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Skype For Linux: Dead? Or Just Resting?
New submitter somebearouthere writes: Skype for Linux was updated in 2014 to v4.3 and has since sat there without an update while its counterpart on other platforms has been receiving updates. Sometime in 2015, Microsoft quietly abandoned that version of the product, showing back to Linux users who had paid for subscriptions with the expectation that one day they too would be able to finally use group video chat, have a real 64-bit version available and get an improved UI. Skype developers have just thrown in the towel and it has left the user base frustrated. Last month many users reported that Microsoft had broken the app's ability to join calls. Two Linux enthusiasts penned the issue in a blog signed by "lots of angry Linux users." I have contacted Microsoft numerous times over the past few weeks but it remains tight-lipped on the matter. I have a feeling Microsoft isn't going to update Skype for Linux.
If you don't realize Windows Phone is awesome and getting more awesome, you're kidding yourself. One day people will just be like.. oh well.. this phone is cooler than the others.. I like it now. MS just needs some more key apps and they prob have the better OS already, which is saying a lot since they are so late the game. Hate on their lack of apps all you want. Windows 10 is doing just fine and Windows 10 mobile will too just by sheer extension of the power of being the 80-90% desktop market share leader. MS will, over time, leverage themselves into a top mobile spot. The fact their os is technically so impressive and that their whole Windows 10 unified platform is starting to come together is just proof that their .NET portable framework strategy is working out.
MS can now pump out a full blow mobile operating systems for any architecture faster than anyone.AND have universal apps that run on it. At the same time Intel and MS are clearly moving to try to make Intel the next big thing in mobile chips and give ARM some comp. This is why Intel is going low power on desktops too. It makes sense, but it also matches their long term profit strat.
There is more money to be made selling phone chips now than desktops. Intel and MS are going to try to push mobile x86 on the world and MS can to some degree leverage their entire existing app library, though in the end Universal App are what everyone should want. That are more universal really than anything other portable language because they aren't just built on a portable language. They are built on a portable framework.I don't think most people really understand that or get how powerful .NET and CLR really are.
Consider the current business model. Facebook and Google generally want you on a phone or tablet, ideally a phone. That's the device they profit from the most to keep you on the most. Facebook and Google are both pulling standlone Windows apps from the market and Google has for the longest time completely ignored the fact that they have almost no real desktop integration. Now.. why is that?
Is it that Chrome is good enough for everyone and Chrome notification are reasonable replacement for a standalone app meant to sync Google to your desktop? Is it that google just never though people wanted better syncing to their desktop? I guess Messenger for Windows 10 desktop and Google Talk for WIndows 10 were all just too costly to maintain?
BULLSHIT, Facebook and Google are conspiring to keep you on the platforms THEY make the most money from. Google wants to make it hard to integrate into Windows because if they do that they will never be able to sell you a Google desktop down the road. Facebook things it's a platform. Google things it's a platform.. but they are toys. They are silly little web platforms that can't really go anywhere and they are just WAY too limited to impress anyone.
Windows mobile is going to create real competition and real pressure for integration. Facebook and Google are changing their business models now and it's all because of that silly failed Windows Mobile OS that they can see is very dangerous in the long run. There is also the fact that people really have no loyalty to mobile OS's yet. .and they shouldn't because they all suck one way or another right now. But people have more or less settled on Windows desktops for another 10-20 years. There is no real pressure to move and google isn't going to provide that pressure. That means the fucking should have been integrating into WIndows fully the entire god damn time.
I've had to download notification programs and find workarounds for Gmail and Calendar for years now.. it's a pain in the ass that google shouldn't be forcing on users, nor should they expect us all to use Chrome so we can get their dumb ass desktop notifications. I also don't want your bloated browser running god know how many instances in the background all the time.
I have crap Lumia 520 I got for 30 bucks as an MP3 player/toy. It's very impressive for only 512 megs of