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I prefer Skype since although it has always been a huge CPU hog, its UI is perfect for beginners (i.e. family) and in the decade I've used it, I've never once b
by _wmd 13y ago
I prefer Skype since although it has always been a huge CPU hog, its UI is perfect for beginners (i.e. family) and in the decade I've used it, I've never once been cross-sold some pointless feature the parent company are currently trying to promote.
Note Hangouts itself once was Gtalk, which I was a user of, prior to the first cattle herding on to Google+. Now Gundotra is out the door, there is no telling into which silo existing G+ users will be cattle-herded next. Hangouts might be technically superior (although I personally think Skype's rate-adaptive video is second to none), but the treatment of users by its parent company, and their endless thirst for personal data keeps me far away.
Skype just works, just like it has for the past decade, and just like I expect it will continue to in the coming years. I'd place a small wager on Hangouts being long dead, or at the very least rebranded before then
- mcescalante 13y agoFor some reason, G+ hangouts eat a lot more CPU for me than Skype does.
- rikkus 13y agoLack of GPU acceleration of Flash?
- aroch 13y agoI'm more inclined to think lack of HW-decoding for VP8/9 + Google's "VideoandTalk" plugin on OSX is a piece of crap.
- coherentpony 13y agoIs it Flash? I thought it was just webkit's video rendering.
- tambourine_man 13y agoIt uses WebRTC and the video tag AFAIK
- kansface 13y agoNot yet- even on chrome webrtc isn't close to the polish/stability/feature set of the plugin.
- ars 13y agoIt's not flash, it's a custom plugin.
- mcescalante 13y agoI dunno, but it always makes me wonder if they test this on any consumer type machines and if their fans are going as fast as mine...
- stock_toaster 13y agoSame here. Hangouts always seems to turn my aging laptop into a fireball.
- why-el 13y agoReally good point on Skype being friendly to beginners. I never realized it but my parents get really uncomfortable when I try to walk them over how to set up Google Hangout, and most of the time the conversation just continues on Skype and we drop the experiment. I mean for them its a hassle to install all those plugins and then invite and open emails and confirm and whatnot.
- arjie 13y agoThe Android experience is truly far superior to the web interface. My parents just hit the video camera button in the chat app and call me or my younger brother.
- Consultant32452 13y agoI'm a professional programmer that went to engineering school and I can't be fussed to start up hangouts with anyone. It seems like it takes a full 30 minutes to get everyone in the same hangout and I always feel like a buffoon for suggesting.
- zacharycohn 13y agoYou used to be able to press two buttons and have a hangout up, then copy/paste the URL and send it to someone. Most elegant video chat product in existence. Then it got super complicated with circles and adding people via their g+ accounts and people who use 3rd party chat programs and permissions etc etc etc..
- ezrameanshelp 13y agoAs a user of several Google products, the "cattle-herded" metaphor is perfect. Not a week goes by without my needing to counsel a former Picasa users nursing wounds from the great G+ herding of 2013.
- nobotty 13y agoAre you kidding? Skype is CONSTANTLY cross-selling you some useless bullshit with the in-interface ads. It's terrible, and the reason I won't use it.
- Aardshaark 13y agoOn Windows, if Internet Explorer is not your default browser (or possibly if Chrome is your default browser, not sure), Skype uses far more CPU. Sounds weird, but it definitely made a difference for me.