Skype For Windows Phone Will Stop Working in 2017 (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson, writing for BetaNews: With the release of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft's support for Windows Phone is gradually starting to die off. We already knew that Windows Phone support for Skype was coming to an end, but now we know more. Microsoft has now announced that as well as ending support for Skype on Windows Phone in October, come 'early 2017' the apps will simply stop working. And it's all thanks to a move to the cloud. The company has already said that the future of Skype is cloud-based rather than peer-to-peer, and this is the reason Windows Phone support is coming to a complete stop. Considering the amount of investment Microsoft has put into Skype, the decision to kill the app entirely is perhaps a little strange, but legacy support -- particularly for such a niche handset -- does not come cheap.

Comments

In early 2017 will

[Anonymous Coward]

Just stop working? If actually does that it will be the most stable behavior ever MS advised for a software.

Re:In early 2017 will

[Z00L00K]

I was an early adopter, but have since stopped using Skype since it got too bloated.

Re:In early 2017 will

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft's main business is abusing customers.

Re:In early 2017 will

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype is crap. I use uTox.

Re:In early 2017 will

[tripleevenfall]

TFA is poorly informed. Skype stopped working some time ago.

Re:In early 2017 will

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype stopped working when it became M$ $kype

Re:In early 2017 will

[unixisc]

I guess there are a lot fewer Windows Phone users who could be forced to go to Windows 10 Mobile, in contrast to the millions of Windows 7 users that they're trying to get to Windows 10

Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Mindshare and control was what Microsoft paid for, not for the technology nor the app.

Re:Mindshare

[Darinbob]

And if you supported Microsoft by buying Windows Phone, then Microsoft's message to you regarding your loyalty is clear.

Re:Mindshare

[KiloByte]

"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master."

Re: Mindshare

[ljw1004]

Yeah, their statement is "please upgrade to the newer version of your phone OS. It will have been out for two years already by the time Skype stops working in the older OS. Oh, and if your telco isn't giving you updates to your phone OS then you can get the update direct from s."

Re:Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

And how do you propose to do this seeing that a lot of winphones are incapable of downgrading to win10?

Re:Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeaaaaaap.

There's a reason my Windows Phone 7 was replaced by an iPhone instead of a Windows Phone 10. It isn't due to the quality of the software (honestly, Windows Phone isn't bad at all), but knowing Microsoft, it'll be supported for about five months and then it's 'pshaw, you're using THAT old ancient device? Everyone who's anyone is using this completely new operating_system_du_jour that's lightyears[1] ahead of that', never mind that it's only been in beta for about six months and released about two days ago! Whereas, Apple will continue to support iPhones for a decent length of time post-release (at least until two generations after, it seems.)

  Visual Studio went through a phase of this - the classic being VS 2013, where the betas of what would become 2015 were out and being talked about BEFORE 2013 was even released production. It was "obsolete" before release, which is fast even for Microsoft...

I'm not sure if it is intentional, or just some kind of corporate 'attention deficit disorder' where they can't really commit to anything. Sure, it means they move off bad ideas fast, but it also means good ideas get moved off before anyone has a chance to really think about them either.

[1] Time or Distance, doesn't really matter. We're dealing with marketing types, and besides, the metaphor holds either way.

Re:Mindshare

[JosephDoeden]

Windows phone will just become Surface Phone. They are jumping off ARM. It's too expensive to keep the phone platform alive for so few users. As a mobile patform windows 10 is way better than android. As a phone platform it will have power consumption challenges. As batteries allow x86 with displace general computer ARM soutions like tablets, phones and eventually set top boxes. We are going right back to where we came. Intel is in the low power market and MS has the only x86 mobile OS. I've never seen Intel fail at making and selling computer chips. I bet they don't start now. The cost of finishing the exist crap mobile platforms is still billions of dollars and time that they just don't have. MS has the better OS and better platform, porting apps to a new UI is a lot easier than making ARM apps and maintaining them. You can see in the Linux platform that supporting ARM is not fun and just not getting done. Developers don't want to write for two platforms like that. Apple boxed themselves in with iOS. Google has no desktop os. MS has a unified x86 and ARM platform AND if you don't know if you build your frameworks on ,NET you prepare yourself for any new chipsets that might swoop in a and change things. Maybe VR and IoT will need a new chipset. Linux is great for that if your needs are specific. If you need general computing Windows is going to be easier to port the OS and a functional and expansive library, especially as more Universal apps get written. MS is a lot closer to having a good unified desktop and mobile than anyone else and that's going to be the future of computing because things like clloud drives are just not good enough. Having storage for mobile apps that can hardly do anything doesn't help as much in real life as it does while we are obsessively download free data mining apps from the Google store.

Re: Mindshare

[Darinbob]

This means a new phone too.

Re:Mindshare

[Darinbob]

When did Intel learn how to make low power chips? It's time for that x86 to finally die. And while the Windows phone looks nice, I wouldn't trust MS to ever create a decent OS, as their track record so far is at zero. A unified OS is a dumb idea anyway. Different tools for different purposes. Right now there is no one out there who wants Windows or x86 except for Windows developers, and their skills are so rusty from being in a monoculture for so long that they won't be leading any technology advances.

Re:Mindshare

[Blaskowicz]

There were x86 set top boxes five years ago (Atom), and there were x86 phones too, until Intel exited the market altogether (after nvidia did the same).
So in fact, you can get an Android x86 tablet, same hardware as lowest end x86 Windows tablets ; you could get an Android x86 phone, but won't be able to anymore, and there never were x86 Windows phone.

Re:Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel makes a number of ultra efficient x86 cpu's now.. I own several... The $49.99 Winbook TW-700 Windows 8.1(not RT) tablet with full size USB, micro hdmi, seperate charging port consumes less than 2 watts when running idle with screen off; screen on 3-4 watts. Motorola Droid2 performance playing the same videos/full load uses very similar(screen not withstanding)

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/p...

The problem today with Microsoft; controlling 90% of the market is they are rounding the wagons and trying to build a walled garden to a locked down proprietary system(metro, and single screen android like apps). It's all part of uefi, secureboot and lack of available information to create drivers for alternative OS's.

Unified system could work quite well, problem is everyone is attempting to make one for the phone first, then moving it to the desktop. I've used full desktop window managers xterm/vnc'd in on phones just fine.. Industry is backwards it seems. Win32/desktop applications are perfectly usable with pinch-zoom or slight display modifications.

I'm someone who would love to buy a modern day OQO. Imagine a Droid 3(photon q) case(slide out keyboard, hdmi, usb(throw on 2nd), removable battery, mircosd, sim, headphone jack) but with M-5Y10(or something similar/more power efficient) with legacy bios that could still run everything... Phone functions could be run through a program on a regular Windows XP/7/8.1 desktop.

Re:Mindshare

[Lonewolf666]

Slightly OT, but in the x86 vs. ARM tests/benchmarks I've seen so far current x86 chips don't look so bad. Apple even switched from PowerPC to x86 several years ago, because x86 was arguably superior at the time.

Granted, this may be due to Intel's manufacturing expertise rather than superior circuit design, but so far I don't see another architecture outperforming x86 by a large margin in real life benchmarks.

This may change as manufacturing technology slows down and other vendors get closer to Intel though.

Re: Mindshare

[Shoten]

This means a new phone too.

And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

I would grant that Apple actually does a decent job of supporting older hardware, especially as they build new features into IOS that rely upon the newer hardware. You can buy an iPhone 5s today, and it'll run the latest version (at this moment, 9.3.4) of IOS. Android...less so, but that's probably as much to blame on the (numerous and non-coordinated) hardware vendors as anyone else. But then again, aren't all the Windows Phone handsets made by companies like HTC as well?

Let's remember that Windows Phone 8.1...the newest version being discussed here...is 4 years old. It's from 2012. Many of the best apps for IOS wouldn't work on an IOS version that's that old. And yes, Microsoft was very delayed in coming out with a new OS...but still, I get why they don't want to have to support something that old, and which, as others have pointed out, only a very tiny population ever used in the first place.

Re: Mindshare

[nukenerd]

And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

Scrolling down, you are the first post to mention iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberry phones. Pay attention, this is a factual news item about Skype for Windows.

Re:Mindshare

[ChunderDownunder]

Intel dumped the 'phone' SoC from the roadmap months back. There was a story here about its demise.

So rumours about an x86 Surface Phone are complete vaporware since the line of Intel chips that MS were planning on using don't exist.

Re:Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Google has no desktop os.

So ChromeOS is what? A server OS? A Desktop OS?

Re: Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

I would grant that Apple actually does a decent job of supporting older hardware, especially as they build new features into IOS that rely upon the newer hardware. You can buy an iPhone 5s today, and it'll run the latest version (at this moment, 9.3.4) of IOS. Android...less so, but that's probably as much to blame on the (numerous and non-coordinated) hardware vendors as anyone else.

This! I've had my iPhone 5 since 2011, and it's nowhere near obsolete, while many friends who don't buy that "overpriced Apple shit" are on their third Android phone since that time. They saved a little money each time - in their minds I guess. One likes to make jokes about how wealthy I must be to afford an iPhone.

I'll use it until the battery craps out, I guess, and they'll save even more money on their 5th Android by that time.

Re: Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

Scrolling down, you are the first post to mention iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberry phones. Pay attention, this is a factual news item about Skype for Windows.

This is the very first time there has ever been topic drift on Slashdot! Thanks for pointing it out.

Re:Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

Slightly OT, but in the x86 vs. ARM tests/benchmarks I've seen so far current x86 chips don't look so bad. Apple even switched from PowerPC to x86 several years ago, because x86 was arguably superior at the time.

One of the biggest reasons that Apple switched to Intel was that while the PowePC chips performed okay, size and heat were huge issues. My dual Processor PowerMac G5's CPU modules weren't a lot smaller than a Mini Mac, and it had 5 fans in it. When I was doing 3-D rendering on it, it sounded like a jet taking off.

They did manage to stuff a G5 into an iMac, but tearing one apart shows clearly that that form was the absolute limit. They were hard to keep cool. They could never stuff one in a laptop, and G4 PPC was the limit.

Despite promised advances, IBM never reduced the size enough to keep up. I was skeptical at the time, but the switch to X86 and the creation of the Unix based OSX was an excellent move.

Re:Mindshare

[r1348]

Yeah, go tell that to the lucky ones who bought an Omnia 7.

Re: Mindshare

[ljw1004]

No it doesn't need a new phone. Windows 10 mobile is just the next version of the OS that comes after 8.1

Re: Mindshare

[paazin]

Let's remember that Windows Phone 8.1...the newest version being discussed here...is 4 years old. It's from 2012.

Actually, no it isn't. It was released July 2014.

Re: Mindshare

[whoever57]

No it doesn't need a new phone. Windows 10 mobile is just the next version of the OS that comes after 8.1

... if your phone is included in the list of eligible phones. Otherwise, you are out of luck.

Re: Mindshare

[SQLGuru]

I would, but my current carrier (Sprint) isn't offering a Windows 10 Mobile phone right now. And even the models that support the frequencies aren't certified / enabled for Sprint even were I to get on unlocked. So, for now, I'm stuck with my Samsung ATIV S Neo (phone names suck) until I convince my wife we should switch carriers (but she really likes the price of unlimited data for a 5 phone family plan on Sprint).

Re: Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, you can take a 2012 Nexus 4 and run Android M on it. It'll be slow, but it'll run. I was secretly happy when my son broke our first gen Nexus 7, as it ran Lollipop so amazingly slow.

Re: Mindshare

[Darinbob]

Apps are pointless. You don't need to keep getting more and more newer apps. The old ones work. And Android supports 4 year old phones. People keep them that long... Maybe not Windows Phones, but. I know someone running Windows Phone and he's disappointed at the lack of support.

Re: Mindshare

[Darinbob]

There really is only one gargantuan thread on Slashdot. We just subdivide into topics for accounting purposes.

Re: Mindshare

[lederhosen]

Iphone 5 was released Sept. 21, 2012

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: Mindshare

[Oakey]

And as far as I can tell those are the 'newest' Win8.1 handsets. Bought that flagship Lumia 1020? Well fuck you!

Re: Mindshare

[lederhosen]

And when the battery from my Samsung Galaxy Note II from the same era (five days more modern) stops working, I can buy a new battery.

Re: Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

Seriously, you can take a 2012 Nexus 4 and run Android M on it. It'll be slow, but it'll run. I was secretly happy when my son broke our first gen Nexus 7, as it ran Lollipop so amazingly slow.

These people don't root their phones, and they tend to get them gummed up wiht crapware untilthey run slow as molasses. THeb they get a new phone because "The old one is messed up". Typical users, not geeks.

Re: Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

Iphone 5 was released Sept. 21, 2012

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Awp - My bad. I indeed got it in 2012, the year after I retired. All the other stuff is accurate.

Re: Mindshare

[Ol Olsoc]

And when the battery from my Samsung Galaxy Note II from the same era (five days more modern) stops working, I can buy a new battery.

Because all average users do exactly that. Back in the days of feature phones I got new batteries and was laughed at by the same folks that continuously get new Androids. Just like their smartphones, they replaced their feature phones quite often.

For me, a phone is a device that needs to work, for texts and actually speaking to people. As computing devices they suck big time. They even suck at email. So I save my computing for actual computers. So as I say, I'll keep using mine until the battery goes dead. Considering they way it's holding a charge, I'm expecting to keep it maybe 7 years overall - about 3 years more. side point. Why do you think you cannot replace the battery in an iPhone? Perhaps we hipsters need to file a class action suit against Amazon for selling batteries and kits for an impossible task that cannot be done? https://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UT...

Re: Mindshare

[lederhosen]

You are not an average user, most people change phone all the time, just as you said. I just pointed out that the possibility for having a phone for a long time is better on android (because of battery and memory cards mainly). If you can keep your battery for 7 years -- lucky you -- my 3 years old battery is not as good any more, and I plan to buy a new in the future.

It is not that it cannot be done on iphones, it is that it is *specifically* designed to be as hard as possible to do. This is getting quite common on android phones as well, but you can still *choose* top android phones with SD-card readers and replaceable batteries.

I applaud you for not wasting the environment, but it is certainly not thanks to Apple. Credit where credit is due, and here it is to you. I also believe on average, iphone users keep their phones for a *shorter* time as they see their phones as fashion accessories (this is only a feeling of mine, I have no hard data supporting it).

Re: Mindshare

[evilviper]

I've had my iPhone 5 since 2011, and it's nowhere near obsolete, while many friends who don't buy that "overpriced Apple shit" are on their third Android phone since that time.

Lots of people are still happily using a Droid 4, since it was the last Android slider on Verizon's network. While it's a few versions behind, it runs just about all the latest apps. The Droid 4 was released February 10, 2012. Your iPhone 5 was released later in September 21, 2012.

I'm using a Photon Q for the same reason. It was released a little later on April 25, 2013 and on the cheaper Sprint network, but it is upgradable to the latest Android 5.1 thanks to CyanogenMod. I recently replaced the aging battery with a 3rd party higher-power version, and I'll keep using it until something big fails. My last slider had the flexible ribbon cable fail after 4 years, but I was able to get a cheap replacement for that, too, and only upgraded to the Photon Q when a killer app finally came out that needed a much newer OS version.

Some people swap their phones all the time, some people don't, and a small anecdotal sampling isn't proof of much. As you said, you can save a lot of money by buying Android, and you get a much more flexible and powerful open platform, too, with things like Firefox, expandable microsd card storage, free call with Hangouts Dialer, etc.

Re:Mindshare

[Darinbob]

The power usage of a laptop is immense relative to IoT devices. We are trying to build things that last 15 years on a single non-rechargeable battery.

Re:Mindshare

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh!!! I bought a Lumia 520 some years ago, which I gave to my driver this summer. While he had a cellphone, he kept getting calls while driving, and even got stopped and ticketed by the cops (this is in India). I had in between bought a Lumia 550, which does have Windows 10. So I gave him the Lumia 520, got a hands free kit so that it goes into driving mode, set that up for him on the phone and then gave it to him. I minimized the tiles so that he doesn't get confused.

Well, his family loves tinkering with it, and some days later, he brought that phone back to me asking me to set it right again. What they had done was that every contact was a separate tile, which was ridiculous. So I explained some of the things to him, and set back the wallpaper to what he wanted. He doesn't skype or anything - all he wants to do on that phone is talk, text and use the camera, and for that, the phone's OS is irrelevant.

I do hope that Windows 10 Mobile has better support.

Re: Mindshare

[unixisc]

Actually, I had a Verizon Ellipsis 7, which had just 8GB of storage (don't even ask about the RAM) and running Kitkat. The maximum SD capacity it could take was 32GB. I replaced it this year w/ the Ellipsis 10. The older tablet - I looked for all sorts of places to get an upgrade to Marshmallow, but couldn't find it. Yeah, once there's a way to get Marshmallow on all those phones out there, that'll be good, but we're nowhere near that yet!

Re:Mindshare

[unixisc]

When did Intel learn how to make low power chips? It's time for that x86 to finally die. And while the Windows phone looks nice, I wouldn't trust MS to ever create a decent OS, as their track record so far is at zero. A unified OS is a dumb idea anyway. Different tools for different purposes. Right now there is no one out there who wants Windows or x86 except for Windows developers, and their skills are so rusty from being in a monoculture for so long that they won't be leading any technology advances.

I agree w/ you that a unified OS is a dumb idea - I think the same about those 'responsive' websites. However, the Windows 8 & beyond OSs that Microsoft did were fine for phones and tablets, just bad for laptops and PCs. Even the Windows 8 interface was good, if somewhat limited (you couldn't set your wallpaper, and were limited in your choice of theme colors), but it was a fantastic user experience. It's main shortcoming was the same one that's ironically Microsoft's traditional strength in the desktop/laptop realm - the application support. Anytime you see any product or service mention its apps, they typically mention either the Apple Store or the Android Store, but rarely the Windows Store. That's been Microsoft's main problem in getting this phone accepted.

On the x86, that thing had evolved in a big way since the 90s. First of all, the 64-bit x86 that AMD defined is as RISCy as possible, including only a few of the different instruction types that any x86 evolution absolutely must have. Also, the complex circuitry that was supposed to have slowed down CISC CPUs in contrast to an equivalent RISC on the same process now occupies a far lower percentage of the real estate, making it more of a theoretical discussion. While other CPUs like the MIPS or Alpha might have been interesting had they still been around, the ARM has been a very lackluster performer, and only has its power consumption to write home about. Between Intel64 and ARM, I'd rather pick the former

Re: Mindshare

[Chrontius]

I applaud you for not wasting the environment, but it is certainly not thanks to Apple. Credit where credit is due, and here it is to you. I also believe on average, iphone users keep their phones for a shorter time as they see their phones as fashion accessories (this is only a feeling of mine, I have no hard data supporting it).

In my experience, most people I know tend to use their iPhones into the ground, often ending up 3 or 4 generations behind. Except for the one guy who attends WWDC every year, and makes a good living as an IT contractor, and also has to be able to test his code against new hardware. Everyone else uses it until it breaks, or they pass on their old one to someone else when theirs breaks, and use the excuse to upgrade.

Re:Mindshare

[Darinbob]

The nice thing about ARM is that it's simple. X86 today may be RISCy, but it's a very complex RISC. And ARM covers a lot of range. Ie, Cortex-M series are very nice for small devices, a very nice interrupt model, whereas Cortex-A is more for phones or other things that care about application speed, and so forth.

Re:Mindshare

[RockDoctor]

That would be my wife, on the advice of her daughter who worked for a mobile phone shop. Hi ho - I guess it's time for me to look at sorting out a new phone and/ or contract for the wife.

Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

"the future of Skype is cloud-based"

So it's client-server based?

Re:Define "cloud"

[Darinbob]

No, it's in the cloud, duh! The place where magic happens. Lackluster apps turn into lackluster apps in the cloud, and stocks go up. Like a miracle. Or magnets.

Re:Define "cloud"

[CTU]

I hope it dose not rain and cause me to lose all my contacts :P

Re: Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

I laughed. Thanks man. Needed that.

Re:Define "cloud"

[gweihir]

Yes, but with a fuzzy and hard to pin down server. That will record and analyze all your conversations.

Re:Define "cloud"

[Z00L00K]

No, you need to smoke something to use it, smoke clouds you know.

Re:Define "cloud"

[WaffleMonster]

"the future of Skype is cloud-based"
So it's client-server based?

Cloud is not a technical term. It describes no coherent system or network architecture.

All cloud means is you should expect to be mercilessly stalked and monetized while the voice of darth vader plays in a continuous loop "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further".

Everything advertised as "cloud based" works this way.

Re:Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we've just found our new Apps! Guy...

Re: Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. A business using cloud based services proves it has stupid management.

Re:Define "cloud"

[surfdaddy]

"the future of Skype is cloud-based"

So it's client-server based?

All your conversations belong to Microsoft and the NSA.

Re:Define "cloud"

[rastos1]

Cloud is not a technical term. It describes no coherent system or network architecture.

Of course it is a technical term and it does describe a very specific thing: It means "computer that belongs to someone else".

Re:Define "cloud"

[Blaskowicz]

As far as I can understand, cloud-based is client-server except there's no way to run your own server - nor even can you use an alternate client.

Re:Define "cloud"

[johanw]

Yes. The current system was too much work to eavesdrop.Fortunately Skype is not the only one doing voip anymore, and not even the most popular. I use it only for buisiness use, for personal contacts there is Signal and WhatsApp who have decent encryption.

Re:Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what Bentley (CAD software) is doing. Adding "cloud" functionality as an excuse to triple software "maintenance" prices.

Re:Define "cloud"

[guruevi]

After they took over Skype, they started killing the app off in favor of their "own dog food". First they killed off Linux support, now "Skype for Business" on Office 365 accounts simply links to the (horrendously inferior) Lync, an offshoot/clone of the infamous MSN Messenger. So yeah, they're integrating the Skype business from a P2P into the Lync Server. In a few years you'll once again have a Microsoft Messenger and Skype will be fully assimilated.

Re:Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

Cloud == someone else's server

Re:Define "cloud"

[Anonymous Coward]

New "cloud-based" Skype is just MSN messenger under the hood again as well. It's just an updated version of the old protocol (MSNP24).

CIT400

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to know if my Linksys CIT400 handset will stop working or not. I wish Microsoft never bought Skype.

VoIP is in every app now

[ArtemaOne]

I guess it makes sense as VoIP is available in nearly every chat program that exists nowadays. People like my dad will be upset as he's a big Skype fan. Yeah, it's an old person app.

Re:VoIP is in every app now

[antdude]

Ha, I still use AIM, ICQ, YIM, IRC, etc. I'm an old ant. :P

Re:VoIP is in every app now

[ArtemaOne]

My ICQ is 102686. I fire it up occasionally for missed messages.

Re:VoIP is in every app now

[Anonymous Coward]

My ICQ is 102686. I fire it up occasionally for missed messages.

I think my ICQ number was around 146,000 (could be around 246,000). I last logged in about 10 years ago and didn't bother staying as all the messages that I had were from advertising bots (mostly cam and porn sites if I remember right). Everyone who I had known on there had all moved on to yahoo and msn messenger. I do remember having emu@hotmail.com in high school (around '96) but I lost that when I hadn't logged in for a while.

On my Linux

[hcs_$reboot]

Skype stops working frequently, already.

Re:On my Linux

[Khyber]

Did you not download the latest update that was released like 2 weeks ago?

Re:On my Linux

[hcs_$reboot]

You mean 2 years old? The new one is still an alpha (and the skype website still offers the old one for Ubuntu)

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

And on Windows. I have to reboot several times a day to fix it since my company uses Skype.

Re:On my Linux

[hcs_$reboot]

And on Windows. I have to reboot several times a day

The good thing is that it fixes skype, and all the other problems as well. Give Windows a reboot a day...

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd isn't ready for production use so that is your own damn fault.

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

You shouldn't be running that garbage yet. It isn't ready.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what you get for running an infected distro. There are multiple choices that don't come with the systemd malware on them.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are you using systemd on a production system? It isn't ready for that. This is your own mistake.

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd swallows error messages. This is to be expected.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

And on Windows. I have to reboot several times a day

The good thing is that it fixes skype, and all the other problems as well. Give Windows a reboot a day...

It also fixes a lot of problems with Outlook. After I reboot, Outlook usually works for a few hours before quitting so I have to reboot several times a day since my company uses that Exchange garbage.

Re:On my Linux

[Z00L00K]

Skype for Business, which is formerly named Lync and doesn't have much to do with Skype for private users.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck - I can't get Moonlight to work. :P

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hangouts" on Android works better than Skype, anyways. Seriously better.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't need windows, just got a chromebook a few weeks ago and I've rarely felt the need to open windows.

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd isn't ready for production use so that is your own damn fault.

This. It doesn't support proper exit statuses yet and doesn't log stderr yet. Heck, it even still drops most syslog messages. You shouldn't use systemd on a dev system yet, much less a production system. This is your own dern fault.

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

systemd doesn't work with exit statuses yet. You shouldn't be using it.

Re: On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all output to stderr and syslog is logged in the journal yet. It's a known bug.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

No need for the desktop version now, I recommend the HTML5 version.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

At least you don't have to suffer with systemd that exits with 0 (no error) even though there is an error:

# systemctl start mongod; echo $?
0

You asked "systemd" to start "mongod". It did and therefore you got a "0" which is to be expected. It's not "systemd's" fault that your database failed to start, all "systemd" could do was to report information it got back from the database. Again it did.

If your database is not starting maybe you should start it manually from the command line and find out why this failure is happening.

A little thinking up here before you blame the tools.

Re:On my Linux

[johanw]

The Android app is updated every week.

Re:On my Linux

[johanw]

But suffers from the same issue of eavesdropping. Better use something encrypted like Signal, WhatsApp or Viber.

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Only ONE reboot a day?

Re:On my Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

used to be that you got the exit status from service...

Just because you use proper syntax on the command line is NOT the proper return status.

Unfortunately, you have to use a DIFFERENT command to query the status.

Re:On my Linux

[Blaskowicz]

But what can I fucking run on desktops?
This phone-only crap is tiring. I want to use IM when I don't want to or cannot use the phone.
It's nuts that we're worse off than in 2003 regarding the state of desktop IM.

Re:On my Linux

[johanw]

For those few where a desktop client is a requirement, Viber has a desktop client and Signal and Whatsapp a browser version coupled to the phone.

Re:On my Linux

[blind biker]

Telegram, which is open source, has a web-based interface, as well as a desktop client. As well as a phone client, of course. It looks a lot like Whatsapp, except it doesn't belong to Facebook and as I said, it's open-source.

Re:On my Linux

[unixisc]

I dunno about the others, but for WhatsApp, one has to have an active phone w/ WhatsApp installed on it. Problem w/ WhatsApp is that it's tied to your phone#, and so if you move from one country to another and the number changes, you need to have a different WhatsApp account for the new number. Skype at least gives you the option of going w/ just an email and the Skype login, which could be used from anywhere. This story is about Skype support being dropped from a Microsoft phone platform that failed to catch on. Nothing to really see here - move along

Re:On my Linux

[unixisc]

This thing is supported on Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile too. Too bad they don't have a FreeBSD version of this app

Re:On my Linux

[blind biker]

Just point your browser (Chromium works on FreeBSD) to web.telegram.org

Problem solved.

Re:On my Linux

[wicka_wicka]

iMessage is encrypted end-to-end, is it not?

It's obsolete

[Anonymous Coward]

When they can tap the phone's microphone on demand, why continue supporting an app?

UWP Application in the works...

[ndykman]

So, it'll run on Windows 10, including mobile, and I expect anybody that's on an older Windows Phone will be on a newer Windows 10 phone or something else by then.

Re:UWP Application in the works...

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't very far away though. Many WP devices do not have an official WM10 update yet (or ever), and even for the devices that do, WP8.1 is *still* arguably more mature/stable than WM10.

Until..

[Anonymous Coward]

The company has already said that the future of Skype is cloud-based rather than peer-to-peer, and this is the reason Windows Phone support is coming to a complete stop.

And the support is resurrected once Microsoft realizes that the peer-to-peer in 5G will eventually come.

Wait....wut???

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

So you're saying a Microsoft product will stop behaving properly with previous versions and will require the ENTIRE installed base to either upgrade or fuck-off-and-die??? That's --- that's --- INCONCEIVABLE!!!

Re:Wait....wut???

[Anonymous Coward]

Problem is that there is nothing to upgrade to. MS has bluntly just abandoned most of its phones from OS upgrades and at same time they stop any support for older versions. They save some pennies but at same time they piss off the corporate users, who once were the most loyal customers. There is now a hope that MS will end its monopoly on corporate desktops by itself.

Re:Wait....wut???

[Anonymous Coward]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earlier

[Streetlight]

But if it stops working on Android in the future, there's Hangouts that does video calling nicely. Apparently there is no Hangouts for Windows phone but one for iPhone. The fact that Microsoft is killing killing it's own apps for phone tells you something about the future of Windows Phone. It should just be removed from MS's portfolio.

Wait what?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am confused.

Will Skype still work on Windows 10? What happened Windows 10 write once and work on Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile?

Will Skype still work on Android/iOS? It's easier to maintain them than Windows 10 version?

Re:Wait what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Use hangouts on android, it just works.

Re:Wait what?

[johanw]

And noone I know uses it (that's even less than the amount of Signal users I communicate with) and it still allows easy eavesdropping. Skype is a buisiness tool now, I don't use it privately anymore. WhatsApp is the norm here in Europe.

problems

[msdhonimovie]

yeahh... it almost solves many problems.. great

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[Z00L00K]

If you go over to EFF you will get a good list of alternatives to Skype and how secure they are to use. Skype is ranking at the bottom.

It died a long time ago

[Anonymous Coward]

When the NSA leak revealed they were tapping Skype at their whim, who the f*** continued to use it? I read at one point Skype had 300 million users, but if that was true, they'd sell it on, not close it down.

A few legacy old folks I guess still use it perhaps, but even my dad stopped using it.

Re:It died a long time ago

[Anonymous Coward]

A family member who works in govt. let it slip to me years ago how insecure skype is, doubt it's gotten better.

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[Zontar The Mindless]

If you go over to EFF you will get a good list of alternatives...

...which recommends WhatsApp. You might as well post the audio straight to FB.

Legacy support?

[thegarbz]

but legacy support -- particularly for such a niche handset -- does not come cheap

Legacy support? Niche handset? I thought the Unified Windows Platform was the biggest and most popular development platform in the world. At least it was according to Microsoft.

Re:Legacy support?

[johanw]

That unified platform was introduced with windows 10 and they seem unwilling or unable to backport it to 8.1. Unless they change their plkans again of course: win phone 6, 7, 8, 8.1: all abandoned. Fool me once, blame on MS. Fool me twice, blame on me. Fool me 4 times: what kind of idiot you think I am?

Re:Legacy support?

[cbhacking]

Yeah, part of the problem here is that Microsoft's idiotic, asinine branding is (once again) biting them on the ass. "Skype for Windows Phone" has nothing to do with "Skype for Windows 10 Mobile", because the last version of "Windows Phone" is 8.1, and "Windows 10 Mobile" (no relation to the long-dead "Windows Mobile" family, whose last version was 6.5) is a new OS.

If you upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, your Skype app will continue working just fine. Of course, initially every WP8.1 phone could upgrade (through the Windows Insider program) but now they're limiting it to only the relatively-new handset models. If your handset is more than about three years old, or more than about two years old and mid-grade or lower, you'll probably need a new phone. This is bullshit - I've got an old Lumia 520, the lowest-end WP8.0 release device from way back in 2012, (I use it for testing, not daily phone needs), and it runs W10M just fine - but nobody has ever accused Microsoft business practices of being bullshit-free.

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[Anonymous Coward]

You somehow missed the huge title on that page: "Check Back Soon: New Secure Messaging Guide On the Way!"

Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Windows 8.1 phone and mostly use it for Skype calls and chats. A bit of browsing every now and then, and checking public transportation schedules. Nothing fancy in other words.

What can I do to be able to securely chat and place audio/video calls? What do you think is the best device to buy and what apps to use on it?

Re:Urgently need alternative

[johanw]

If yoyu like the closed off systems that windows phone is, the iPhone would be an option. If you like more choice and adaptability Android is better, but with the added cost that you need to gain some knowledge to use that adaptability.

Re:Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks. I don't mind sacrificing flexibility in this case because I'm not using the phone to do much anyway.

The thing that worries me with Android is that it may be less secure than the iPhone. I'm by no means certain that this is the case, but the general impression is that Android phones are cheaper than iPhones because money is made from harvesting and selling out the users' data.

Re:Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Run the Store app.
2) Download "Upgrade Advisor", a free app from Microsoft, and run it.
3a) [if the Upgrade Advisor says your device is capable of upgrading to Windows 10 Mobile]: Accept the damned upgrade.
3b) [if the Upgrade Advisor says your device can't run W10M for whatever reason]: Buy a new phone.

Now you either have Windows 10 Mobile, which will run the current version of Skype just fine, or you have Android or iOS, which will run the current version of Skype just fine.

Re:Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

If you like stability and predictability: iOS or W10M.
If you like freedom and choice: Android or W10M.

There's a common thread here.

Re:Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype won't cut it. According to OP:

What can I do to be able to securely chat and place audio/video calls?

Re:Urgently need alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean there is a choice of apps on W10M that is comparable to the available apps for iOS and Android, or are you talking about something else?

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[johanw]

No, in case you missed it: WhatsApp has end to end encryption now (also for voice calls), so FB can't eavesdrop. It has gotten some angry reactions from states over that, with Brasil the most prominent example. Unlike Skype.

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[Anonymous Coward]

But if it stops working on Android in the future, there's Hangouts that does video calling nicely.

Yes, Hangouts is so good at video calling that it even initiates them when you don't want it to.

I will wait until the lines shorten

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Killing a popular app because it is too expensive for your niche (i.e. "me too" phone) product means good luck, niche.

You serve no purpose.

Re:I will wait until the lines shorten

[cbhacking]

The post submitter is confused / has no idea what e's talking about. They aren't "killing a popular app", they're end-of-life-ing the old version that runs on the outdated operating system. Skype for Windows 10 Mobile (to which one can upgrade from Windows Phone 8.1, unless your handset is quite old) is not the same thing as Skype for Windows Phone. Windows Phone is going the way of the Win9x family, and Microsoft is no longer going to support apps for it. This is not unreasonable, especially since the population of people who will still be using the old OS by 2017 is quite small. Not zero - some people will hold on to old hardware and not upgrade - but not much.

It'd be nice if Microsoft committed to mobile product support lifetimes anywhere near so long as their PC/server product support lifetimes, but considering their overall marketshare, it's not surprising they don't consider it worthwhile. Of course, this will probably lose them some more of that thin slice of marketshare they still have, but at this point, nobody should be surprised by that.

We asked Windows Phone users for a comment

[Opportunist]

Both of them replied, one said that he doesn't even know there's Skype for his phone 'cause he only uses the phone to make calls, the other one said that it's a mistake and he doesn't use the Windows Phone anymore.

Okay, but...

[rebelwarlock]

...when will it start working?

are you plugging The McLeod or ICP?

[Anonymous Coward]

Something in the air, a miraculoys smell too? Url below related.

http://www.cracked.com/video_18171_the-insane-clown-posses-new-glade-plug-in-ad.html

playsforsure

[Anonymous Coward]

Good to know Microsoft is behind their customers.

Misleading headline - doesn't affect Win10 devices

[Fencepost]

The headline here is very misleading, at least for anyone not heavily into Windows-based phones. "Windows Phone" actually refers to anything running 8.1 and earlier; they renamed it to Windows 10 Mobile with Windows 10. In Android terms, this would be a lot like complaining if Google were to stop supporting Hangouts on Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) or if Apple were to stop supporting whatever their equivalent is on iOS 6 (iPhone 3GS). Those companies do still support those devices, right?

Because of this name change, the headline while technically accurate manages to imply that Microsoft is dropping Skype from all of the Microsoft mobile devices which isn't true. They're dropping support for it on devices that haven't been upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile, and while I haven't paid that much attention since the release, last year Microsoft was saying that they intended to have upgrades available on all devices running Windows Phone 8 and higher.

So, if they followed through with that (or even just most of it), the people that will be affected should either A) Go ahead and install the damn update on your 2-year-old phone or B) Suck it up and go out and replace your 3+ year old phone.

WINDOWS IS US SPYWARE - SLASHDOT IS FBI /slant

[Anonymous Coward]

How it really is.. is Microsoft spies for the US government, and it does so globally across all Microsoft OS's and devices.

Skype in the cloud is just saying please Microsoft spies, can you store our videos of us for us please? Who else accesses them if the company is spyware? US government.

microsoft shitting on their own phones!

[SkunkPussy]

Just another reason never to buy a microsoft phone. I kind of feel sorry for them.

Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli

[Anonymous Coward]

You missed the critical point entirely.

There is no future for Windows Phone and MS has already removed it from their portfolio for everything but the most basic platform support. They've replaced Windows Phone with Windows 10 Mobile, which is not the same.

Skype for Windows Phone will stop working. Skype for Windows 10 Mobile will continue to function just fine.

Hmm, biased or just ignorant?

[cbhacking]

No, just shitting on users who insist on running obsolete software without upgrading. Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile are different operating systems. W10M is backward-compatible with WP apps, of course, but the reverse is not true; WP8.1 cannot run W10M apps such as the current version of Skype. They're keeping the old version around on life support to give people time to upgrade, that's all.

Unfortunately, Microsoft branding sucks balls, and people like you with no incentive to get your facts straight will probably go on twisting these announcements and misleading others.

Re:Misleading headline - doesn't affect Win10 devi

[grimfate]

Thanks for this. I have a Windows phone, but obviously didn't pay enough attention to what Microsoft were doing to realise "Windows Phone" and "Windows 10 Mobile" are different things. Guess I can hold off on worrying about switching platform for a little longer.