Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Is Disabling Older Versions of Skype For Mac and Windows On March 1 (venturebeat.com)
If you're using an older, outdated version of Skype, you may want to consider updating soon. Microsoft said today that starting on March 1 people will no longer be able to sign in to version 7.16 of Skype for Window desktop and older versions, and version 7.18 of Skype for Mac and older versions thereof. VentureBeat reports: "If you're one of those users, all you'll need to do is download the new update," the Skype team said in a blog post. This isn't the first time Skype is retiring old software. But that doesn't mean the upcoming move won't rankle some people. Version 7.18 of Skype for Mac and version 7.16 of Skype for Windows both came out less than a year and a half ago -- in December 2015. So it's not as if this is very old software. Still, Microsoft has been doing a lot to improve Skype in the past year. It's been migrating the app to its Azure public cloud infrastructure, and adding chatbots. Current versions of Skype -- like version 7.44 for Mac -- come with amenities like better previews of websites and better support for emoticons and other content in the input box for chats. "We've poured our energy and passion into creating something truly special, and this is just the beginning," Skype said.
Subject: Microsoft disables p2p Skype protocol starting March 1, 2017
In a recent update of Skype for Windows Microsoft has announced that starting March 1, 2017 older, p2p versions of Skype will cease to work. This affects Skype for Windows versions 7.16 and below, Skype for Mac version 7.0 to 7.18 and the native Linux client (its only functional version 4.3). This news is especially unpleasant for Linux users of Skype, since the new "cloud ready" version of Skype for Linux is nothing more than a packaged Google Chromium web browser with Node.js running a web version of Skype, which means its memory consumption is huge and it's unable to store your conversation history locally indefinitely like the native client did.
P.S. One can only wonder why ./ editors choose less informative posts over more informative ones.
My wife and her sister use Skype on Android based tablets, so what about that version? Of course, Android is based on Linux, so maybe a connection to the Linux version of Skype.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
The last skype for Linux for Ubuntu is now 4 years old. And there is none for 64bit Linux. So there is no skype for Linux. And yet no one cares :-)
How stupid can companies be? Stop sending e-mails with links to update, because scammers can do exactly the same!!!
By doing this again and again, companies are getting users used to clicking on e-mail links to update software, which I think
today is (one of?) the main vectors for malware (see DNC hack...). STOP IT! PLEASE!
WhatsApp pulled that same stunt on older iOS versions just a few days ago. I convince most of my friends to switch to Telegram and Threema.
For business and games we mostly switched to Discord.
https://threema.ch/
https://telegram.org/
https://discordapp.com/ -- replacement for Skype and TeamSpeak
Pissing of their user base ... I really wonder how long companies continue to think they can continue to do that.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The proper term is "differently-abled" -- as in Microsoft Is Differently-Abling Older Versions of Skype For Mac and Windows On March 1
Is it just me, or is everything turning to shit?
It seems like every service, site, and program I use is steadily being degraded, feature-ized and/or monetized until it's a steaming pile of shit.
FFS, just leave stuff alone for a change. Stop "improving" everything until it no longer works. I'm so sick of this shit.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Yes, it is. Basically we are coming to a point where you have to login online to use a computer at all, you have no control over the applications, including how it updates, even patch notes are going by the wayside. Photoshop is no longer available standalone.
There will never be a stop to the changes, because churn like that makes money. Be prepared for a future where you are constantly nudged to buy things, in every interaction you have. We have entered a really shitty era for personal computing.
Good-bye
I'm still on 6.x. If they disable that, that is the end of my adventure with Skype. A chat window must be small, no sidebars, no conversation bubbles, no huge profile pics, because I keep it open on the desktop the whole time.
Which your contacts don't already use and are likely to prove unwilling to start using. For example, it costs over $100 for a U.S. resident who currently uses a landline, flip phone, or outdated smartphone to start using WhatsApp because the desktop client requires a sufficiently recent smartphone to act as a proxy.
Basically we are coming to a point where you have to login online to use a computer at all
How will that be enforced? Why can't people just switch to free software? For example, instead of an iPad or a tablet or laptop running Windows 10 Cloud, buy a device running GNU/Linux or Android. Or instead of an iPhone, buy an Android phone and install the F-Droid store. Or instead of a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, build a PC with SteamOS. What computing device class has no practical device that allows at least sideloading free software, if not replacing the operating system entirely with one that respects users' freedom?
it costs over $100 for a U.S. resident who currently uses a landline, flip phone, or outdated smartphone to start using WhatsApp
Well, what's wrong with Hangouts? I have no experience with the iOS version, but the Android version seems decent. And it will run on very little device, or in a browser.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What's to stop you entering random data?
I have a skype account purely for communicating with a few colleagues, a few days ago i got a bunch of happy birthday messages from them although it wasnt my birthday. Turns out that skype notified them based on the date i had entered.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Don't understand why alternatives are not being discussed here. ekiga.org Jitsi.org Linphone.org All are based in France, oddly enough.
You guys really need to treat your Stockholm Syndrome.
Wow, what a surprise. You know, I have that on FB too. What a coincidence.
-- Cheers!
For me, off the top of my head:
- Being able to have phone-in numbers in multiple countries. :/), there is a Hangouts API, but that's just for extending the GUI rather than having API control over doing calls, messages etc.
- No world subscription where I can call landlines and some mobiles at no additional cost.
- Requirement of existing mobile number
- No real desktop app that is relatively lightweight (having to install Chrome and running four executables in the background doesn't count, Skype only uses 59MB RAM on my Windows machine right now.
- I have frequent problems with presence information when using it, people offline when they're online etc.
- No real messenger API (although Skype are working on killing that
- The Android app doesn't let me call numbers and expects me to call on my mobile plan instead.
- It comes from a company that has a history of shutting down products unexpectedly with inadequate replacements, if any.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Cos sheep. Simple. No brain, just following the leader no matter where it leads to.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
The deliberate switching off is done at the server for two reasons: to protect users from intruders (such as no longer supporting weak ciphers and hashes) and to keep the cost of continuing to serve users down. Would you prefer that your credentials be surreptitiously copied and reused because you refused to upgrade your OS to one that supports a hash currently believed to be strong?
So making the app stop running and say: upgrade to new version, and "new version" only runs on a newer version of the OS helps no one.
It helps protect the user base at large from harassment by impersonators using keylogged credentials of users that a particular user trusts.