Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Needs To Fix Skype (theverge.com)
It's no secret that Microsoft has long stopped caring about Skype for Linux. But the VoIP and instant messaging service isn't exactly working well on other platforms either. Microsoft reporter and critic Tom Warren lists a number of issues he continues to face on Skype. These issues include infrequent restarts, too many update prompts, and just having to deal with the unimpressive user interface that Skype throws at everyone's face. "I'm not sure what Microsoft has done to Skype, but it sucks now," he writes. Warren adds: Recently, friends and family have started experiencing some of the many issues I experience, including calls simply not connecting properly and every device in a home ringing non-stop even when a call is activated. Microsoft had promised to fix notifications blasting out to both your desktop machine and mobile, but I still frequently receive them in real-time on multiple devices. [...] I regularly have to restart the app just to make a call, or have my microphone detected correctly. This isn't a single device with driver issues, it's consistent across machines. I can't even scroll up and down on the contacts section of the Skype app with my trackpad, it just doesn't work. Those are bugs that should be easy to address, but Microsoft has also struggled to get the UI right with Skype.
The same happened when Winamp or ICQ got purchased. The new company put the crap they want. Failed to understand the code and get stuck with hard to fix bug until the people move to another product.
My dad, usually, has to sever the connection then send again to get his video to work correctly. Once this is done he has no issues.
This is on a Windows 10 system of less than a year old (complete system, not a downgrade).
As to updates, I have them turned off for Skype for the very reason updates generally cause problems.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The web-based client works so much better. Stop being an idiot already.
....You mean to tell me Microsoft is fucking up?
I am still waiting for Active Directory to do what NDS used to do in the 1990's. And I can't wait until powershell finally replaces what UNIX has been doing since the 1970's. Remember this FACT: We would not have had graphical desktops without Microsoft! We'd still be using DOS!
Yes, indeed it will be a great day when Microsoft invents, easy, universal video chat...I'm so excited!
What -- all those added government backdoors interfering with your usability!?!? SuckItUp.
#thinkPrivacy
#EmbraceExtendExtinguish
#FoolMeOnceShameOnYou
#WontGetFooledAgain
Well if somebody has problems with Skype I suggest they look at the Skype for Business (old Lync Client). The user interface responsiveness is horrific. Weird and wonderful connection issues depending on your device type. Strange dependencies on the rest of you MS Office installation (I can't use Skype for Business from my home PC because there is no client that works with Office 365 Personal - so now I often have to have my work laptop open next to my home PC just so I can receive a call).
If the iOS app hasn't been manually opened in the past few hours (minutes?), no call or text notifications come in. How hard is that to get right?
they'd fix office since it is profitable. But the fact they haven't proves they can't.
Microsoft is giving itself death (or at loss of some business/damage to reputation) by one thousand cuts. They're doing too much and doing much of it rather poorly. So many things to bitch about. But, I'll say nothing more otherwise this would get quite long.
>> Microsoft has long stopped caring about Skype for Linux
And Lync for Mac. And...
Recently, my copy of Skype for Business has been terminating abruptly. This is on my PC at work, maintained by my company. I can understand Microsoft not maintaining the Linux or "home" version of Skype, but I would expect their business version to be robust and reliable.
Guess not. I wish I could say I'm surprised by this.
If you have issues calling people, especially people using the Android app, make sure to disable IPv6.
They completely messed that up, so if you have a native IPv6 connection somehow, then it will be impossible to call you ("funnily", messages still work).
Yes it's a bad joke, and one that will become worse and worse as more people get dual-stack or even IPv6 with only NAT IPv4.
How bad can bad get, and getting worse... they use the say software from CONTROL DATA CORP was not released, but escaped ! I think in Skype's case, it's coming from the septic system !!
It bought them to put its tech into their office platform.
And now that has been completed, the company doesn't need anyone to use Skype anymore. So it's been put out to pasture, to let it grow old and die. It doesn't matter how many millions of people are using it or why it might be a good strategy for Microsoft to continue with the product.
The base goal was achieved and now management has moved onto other projects. All that remains is the husk, the shell of something once shining and bright. Sort of like those crabs the Vogons liked to crush for no good reason.
It costs money to support software on a niche OS.
Then how does Microsoft get away with supporting apps for its Windows Phone operating system, which is about as niche within the mobile market as X11/Linux is in the desktop market?
Why would I go through the effort to install a piece of software, when there are good-quality web-based alternatives like google hangouts?
One of the most common requests on the Skype community forums over the last year and a half is some (any!) basic configuration options for the UI.
There's no way to get a properly compact view, there's no way to set the color of the bubbles, and the support for high-DPI screens is abysmal.
In fact, once I started looking into it, I found a whole batch of UI problems with the new "improved" 7.0 UI, which I shared on the forums and then gathered into a handy blog post:
Skype 7.0 - A new entry for the User Interface Hall of Shame?
http://www.moteprime.org/artic...
The 7.0 UI feedback thread is the longest one on the community forums, and can be found here:
https://community.skype.com/t5...
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
From the article:
"I'm not sure what Microsoft has done to Skype, but it sucks now,"
Thy run Skype for Mac OS X like an App.
It looks like an App, it behaves like an App, in other words it is bullshit.
Luckily you still can double click on conversations to open them in their own window.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It's hard for me to think of anything Microsoft has done outside of developer tools that looks and feels somewhat consistent in terms of their UI in the past 5 years. It's like they've completely abandoned any 'UI-esque principles' and instead have just left everything up to whatever the fuck they feel like at the time. I used to feel pretty good about upgrading to the latest Microsoft software - but it just isn't there any more. Skype makes no fucking sense right now - neither on Windows or on Mac. On my Mac, it will show Skype contacts or Mac Contacts - but it does not seem to show my Outlook 2016 contacts. And, of course, in the new version of Outlook, Microsoft has decided to destroy compatibility with using Mac and Outlook contacts interchangeably. Skype for Windows is a disaster. It decides to pop itself up in front of the user every boot up. It doesn't have a 'get the fuck out of my way' option - and of course it's buggy as all hell. It's sad when I'm barely using Skype and my computer slows down - and I check processes and Skype is using 100% cpu for no goddamn reason.. End Skype and everything is better. I really wish Microsoft would work to make their own programs more consistent and compatible with each other. This isn't just a Skype issue. Outlook 2016 is completely unusable. Excel regularly crashes on typing very simple formulas. Powerpoint files sent to me from Windows users crash Powerpoint 2016 often. And, of course, Outlook 2016 isn't compatible with anything and loves to add duplicates of your contacts. But, of course, Microsoft has decided that their latest software is always better than old stuff so they're taking control of your computer and upgrading you to Windows 10. And one more thing.. Microsoft's programmers are cocky as hell. Every single one of them I've ever met act like they write better code than Donald Trump has words.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
It's no secret that Microsoft has long stopped caring about Skype for Linux.
It costs money to support software on a niche OS.
Of course it is the guys running on this OS that will write the competitor that people will move to when skype becomes unusable.
Users migrating to another appli is probably the only thing that may catalyze the upgrade of Skype. Tried and pretty happy with LINE. Intuitive. Fast. Reliable. Free or cheaper calls.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Prior to Skype, it was Lync. And Lync was fairly crappy. Then MSoft picked up Skype and said the two programs would merge. And they did. The program is now skinned as "Skype", but the actual program running is still called Lync. Ha!
There are benefits to the program, of course. I can help people remotely by sharing my entire desktop or only a single window. It's integrated with Exchange, so if they're on our corporate network, I can chat with them quickly and easily. But it's all still very slow, the notification settings only work on certain workstations (leading to many missed messages), it chews up nearly 100MB of RAM while idle, and the actual look of the program is exceedingly wasteful in the amount of desktop real estate it takes up in non-functional white space. The main window is 400x600 pixels *at its smallest*. Less than half of that space has buttons, texts or links. The chat window can be made slightly smaller than that, but it's limited by HUGE buttons that should be part of a simple drop-down menu.
It's fairly stable for me and its functions are useful, but its speed, resource consumption, and the size is absolutely unjustifiable.
> Remember this FACT: We would not have had graphical desktops without Microsoft! We'd still be using DOS!
Clearly you're being sarcastic or something, but I can't quite parse. You seem like someone who would know that DOS competed with the Mac graphical UI.
skype for business better
We use Lync (well, formerly known as Lync, now re branded as Skype for Business) for our work IM system
The server is constantly locking up /dumping connections and just generally feels quite unreliable... It seems that it's gotten worse ever since they re branded as Skype I don't actually know if that's just my imagination.
Still at least it's not full of ads like a lot of the free IM clients like Yahoo and AIM etc... (yes I know about Pidgin, but there are such serious issues in the LibPurple library I don't know as it's a really good choice)
The Digital Sorceress
bye, Skype. Should've stalled the interface "adjustments" somewhere back before version 7. Fortunately they have buggered up the Linux versions completely (you still have to jump through some hoops to get group chats to work on it though)
https://meet.jit.si/ for the win!
or for a cross platform stand alone client visit http://www.jitsi.org/
After all these years you finally woke up and realized Skype sucks. I hope you had a nice nap. There are some other rude awakenings in store for you too. Believe it or not, Skype isn't the only Microsoft flagship product that is poorly supported and riddled with instability and security problems.
1. Skype on Windows works fine. I've used it on Windows XP, Vista (shutters), 7, 8 (shutters) and now 10 (half-shutter). When 10 first came out Skype was a bit unstable, random crashes that would require restarting Skype, but all that has been ironed out.
2. The default GUI on Windows is a joke, but you can configure Skype to turn off "single window mode", close the "Home" window and put the program in compact view and it will look just like it used to. So at least there are still options to configure the GUI.
3. Skype on Linux is a joke, pretty much the only reason I haven't switched back to Linux from Windows for my desktop.
4. Skype on XB1 works when you first open it, but the app seems to get suspended over time, so you no longer continue to get notifications about messages/calls. Which means you constantly have to re-open the app to keep it functioning.
2013-11-06
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
The client has always been trash. They need to fix the Skype Web interface. It's what allows third-party skype clients to work, and it's what lets you check/message your contacts without having the skype client installed. But frequently you'll log into the web interface and it's clearly out of sync. Like.. contacts who are actually online will show up as offline, etc. Or messages will get queued instead of delivered. Or the whole thing will crash and not accept username/passwords for an hour (which is better than it was a month ago, when the entire skype web client would be offline for a day at a time).
I have Microsoft's Skype for Linux client installed as a backup for when skypeweb fails, and it's surprisingly reliable.
Microsoft fix stuff?
Bwaaaaa ha haaaa haaa hooo hee hee he ho ho ha haaa ha ha haaa ha ha heee he ho.
That's a good one. Woke me up without coffee even. Next, try asking The King to get out of your parking spot.
Table-ized A.I.
It's at the point where the only keeping Skype going is momentum. I stopped using it a long time ago, and the only reason I even keep it on my computer is in the rare occasion that I need to communicate with someone who only has Skype and nothing else. And unlike Windows, there isn't a massive ecosystem behind Skype that forces people to stay on board.
Google Hangouts, Facetime... hell, taking polaroid pictures and sending the resulting photos tied to a pigeon would be a more reliable, less irritating experience. Heck, they can't even maintain their Skype for Business product properly either. Mac has been waiting for years now and the best Microsoft has been able to do is repeatedly say "It'll be coming out any time now..."
Unless Microsoft does something to make Skype VERY compelling, VERY quickly, the exodus will just pick up speed.
What I don't understand is we had really good IM tools not that long ago (10 years ago?) that had features like voice chat, group IM, etc and it seems like unless you are running your own dedicated server for voice you are stuck in this no-mans-land of "maybe it will not drop after 20 minutes". When Skype for Business decides to drop it logs out with no logging back in and just gets stuck. I've had to go so far as to restart my wireless router to get it to work again, at first I thought it was the router causing problems but I'm not so sure as I've heard others with similar problems. 10-20 mins into a call and it just gives up the ghost, some days no problems at all. Very frustrating.
There have to be better clients out there that do the same thing
How about fixing the 10,001 things wrong with Outlook? I'm forced to use the POS every day at work and it makes my skin crawl every time I use it. Microsoft seems to have embraced a culture of technical mediocrity. The hard reality behind their grandiose marketing hype is an attitude of slovenly indifference.
Interestingly enough, the Linux version works great. I love it the way it is, without the dancing text and fancy layouts. Don't touch it Microsoft!
Group video calls were supposedly enabled about a month ago, but I don't recall ever seeing them work. Video/screen share in general rarely works. The UI is retarded, so adding people to the call has mostly been difficult (it's here somewhere...) or impossible (grayed/inactive) since the original Microsoft UI update. The contacts menu is now orientation locked to portrait; Did it occur to Microsoft that there are multiple devices (shield portable, clamshells in general) where landscape is an absolute necessity? Should I really have to orientation lock my whole device to correct for Microsoft's bad interface design, and hope I can see all the widgets?
On the subject of Microsoft buyouts... The Combat Update for Minecraft completely breaks single-player battle vs mobs. Mobs spawn in larger numbers than what one player can kill now because players' attacks are rate-limited to such a low damage-per-second. Does Microsoft just buy things so it can break them?
As I see it, was that Skype, as created, didn't need any "tweaking" it was basically done. It did what it needed to do, and it did it well. No fuss, no muss, no issues.
Naturally, MS had to come in and fuck it up.
I mean, improve upon it.
Now it barely works and is stuffed full of shit no one wants or needs.
In other words, standard MS practice.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Why do you think Microsoft, of all corporations, would be interested in spending time and money on improving a program that gives users valuable services free of charge?
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Their business chat / voice / video tool ("Microsoft Lync") has been getting some of their attention, and was recently rebranded "Skype for Business". They may be converging the two, using the Lync code base going forward. To me that makes more sense than maintaining two products that do the same thing.
Of course there are dropped calls, when ever the NSA buffer gets full, there has to be a gap.
Of course it is the guys running on this OS that will write the competitor that people will move to when skype becomes unusable.
Please do, Skype sucks! Their big advancement lately is adding pop-culture emoji. Seriously, I have 'Angry Birds' smilies right now!!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Check out discord. They're about to finish out direct friend calling (like Skype) at which point I can uninstall Skype once and for all.
INSTALL SKYPE = PWN SELF
After seeing what Microsoft has done to Skype for Windows, I'm quite happy with Skype the way it is - Linux Skype works properly in Pulseaudio.
I only have two demands, and that's to make Skype 64bit, as it is 32bit for most OS's not called Ubuntu. Would be nice to look good in KDE.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
I can hear that whoosh from right over there and I'm in Europe.
The competition wasn't just mac or even apple, you know. It was acorn, amiga, atari, and so on... shit even geos on the c64 did things micros~1 could only dream of back then. We have left a lot of promising technology on the table.
But just like how google is known for its search and email (that they mine the shit out of), they're really... an advertising company, so is micros~1 well-known for its software of excreable technical quality, but they're really... a completely unscrupulous marketeering company. Selling crap is what they're good at, even if they're completely incapable of producing anything but crap software, tainting everything they touch. Nokia wasn't the first phone brand they innovated right into the ground, either.
This is why I download software, and am cautious about updating. Especially mobile apps. Why? Becaue when the dated versions often work better than the replacements. Especially with UI (old skype did not have ads or pop-ups and guess what it still works! ).
_
it's cranky in the work version also, especially if you connect to somebody else's desktop outside.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I can second this. I have whichever version comes with Ubuntu/Mint lts and haven't had any trouble Skyping my mum. I also use it at work but only for IM.
I have had the misfortune of experiencing Skype for Business, formerly called Lync at work. It is also plagued by a terrible user interface, slow/failed calls, and lack of a Linux version. Ultimately, we dropped it, simply because of the lack of Linux support, but not before wasting lots of time trying a really buggy Linux client called Wync which couldn't handle multi-way conferencing - at least at the time. It used to be the case that most of our development teams worked on Windows, but that figure is dropping rapidly towards the 40% mark, probably due to the slow compilation, long dependency checks, slow UI, and the lack of modern C++ 14/17 support in their ancient compiler.
Microsoft really don't understand software quality or human interface. Following the ribbon toolbar fiasco, as a group we also had to dump Office, which was in many ways the most functional of all of the Microsoft product lineup. I've also seen other horrors, like sharepoint - which appears to be a bad version of a shared directory, with bad wiki support, bad blog support, and bad version control/merging support. There is little point wasting time on Microsoft products. Hopefully purchase decision makers are beginning to see the need to actually gather requirements and do testing, given the repeated deployment failures of junk that simply doesn't meet any actual user need.
However, the NSA-mandated backdoors are rock-solid reliable.
How socialist.
Complain about the monopoly all you want. It won't do any good. Nothing will improve.
Only one thing will lead to improvement: competition. For Skype, that competition is... Facetime? That's it?
Hangouts is awful and Google is abandoning it. Facetime might be great, if you own a device from the single vendor on whose devices it works.
There is clearly room for competition, but nobody has stepped up.
Ten years ago (or maybe a little less than that), Skype wasn't really great, but it "just worked" and it was a widely agreed upon platform for communication (like what ICQ and AIM once were). Nobody I know uses Skype anymore; the video ads, ultra-high latency, and general bugginess has now driven just about everybody to another platform.
It's kind of amazing how artful Microsoft is at destroying things: Skype, Nokia, Lionhead, Groove, Rare. I'm sure Microsoft shills can quote off the top of their head how much more profitable or how much growth have occurred in all the aforementioned since Microsoft bought them, but regular folks know the truth. And the world waits with abated breath to see how they butcher SwiftKey.
When did Skype NOT suck? Yes, at some point it was a fairly novel, affordable/free product "for the masses", but it was never a product that didn't suck in multiple aspects such as UI, stability, functionality just to name a few.
On the Android version of Skype, Microsoft recently made a change to their privacy policy or app permissions or something. I noticed that my contact list now recommends several people's Skype accounts who I previously only had as phone number contacts in my phone.
If Microsoft makes it, use an alternative product whenever and wherever possible.
We went to Google Apps years ago, but it was tough trying to get people to use Hangouts VS Skype. Everyone just sort of used Skype out of inertia.
Finally after many problems, my users started using Hangouts. We also use Hangouts in our conference rooms with dedicated chromeboxes. Users were happy about running entirely in the browser and not having to install and update another bit of software.
We got rid of Skype and you can too.
The article is really bad, it basically says: "wow Skype sucks huh? Microsoft should fix it!"
Doesn't list any of the problems with Skype, doesn't talk about how this is impacting the wider tech audience, just basically a blog post that could be summarized in a tweet. Unfortunate.
First, Microsoft doesn't have to do anything
Second as a multi-platform Linux-Mac user I understood the end for Skype as a useful tool was nigh when Microsoft bought it. My search for alternatives led me to appear.in which has worked great because whomever I video conference with need not have special software installed or ever an account. on some service.
Why not Trillian? They have video conferencing and chat. I don't understand why people continue to complain about a product and continue to use it. There are other products out there. Skype is obviously not the end-all be-all. This is one of the reasons businesses don't invest money into their product. People like you don't bother leaving them!
I encourage you to check out Trillian as well as other video chat services available to you:
https://www.trillian.im/
Now it's time to write another VoIP application and to be sold for a cool $8.5B. Who is the rich VC to pump the money? :-)
Microsoft needs to complete their transition to a 100% patent troll company and stay the fuck away from software. I am currently working at a bushiness founded exclusively on discontinued Microsoft products. Some of them were acquired by Microsoft only to be discontinued shortly thereafter. Microsoft needs to die.
Let it die, stop using it!!
It is only used because "other" people use it, no one like it... stop using it and let it die, everyone will win.
Now with webrtc, the standard for chat is webchat, with FULL video, audio support. Just use the build in "firefox hello", https://appear.in/ , https://apprtc.webrtc.org/ , https://talky.io/ , https://www.voicechatapi.com/ or https://meet.jit.si/ and you will never need skype again . If you need a client with a full "friend list", you can use plain old irc or jabber and send the link, or simply use jitsi and use it as you usually use skype... all free, all working
Again, stop using skype and use open standards
Higuita
Sad and true, as most of us moved on to much newer platforms.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Microsoft to fix their shit. Just move to something better, alternatives exist. My favorite is Google Hangouts.
This is like listening to someone complain about the burger joint they go to and how their burgers don't taste good anymore. Why would you keep going to a restaurant that serves food that you don't like? Go somewhere else!
is die. Kids these days, learn the history of MS. Go Linux!
These issues include [...] too many update prompts
I'm on Linux and haven't seen one in years you insensitive clod!
Exactly my thoughts! As long as it is able to connect, I hope they don't touch it!
Skype was cool 8-10 years back. It was solid, it was fast and it was the best option out there. People loved it. The Skype you have today is an entirely different beast from what you used to use 8 years back. Back then it was written using Qt, and in C++. Small wonder then that it was fast, had a low footprint, and was reliable. Once Microsoft took over, and probably ported it to .NET or whatever other shitty infrastructure they dreamed up, and it started to suck. As a general point, I seem to feel that anything written in .NET seems to run like its a slow lumbering beast.
And we stopped caring about Skype period.
We've long since moved to Zoom and never looked back.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
What is this article getting at by mentioning "out of date" Linux versions? I vehemently enjoy my old Linux version of Skype. This generation of Microsoft has a troubling idea of what constitutes "new features". I don't want any of it. If only I could time-lock all my Windows friends into the same version.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Seems like they bought it on behalf of a three letter agency. They wanted the servers in the USA. They are obviously not really interested in Skype.
There are other alternatives - linphone etc..
As much as we love to hate Microsoft and their mediocre, poorly tested, insecure products, in the case of Skype there is STILL no viable competitor.
I mean a communications tool that will let you EASILY connect with others, on many platforms, easily overcome firewalls, NAT, and transparently handle changing network conditions with relative grace. Simple to setup, Easy to locate and add people, and a UI that mostly works.
For now, until a competitor becomes as easy to use as Skype, it is here to stay.
Sure, there's Slack, which now has Voice Calling (but no screen sharing, no video, etc).
There's even Facebook Voice/Video and it's decent, but FB is mostly for private people.
Then there's Facetime, which only works on Mac/iDevices (and remember, when Microsoft does that, people cry foul!).
Jitsi is the only close "competitor" out there. And it doesn't come close to Skype's simplicity.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...
will eat M$'s lunch soon. Their doing their initial roll-out for video, plus Slack has a growing third-party dev ecosystem. Of course, M$ will probably just swoop in and buy Slack up if it ever actually gets too annoying and strangle it just like their doing to Skype. And I just love how Skype argues with me about actually closing it out, practically begging me to keep it running.
All their users can just switch to Discord instead. :^)
Only one tiny reference to Viber? My friends and I agreed to switch to it when Microsoft bought Skype whenever that was. It's pretty much a clone of Skype, it's non-web based and has linux, android and windows clients (not sure about ios/mac). It has video chat also. What's missing here?
Other people have already mentioned a few other skype competitiors so there's nothing really to complain about. Every time microsoft shoots themselves in the foot is a win for the good guys.
I'd also like to point out that most of the (web based) alternatives that people are mentioning do NOT tie in to the POTS in any way, ie. you can't take/make calls to/from a normal phone. I guess that will be somewhat obviated if enough people migrate to an open standard based alternative.
I think Microsoft would be better off dropping Skype altogether if for no other reason, to finally kill of Lync - the worlds worst Enterprise telephony solution. My guess is Microsoft only has 10 actual programmers on the payroll to apply to all of their hundreds of software projects, and at the moment they're all spread so thin, they just don't get a chance to look at most of their offerings. Thats why Office '97 -> 2016 is the same product that has occasional UI bugs introduced signifying a version change. Thats why Skype is still on its original skin. They also have a number of other great, well thought through products like Desktop Widgets and Metro UIs that excel at touchscreen interfaces - particularly on their server technologies which - by definition - never have touch interfaces plugged in.
...a whole lot more than just Skype. Starting with its administration, then it's main product - Windows itself. Yep, they've got a loooot of stuff they should fix. I stopped believing they were able to do that years ago. Since I got rid of Microsoft from my life I feel much better, and I feel more content. So I propose that instead of waiting for them to fix anything [it's like "Waiting for Godot" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., rather forget about them and never use any of their products again. Life is much simpler and more pleasurable without Microsoft. Trust me. d= ;) Cheers!
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Do you think MS is working to discourage Skype in favor of Lync?!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
> You seem like someone who would know that DOS competed with the GEM
First sentence of your Wikipedia link:
The Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) was an operating environment created by Digital Research, Inc. (DRI) for use with the DOS operating system
GEM was a DOS application. The Macintosh, on the other hand, was a competing OS which had a GUI a year earlier than DOS got GEM.
Skype is an eavesdropping tool (imo). Why would I install insecurity onto a secure device?
If you want Skype, then you probably don't want what Linux provides.