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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.
And if you supported Microsoft by buying Windows Phone, then Microsoft's message to you regarding your loyalty is clear.
"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.
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."
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.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
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.