build is (finally) 64-bit and 32-bit support may not come. I for one welcome this. The last time I installed Skype on Arch Linux it installed 200MB+ of lib32 dependencies[1]. I'm sure this will be replaced with 100MB of web browser stuff, but perhaps a step forward and simplifies the lives of package maintainers. [0] https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34656/more-information-about-skype-for-linux-alpha https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34656/more-information-ab... see "How has Skype for Linux Alpha been tested?" [1] https://twitter.com/2bluesc/status/738073923120594945 https://twitter.com/2bluesc/status/738073923120594945

towb 10y ago

Not that exciting after running this for over a year: chromium --app=http://web.skype.com

wink 10y ago

Hmm, the web-based skype didn't work for me only 2 weeks ago and I got a "this does not work on Linux" error. Let's see if this works, when I need skype again...

santix 10y ago

It's basically a closed-source Ghetto Skype[0]. Thanks, Microsoft! [0]: https://github.com/stanfieldr/ghetto-skype https://github.com/stanfieldr/ghetto-skype