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
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!
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?
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.
On which browsers for which operating systems does the web-based client support audio calls and video calls? Or do you only use the IM part?
Web-based doesn't work with old P2P groups.
Linux client doesn't work with new "cloud" groups.
You have to use 2 Skype clients to get all messages.
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.
That's the problem, actually.
Skype for Business is really a re-branding of Lync, Microsoft's other conferencing solution. And basically managing to screw it up like how they tried to unify Skype and MSN Messenger. At least the latter was text chat and Microsoft managed to get a gateway going (you could do voice and video on MSN, but it wasn't used heavily)
Then Microsoft rebranded Lync as Skype for Business, integrated its functionality into Skype and all heck broke loose and the two really weren't meant to interoperate well. The user lists merged, but try having a multi-way conference between Skype and Lync users and hilarity ensues as randomly one group or the other fails to get voice, video or other data.
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
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.
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.
To be fair, Microsoft probably created the first non-hardware-vendor-specific GUI that was both "good enough" and "easy to pirate"
What do you mean the web-based client works so much better? Does it work better when the entire service will go down and be unable to authenticate for eight hours at a time? (the situation a month ago). Or does it work better when it just shows some online contacts as being offline and vice versa? How about when it queues messages for later delivery without notifying you? Problems I've never had with the standalone client, as crappy as it is.
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.
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.
The final "FACT" confirmed for sarcasm.
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 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)
Why would paying to upgrade one product affect the operation/performance of another unrelated product?
Talk about blatant shilling for Microsoft!
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I have the opposite experience. I use Skype for business at work and have no issues with it. It can be a little slow, I don't like how I have to accept conversations but other than that I never have it crash or act any kind of weirdness.
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
To be fair, Microsoft probably created the first non-hardware-vendor-specific GUI that was both "good enough" and "easy to pirate"
AFAIK OS/2 Warp was both non-hardware-vendor-specific and as easily pirateable ;)
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.
Yea, our company got hit by that too (crashes) it took them a couple of weeks to roll out a fix. FYI..skype for business is NOT actually "Skype". It's Lync Re-branded to fool you into thinking that Lync is now as cool as Skype because it's named thus...
What I really like about Skype for business is how I cannot add anyone to my contact list. It just tells me that that particular feature is not working right now. It does this to me on every computer I have put the client on.
I wish they would add video conferencing to slack. I'd use that.
Fun fact: Skype for Business' executable file is still named lync.exe
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?
From Xerox came the Alto (1973) and the Star (1981). From Apollo Computer came Display Manager (1981). From Apple came the Lisa (1983) and the Macintosh (1984). The Unix world had the Andrew Project (1982) and Rob Pike's Blit terminal (1982).
However, the NSA-mandated backdoors are rock-solid reliable.
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.
https://meet.jit.si/ for the win!
It'll kill Skype as surely as Diaspora killed Facebook!
#DeleteChrome
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.
and for PCs we had GEM long before windows. Not sure about Amiga and Atari ST, if they were not before windows they certainly were very close in time.
GEM (February), Windows (November), the Amiga (July), and the ST (June) all came out in 1985.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
And on top of that, they use so much damned white space that a Skype window that should be able to be parked in a tiny little corner instead takes up a quarter of your display.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Your assumption, that Office 2016 and Skype For Business are unrelated, is incorrect.
The GP is likely referring to how Skype For Business 2016 is bundled with the Professional Plus edition of Office 2016.
IOW, (s)he meant "update to the latest Skype For Business". So, most likely not shilling.
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.
I'm glad to hear this isn't only happening at my company.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
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
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.
Not just the responsiveness. The whole interface is terrible. Every meeting we play, "How many engineers does it take to share a presentation with Skype?"
Right now the answer is about thirteen.
They need to rehire they guy that came up with the Start Menu.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I've found Zoom to be pretty good. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here.
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!
We're running O365 (Office 2013) and use Skype for Business. So far no major issues other than getting the accounts configured.
If Skype is bundled with 2016 that is just as blatant as saying IE is bundled with Windows.
Communication software should not be tied to anything, especially an office-like product. What if we uninstall Office and go with Open Libre? Will our Skype not work? (rhetorical question).
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Skype started to get bad and bloated before Microsoft got their hands on it.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
We are using Skype for Biz with office 365 and I've NEVER been able to get my work Skype for Biz account to ever successfully call my Skype consumer account.
Bump for Discord. I haven't tried the video chat under Chromium/Linux, but the audio portion works just fine.
(Chromium/GNU/Linux?)
I, and the rest of the family use WeChat to call our son in China, works quite well. Of course you have to assume it's being monitored as it's "approved" there. But then again you have to assume that of anything anywhere at the moment. Has one of the largest user bases in the world ( 'cos China)
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.
Skype for Business is an unbelievably shitty steaming pile of dinosaur faeces. I think Lync actually got WORSE when MS rebranded it. It actually throws up an error message on boot if Outlook is booted at the same time about some file being unavailable. At my business we just ditched it and use Skype instead.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
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
Ah, thank you. :D
Hope one gives some +1's for "informative"
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
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.
Yes, the last usable version of Skype was 2.X. It went downhill fast when I moved to 3.X and further.
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...
From the featured article:
The page you linked supports this:
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. :^)
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...
Yup. When they killed MSN Messenger it was a very sad day. I remember running that with a webcam back in the year 2000 over 56Kb dial-up, and although it's probably rose-tinted spectacles talking, it seemed to work better back then than the last version of Skype I managed to use before it finally became unusable on my hardware.
I don't understand why, with internet links being 100 times faster, and machines being 20 times faster, how Skype could be worse; hell, how it could even be worse than the video chat on the last version of MSN Messenger (by then called Windows Live Messenger) that existed.
Well actually I suppose I can. Although all WLM text chat went through Microsoft's servers, their video chat was peer-to-peer. Once the powers-that-be discovered that terrorists were apparently communicating by holding up bits of cardboard with messages written on them to each other (not a conspiracy theory, there was a news item on it at the time), peer-to-peer video chat was dead - hence the move to Skype, ALL of which goes through Microsoft's unhappy servers.
And now Yahoo is going the same way - the new version of the Android/iOS app has been widely derided, it's actually removed features (like only having three statuses now - not that even that many are useful as apparently everyone shows online to everyone else whether or not they actually are), and in my case the PC client no longer logs in. So everyone I know is running away from YIM as well. Which just leaves Hangouts... which sucks too, for multiple reasons given by others above.
We used to have a wonderful set of chat/IM tools... pretty much all of them dead. Online chat/IM has basically been ruined over the last 10-15 years, in my view cynically and deliberately. Someone on here once called it The Balkanisation of Chat and they weren't wrong.
So sad.
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.
Yep. The video games back then were a lot more fun too. And the movies as well. And music.
These days, we're just making crappy rehashed versions of stuff from the 80s, such as the upcoming Ghostbusters movie. And technology has gotten boring too, because it's all about advertising and marketing rather than making cool stuff.
...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.
FTFY.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
> 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.