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Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

nickforall.nl

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Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#61

Skype worked far, far better 10 years ago than it does today. From all indications I've seen, Skype is getting dramatically worse all the time. From a personal standpoint, it crashes for me multiple times a day and I can rarely get group calls working on the first try. Often Skype requires a force-quit and then it crashes twice more when it is being restarted. This is on Mac and Android. Fun fact: I have a friend who…

The android client is also a bit random. Notifications pops when they feel like it. Some upgrades change for different kind of wrong.

Best feature is when the wifi drops out it gets unresponsive and you need to kill the app, re-log and redial to get back to were you were. Even WeChat handles that gracefully on my phone.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#63

Skype has been getting worse and worse over the years. Personally I've switched to Telegram for chats, and I'll be looking for alternatives as far as voice calls are concerned.

Same here, WeChat and Telegram provides everything that I need, I do not mind having two tools for slightly different use cases.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#64
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run Hangouts on a 1st gen netbook (Asus EEE PC) without any performance issues. The only times where performance could be an issue is when you are running a video conference call which technically Skype doesn't really supports (w/o a premium or business account).

It depends on the video driver.

It depends on allot of things if you are using some fancy super duper HD camera and hanging out with 10 other people all using the highest possible bit rate streaming also you'll need a good computer with graphics hardware that will support all the required features for hardware acceleration in Chrome.

Back then there was almost no video HW acceleration in hangouts anyhow (well in Chrome) not on the silly 1st gen Atom for sure and it still worked fairly well (at about 60% CPU usage IIRC) even with the 720p camera on the EEE PC.

And it's not that Skype would be any better in that regards Skype might have slightly bigger selection of video codecs (Google probably had too back when Google Talk had actually a thick client) but Hangouts is limited more or less to video streams that Chrome can handle which usually means current web video formats.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#65
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run Hangouts on a 1st gen netbook (Asus EEE PC) without any performance issues. The only times where performance could be an issue is when you are running a video conference call which technically Skype doesn't really supports (w/o a premium or business account).

It depends on the video driver.

[deleted]

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#66
>Skype keeps ignoring people who complain or are having issues with Linux client

Well, if they are too few and far between compared to Windows, OS X, iOS and Android then it makes sense. Opportunity cost et al.

And, while it's often brought up, I think that when it comes to consumer products (as opposed to server and dev stuff) Linux users don't really have some kind of "extra-influence" to compensate for being a niche group.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The android client is also a bit random. Notifications pops when they feel like it. Some upgrades change for different kind of wrong.

Best feature is when the wifi drops out it gets unresponsive and you need to kill the app, re-log and redial to get back to were you were. Even WeChat handles that gracefully on my phone.

Curious why "even" WeChat. WeChat over the years has been one of the most reliable apps I use including for video/voice chat.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#69

Why people use Skype is beyond me.

It's simple: Skype is big and everyone's using it. Kind of like Facebook.

I'll give you an example. When Skype goes down, nobody bats an eye. They just wait for it to start working again. When Tox (or to be more precise, qTox) behaves unexpectedly in a single situation, people come to me and say: "It's shit." (literally, no explanation whatsoever).

Since everyone's using it, they think of positively even when it behaves like a complete garbage.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#70
post #46

The Mac OS client is COMPLETELY BROKEN. Message orders change constantly, if you type fast the messages are jumping up and down constantly which is annoying since the order sometimes gets messed up. Also the background colours of messages are bugged, sometimes my messages are grey, instead of being blue as they should be. What the fuck?

"Completely broken" with all caps would mean "you can't make a call" or "calls get cut short" -- not "message order changes" and "sometimes the background of my messages is a different color".

(In fact the latter points to some color-code of sorts, e.g. grey = message hasn't been received yet, etc).

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