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Microsoft Rolls Out New Skype for Web; Does Not Support Firefox, Safari, and Opera (venturebeat.com)
Microsoft this week revamped Skype's browser-based client with a slew of new features. From a report: The Seattle company this week announced the rollout of a major Skype for Web update, which introduces high-definition video calling, a redesigned notifications panels, a revamped media gallery, and more. It's available on any PC running Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.12 or higher with the latest versions of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The bulk of the new capabilities debuted in preview last October, but they're available widely starting this week. Skype for Web does not support Safari, Firefox, and Opera browsers, Microsoft has confirmed.
Hay
Release it on a niche market (aka IE edge).
Chrome 62%
Safari 15%
Firefox 4%
Others: 3% each
Comment removed based on user account deletion
MS has destroyed Edge/Trident so badly that they're moving toward a chromium based Edge.
Is this good for the Chromium project? Microsoft programmers will be looking at the code.
Is this bad for the Chromium project? Microsoft programmers will be looking at the code.
I really am curious to see who wins Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon. Who will control the future tech?
IBM?
So much for open web standards, privacy, and freedom of choice and platform. The march back to the days of IE are progressing so well. I am sure Google is very pleased, indeed.
I don't know about you, but I will continue to fight it. If a site doesn't at least work on Firefox, it is BROKEN.
This article warrants reposting here:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/...
Fail to even read the summary.
It's available on any PC running Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.12 or higher with the latest versions of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
I stopped using skype since webRTC became built into browsers. no apps to install, works reliably. Works on more devices than skype.
The best part is that when you have an ad hoc group of people who suddenly need to chat you don't have any dely with people installing an application then coaxing it to work, signing up for a microsoft account etc... Installing all the other spy ware microsoft forces you to install with it.
And while not every webRTC provider is equally good, and bug free, there are some very good ones, and that's all you need. I like appear.in
The downer for me is that my employer blocks webRTC ports forcing the use of skype. ugg.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I wonder how much money was paid to not support competing browsers to Chrome. The Chromageddon of 95 percent market share will arrive soon after Microsoft adopts it for Edge and Apple and Mozilla will get killed in the crossfire.
Maybe they have some deep unsatiated need to get freetards to agree with them?
I wonder if this new version will work on my Win7 machine, since it doesn't have cortana installed (TFA says that's one of the reasons for the update).
There is nothing in the update that aids in doing what I used to use skype for - multiple text conversations, and some voice calling. Cortana integration? When I still played with Win10 systems, that was one of the things I worked hard to block. HD video calls? I removed the camera from my computer because skype kept trying to turn it on, and I don't want to give up my limited bandwidth to an unwanted feature.
Our company is moving to Zoom. It isn't perfect. It hasn't even reached the level of imperfection that skype v7 had. It's also trying to map the desktop interface into looking like it's running on a phone.
But, it's easier to set up a conference call without having to worry if the other people are on "skype" or "skype for business".
What exactly do you mean by "freetard"? It's not in Merriam-Webster's dictionary.
I went to file this on webcompat.com, but it looks like it's already been filed as #27392.
View on webcompat | View on Microsoft GitHub
Who else uses Skype?
Except that there is hangouts, so it doesn't matter at all.
Destroying the Skype platform isnt easy. MS are close to have exhausted possibilities for ruining this product which was once great..before MS bought it.. Splitting it into private and skype for business was bold, suddenly you had 2 fragments. Then they destroyed the manager so Skype for business suddenly became Skype for employees that work in a company that previously used Skype, because no sane company would implement a solution with a crippled central management. Then MS took the liberty to turn Skype into Teams..which is like replacing a Ghettoblaster with a piece of toilet paper, great for each purpose but not a replacement... So whoever came up with this broken browser solution, really had to think and innovate, to find the last ways to ruin Skype, I think people should appreciate that!
People who obsess about so called "free" and "open source" software. The SJW libtards of the software world.
So much for the new "open" Microsoft. I knew it wouldn't last.
Anything below Edge - at its 4.3% market share - I can understand dropping support for. Firefox is a curious one, though... I guess Microsoft decided that IE and Chrome are 75% of the market, that's good enough to start with!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
So much for open web standards,
Unlike Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome D - OES NOT support ORTC (Microsoft's NIH-syndrom variation upon webRTC) - well yet (the plan is for ORTC eventually to be reworked into WebRTC 1.1 at which point both Chrome AND Firefox will support it).
Which means that if the current Skype for Web works in Google Chrome :
- either Microsoft has released a special binary plug-in for Google to support their calling protocol.
(It doesn't seem to be the case, at least with my quick testing Chrome doesn't seem to ask to install a plug-in)
- or Microsoft has partially rewritten Skype for Web to allow support for WebRTC-based browser (e.g.: written a ORTC-over-WebRTC wrapper to fill in the gap until ORTC gets approved into standard)...
If a site doesn't at least work on Firefox, it is BROKEN.
...and Firefox *ALSO* supports WebRTC (that's what all the sites like https://meet.jit.si use).
Which means that by fumbling around with user-agent string and maybe a few bug fixes, Skype for Web should work in Firefox too.
I am sure Google is very pleased, indeed.
Google doesn't give a damn about Chrome, they do not sell it, it doesn *directly* earn them money.
Google does give a damn about people using *a* browser (no matter which) and going online, where they will get exposed to advertisements, subjected to tracking, convinced to store all their private things on google's mail and file servers, their data getting slurped, etc.
And that is what Google sells (to ads agencies, to marketeers, to governments, etc...) and makes tons of money upon.
Them building Chrome, as well as them financing the development of Firefox is just a mean to achieve the goal of more people exposed to the web.
If Firefox gets eventually support for Skype for Web, Google will be happy too: means Firefox is a more viable browser, which means additional ways to go online, which means more people eventually showing up on the internet where Google can monetize the shit out of their asses.
The fact that currently Skype only supports Edge and Chrome has nothing to do with making Google happy, and everything to do with Microsoft currently offering a browser which is basically a reskinned-version of Chrome, so of course they had to pay attention to making it work.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
When I logged in using Chromium on my Linux system, the "Call" button was greyed out. It always worked in the previous versions, but now it suddenly didn't - nice of Microsoft not to warn me about this and making me find out the hard way as I was about to start an important business call.
Talk about failing silently with no information on the website why or how to fix the problem. So what worked? Logging in using Firefox with the user-agent changed to Windows/Edge. And the "Call" button came back!
Frankly, I don't understand why anyone uses Skype anymore. It's 2019 and there are better gratis alternatives out there.
God, so happy we switched to Slack for video conferencing. The Skype for Web app has been a total shit show every time I've had to use it, whereas Slack just work.
Have a release which has 1 new feature and lots of barking about redesigned user interface.
It's not a release, it's a minor patch.
Don't report user interface changes, new icons, reskinned, chrome-itis as actual news. Don't quote the press release's fluff of those things.
Ten Commandments of /.
1. Thou shall have an actual story of merit
2. Thy story shall not just parrot a press release
3. Thou shall find links to related background material
4. Thou shall not have an article containing 2 quotes and 3 lines of fluff
5. Thou shall rewrite the headline as if it was done by the opposite political group
6. Thou shall not have articles from many viewpoints
7. Thou shall ask "Does application of technology to real-world problem ABC actually help, or is it just a way to publish scientific papers?"
8. Thou shall not link to minor releases of software containing only minor changes with no widely used new features. There's a chrome, firefox, etc released every week or two
9, Thou shall consider the financial aspect of corporate actions and not just the technology aspects
10. Follow the money when articles of not for profit and researchers are considered
Speaking on behalf of all "freetards", how are we anything like SJWs? We don't actually care what software you use and have no interest in converting you over to our side of thinking. We laugh at your choices, rather than criticize them. We fix our own problems, rather than blaming you for them.
We barely even notice you. Why do you pay so much attention to us? Do you fear us?
The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was built to do the same job, but does it better and with more flexibility, choice and freedom.
Fuck Skype. Fuck Slack.
Protocols > Platforms
webRTC is free, works well, and many sites require no login to use it. You just send people the link, and it works. And I could run my own server if I wanted to.
And what is this shit about it not working in Opera?
IE is no different than Opera now that they both use the same engine.
Skype is such a steaming pile of crap, that it isn't supported on these browsers just makes it easier for me to refuse to use skype ever again.
How does it *NOT* support Opera? It is literally the same codebase as Chrome (both Blink/Chromium based), the same thing the new Edge is being based on. This means they're checking user agents, and denying ones they don't like. This is 2019, not 1999. STOP THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW.
I don't support IE or Chrome. So meh. Skype is shit anyway. The kids all use Discord, that's where it's at now.
I only use Skype at work because they pay me to, and they pay me to watch it crash and take 20 minutes to login and start a call. /shrug
I bailed over a decade ago.
Had an account, was usng it for phone calls.
My account was somehow hacked - I had about 5 GBP in there, it was used for calls.
I contacted support and said my account had been hacked, that I had already changed the password, and explained what had happened.
They locked my account and told me to change my password.
I had already done so, and to unlock the account so I could use it again, because I even then did not keep a mobile phone number, I would need to sent them - through email no less - two forms of ID.
I was also informed I must have somehow published my password, and it was my responsibility not to do so, and Skype would not reimburse me.
What's interesting is that the only person saying the account had been hacked was me. It could have been anything - it could have been problems on Skype's side will billing, or misconfiguration of their accounts. It could, if it was password disclosure, still of course have been Skype, leaking data.
Of course, talking to first line support, it's talking to a parking meter. They didn't want to know and a dialog was impossible - I think I had a different person reply every time. It would mess up their support metrics, and anyway would be a lot of work and trouble, and anyway I couldn't even carry the conversation forward to that point because every person coming to it for the first time, and never reading the previous conversation, said exactly the same things.
I closed the account.
I imagine the support request was marked "successfully resolved".
What actually happens with customers has *no relation whatsoever* to customer support metrics.
Later we all found out Skype had been penetrated by the NSA (have to assume it still is, either by legal force with a gagging order, or covertly) and everything on there was public to the US Gov.
I recently encountered Skype at a workplace, on a contract job.
It was actually rougly speaking totally broken in every way.
The UI was a mystery. There was no message history - after you closed a conversation window, the history disappeared. There was a link to it, via a web-browser, which never worked. We couldn't send files. Adding someone to your contact list worked intermittantly only - often you tried, and an error occurred. You then tried again later.
Again, what actually happens with the customer has no relationship *at all* to what a company thinks is going on.
It's available on any PC running Windows 10 ... with the latest versions of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Was that latest Chrome+Windows Zero-Day flaw allowing Web Skype to run on Windows 7 and/or with other browsers?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Those paying attention knew that it never even started.
Like a lion vowing to become a vegetarian, in order to draw more vegetarians closer. To eat.
I've been using Preview Web Skipe on Firefox (actually Waterfox) for a few months now.
All you need is to use "User Agent Switcher" and to pretend to be Chrome.
I don't use it to make calls, just occasional chat. So far I have not encountered any kind of problem or issues.
Given the rumors that you need special Chrome plugin for the voice and video calls, there is absolutely no reason to oust FF or Opera.
Microsoft are deliberately blocking these browsers.
I dunno, I've been doing linux since the slackware days, and I remember when Microsoft was astride the world, bullying everyone.
In this case, for Skype specifically the underlying tech is ReactXP https://github.com/microsoft/r... (which just takes react-native and extends it to the web) and is not just open source but pretty righteously herded by Eric Traut on github with respect and fast merging of contributions on a valuable project.
I'm having a hard time feeling indignant about the behavior here, rather I'm using ReactXP in a project of my own because it's good tech with a good license and good community management. Even if it feels like hell just froze while I'm doing it ;-)
how MS has changed, it's not the same company it was 10 years ago!
riiiiiiiight...
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
I use Firefox on Windows 7, Linux (Arch, Bodhi, and Debian), and Firefox Focus on Android. One key takeaway I can share with my decades of experience with Firefox is that: in 2019, nobody cares about Firefox.
By continuing to use Firefox I can only hope that Web 3.0 bullshit passes over me. I primarily want a way to fetch and view rich documents. I'm not looking to my browser as a Cloud application platform. If and when I want apps, I will download and install them.