Microsoft Releases Skype As a Snap For Linux (betanews.com)

BrianFagioli writes: While Microsoft has long been viewed as an enemy of the Linux community -- and it still is by some -- the company has actually transformed into an open source champion. One of Microsoft's biggest Linux contributions, however, is Skype -- the wildly popular communication software. By offering that program to desktop Linux users, Microsoft enables them to easily communicate with friends and family that aren't on Linux, thanks to its cross-platform support. Today, Microsoft further embraces Linux by releasing Skype as a Snap. This comes after two other very popular apps became available in Snap form -- Spotify and Slack.

"Skype is used by millions of users globally to make free video and voice calls, send files, video and instant messages and to share both special occasions and everyday moments with the people who matter most. Skype has turned to snaps to ensure its users on Linux, are automatically delivered to its latest versionupon release. And with snaps' roll-back feature, whereby applications can revert back to the previous working version in the event of a bug, Skype's developers can ensure a seamless user experience," says Canonical.

Comments

Irresponsible Word Choice

[scunc]

Skype is a "wildly popular communication software" in the same way that chlamydia is a "wildly popular" STI. Sometimes numbers alone don't tell the whole story ...
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"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." -- George Carlin

Re:I've been out of the Linux loop for a few years

[110010001000]

What makes them "safe to run"? Is the software that they run in the container open source and can be inspected? If not, how do you know it is "safe to run"?

No "champion" at all.

[l2718]

From TFA:

[Microsoft] has actually transformed into an open source champion

Really? So shere is the source code for this "snap"? In fact:

1. Compiling your software for GNU/Linux doesn't make you a "champion of open source" just because GNU (and Linux) are open-source (and, more importantly, also Free Software). Releasing your source code makes you open-source.
2. "Snaps" are the opposite of the Unix philosophy of dynmically linking against system libraries – they are basically statically linked binaries (except that the binary comes in pieces). Instead of the "open-source" philosophy of clean interfaces and interoperability, they embrace a philosophy of tailored interfaces and closed gardens.

In fact, to the extent Microsoft champions "open source", this open-source is about taking advantage of source code released by others without Microsoft releasing any of its own. When I see Microsoft releasing source code under a free license (say BSD) for a significant program originally created by Microsoft (Skype, their web browser) I will believe them.

"Fully embraces linux"??

[l2718]

In fact, this is Microsoft trying to support a dangerous undercurrent in the Linux world of walled gardens and insecure vendor-controlled installations.

If something is wrong in libc, libm, or libgtk Microsoft should get it fixed upstream, not ship their own incompatible version. Do you really trust them to backport every future bugfix after their fork?

Re:Wow!

[gfxguy]

I've been using Linux since slackware c. 1994. I actually have come to appreciate some of the things MS has done w.r.t. Linux - running a development web server under WSL makes my life a lot easier when I have to use Windows for most things anyway. Their development tools are actually really nice, too; the .Net system of being able to write interchangeably between different languages is not perfect, but works really well for most of my Windows development.

Yet, the marketing speak is absurd.