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Microsoft's Skype Drops Modern App In Favour of Old-Fashioned Win32 App
mikejuk writes: Microsoft, after putting a lot of effort into persuading us that Universal Apps are the way of the future, pulls the plug on Skype modern app, to leave just the desktop version. Skype is one of Microsoft's flagship products and it has been available as a desktop Win32 app and as a Modern/Metro/WinRT app for some time. You would think that Skype would support Universal Apps, there are few enough of them — but no. According to the Skype blog: 'Starting on July 7, we're updating PC users of the Windows modern application to the Windows desktop application, and retiring the modern application.' Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 Universal Apps as the development platform for now and the future, but its Skype team have just disagreed big time. If Microsoft can't get behind the plan why should developers? (Also at Windows Central and VentureBeat.)
This seems particularly weird given that Microsoft has devices where (with, no doubt, a painful list of 'write once, port everywhere' caveats) 'Modern' is the option. Windows RT was the first stab, though it dragged along win32 for Office; but it's dead and irrelevant. Windows Phone, though, unless also headed for the chopping block, is presumably still going to have Skype, and it isn't slated to get win32 any time soon.
Is the dogfood really so dreadful that they'd terminate the metro version on every device that has full windows available, despite the presence/absence of touchscreen, design favoring conventional or tablet-style use, and so on?
The limited APIs and strict sand-boxing on universal apps limits the amount of actually useful software you can write for it. "Universal" really means lowest common denominator between our phone and desktop os. If all you care about running on your computer is cut the rope and angry birds then its fine. If you want an actual full featured computer... not so much.
Yes, really. There's no 64-bit Skype. Skype is always 32-bit.
Why? Because there's no need for a 64-bit version.
Universal Apps have a permission system, like Android. That means that, with a little tinkering, an app like Skype can be configured to work properly yet still have no privacy-violating access to parts of your computer it has no business being in.
But a full-blown Win32 app isn't restricted in the same way - or at least, preventing it from behaving maliciously is a lot harder. As a datamining tool, a Win32 app is far, far more valuable than an app.
In case people have forgotten, the Skype team was working with the NSA long before Microsoft acquired them. This decision should surprise no one.
My experience with this app from the Windows Store is that it did not start when I logged in. I am one of those ecohipsters that unplugs the machine when not in use! So, it is a hassle to use, and is not a bright idea, if I may add. Even my Samsung TV does logs in automatically to Skype if told so! That is a lifesaver for old people.
Yeah, article should have mentioned Delphi instead.
I have 2,147,483,648 contacts, you insensitive clod!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It's Microsoft's biggest asset (as well as client/server development platforms). Just because somebody else seems to be doing well in the mobile space, why does Microsoft see a need to translate that into ruining one of the good things going for them? If Microsoft trashes the desktop PC they do so at their peril. And I say this as an avid Mac user at home and Win8/.NET/SQL Server developer at work. The vast majority of 5 x 7 workers are NOT going to be productive with a tablet. They ARE going to be productive on "traditional" desktop computers (whether they use apps in a web browser all day or not).
Skype has a completely difference UI for windows desktop, metro, Mac OS, iOS on iPad, iOS on iPhone, Android (last time I checked) and Linux. All different!!! And probably none is good. Why would they care about universal apps?
Math is beautiful... e^(pi*i)+1=0
I think there's a simple reason why this happens - the developer division is the one that goes for all this new hotness crap, and invariably makes a relatively poor product that is tainted with the "internet time" development methodology - ie once its finished, throw it away and make something else.
Win32 is still made and managed by the Windows team who take a different approach - that of making things fast, reliable and stable (well, as much as you can make such a complex beast as Windows, though I think a lot of the crapware we have layered on top comes from other divisions anyway)
Take a look at WCF aand WWS - these are both comms technologies, dev div made WCF, then someone looked at the bloated mess of .NET layers that it is, and wrote the exact equivalent in C, that is significantly faster and uses a ton less memory. WWS is bundled in Windows 7, WCF comes with the .Net framework. I think the same differences apply to the rest of the products that comes out of those 2 teams
Win32 refers to an API, not a address bus bit width.
64 bit apps use the Win32 API, just with 64 bit pointers.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
nobody wants a fullscreen IM app. that's the problem.
for a while they were pushing win8/8.1 users to the metro version, to tie them to the appstore.
on a related note the adware they delivered to shill windows 10 update is crashing on multiple people.. http://answers.microsoft.com/e...
and on an even more related note, skype fails shutting down consistently on my windows 8.1 pc. the desktop version that is, crashes every time on shutdown. EVERY SINGLE TIME. it has been updated multiple times without fix.
seriously, nobody doing serious work inside microsoft even was using the metro skype. it's impossible to integrate it into any kind of workflow.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
It's more an example of the "create a new universal standard" approach to programming: The obligatory XKCD cartoon is:
https://xkcd.com/927/
Well, Microsoft refers to it as Win64.
Win32 is essentially the same as Win16, with 32 bit pointers in a single address space. Win64/Win32/Win16 are all the Windows API with different memory models.
Disclaimer: I was programming these things in the 1980s and 1990s, which is why I'm getting hammered in another thread for pointing out that "PC" has always been used to refer to computers based upon the IBM PC architecture and its descendants, and no, Amigas were never PCs, even though they were personal computers. Youngsters these days. Tsk.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
You have a shitty laptop.
I don't miss DOS. in DOS, everything was full screen and there was no multitasking.
... game machine.
.... while adding "giffy" support would make some people insanely happy and drive others insane - NO ONE uses the full screen crap.
Forcing full screen on all apps is going back to DOS days, not forward to a multi-use multi-tasking computer capable of supporting a user in multiple ways instead of just a single-task
because that was pretty close to all DOS was good for.
Anyone who wants skype to be a full screen app needs their brain examined, and then needs to find a job where only skype is the tool they use, and never ever write a single document of any kind. ever.
PS: we use skype at my office quite heavily. Usually passing around document references
Yet another example of how horrendously evil Microsoft still is, even with Nadella as CEO. All of this "new Microsoft" bullshit is a PR campaign that some idiots actually fall for.
Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.