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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

#311

Stop using Skype. The NSA allegedly collects all Skype traffic anyways. Do you really want that? "The full capture of voice traffic began in February of 2011 for “Skype in” and “Skype out” calls—calls between a Skype user and a land line or cellphone through a gateway to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), captured through warranted taps into Microsoft’s gateways. But in July of 2011, the NSA added the capa…

I've actually had skype deployed in multiple locations as a way to do super cheap monitoring solution.

1) old laptops from ebay(probably paid $100 for each) 2) microsoft 3000 webcam 3) linux.

Each laptop was configured with its own skype account, would start it on boot, audio out completely disabled, and set to pick up calls from friends automatically.

Why not use a regular CCTV solution? I knew I could call that skype client from anywhere in the world, even from my phone, and I would get very good quality sound and video. I've had "networked" CCTV cameras which were $1000+ and they had choppy video and barely audible audio, plus you had to do some sort of dyndns solution to access them everywhere.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#312
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?

Even though it's far from perfect, OS X client is the best Skype client.

Yes, better than Windows client, at least when ran on Windows 10.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's free(ish) The free tier has a very limited history, which defeats the point of using Slack, since you lose your history. And there's really no point in using Slack if you don't have a history you can rely on, might as well use IRC. And once you start paying, $7-$15 per user/month is not what I'd call cheap. It's cheap compared to a salary, but such costs pile up. > Voice/Video via numerous integrations includi…

For most people, the limited history isn't really an issue. For most enterprise tools you're looking at paying thousands to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In comparison, the cost to get the enterprise features out of Slack is a drop in the ocean. The joy of adhoc plugins is that you don't need any specific one to get the benefits. It's like a directory of alternatives to Skype that all do an appropriate jo…

> For most enterprise tools you're looking at paying thousands to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That seems a bit of a strawman considering we're talking about Slack as an alternative to Skype which brings the non-limited history for free.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#315
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people, the limited history isn't really an issue. For most enterprise tools you're looking at paying thousands to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In comparison, the cost to get the enterprise features out of Slack is a drop in the ocean. The joy of adhoc plugins is that you don't need any specific one to get the benefits. It's like a directory of alternatives to Skype that all do an appropriate jo…

> For most enterprise tools you're looking at paying thousands to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. That seems a bit of a strawman considering we're talking about Slack as an alternative to Skype which brings the non-limited history for free.

It's hardly searchable.

I've used Skype for years, and I can honestly tell you that while Skype may have an unlimited history. In practice, that unlimited history is a pain in the ass to search, to the point that it may as well not have unlimited history. So from my perspective I'd equally say that the "non-limited history for free" of Skype is an equally straw-man argument.

They used to have bot integration which was awesome and allowed us to pipe information in and out from our other systems, but they terminated bot integration which was a huge nail in the coffin for us.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#316
I've seen my friends slowly drift away from Skype. At this point when I install a new operating system, I just use web.skype.com to get in touch with my friends that haven''t moved onto something else. It works the same on all platforms, but I don't know if many people know about the web client.

It's really helpful.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#318

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…

Most things worked far, far better 10 years ago than today. Apparently this is progress. Social everything means we can't visit a website today without calls to a billion external domains. Phones are doing the same as they're mini-tablets that suck at actual phone calls. Operating systems have taken on mobile centric (and the hideous flatten everything) design that is broken paradigm for a 15" laptop or 24" desktop s…

>Most things worked far, far better 10 years ago than today. Apparently this is progress.

Not everything; cars today are a big improvement over cars 10 years ago, and especially cars 20 years ago. Just in the last 10 years, cars have made huge improvements in fuel economy alone. Cars have gotten really good for the most part. Some article I recently read on an auto blog, about the "10 worst" cars, even complained that modern cars are so great now that their picks were really just about which ones were the worst values relative to their competition, and that, unlike in past ages, they couldn't point to any true stinkers.

Also, I think mobile phone software is generally better now than 10 years ago. 10 years ago the iPhone was brand new, and most people still used crappy feature phones running things like BREW. They just didn't give you the capabilities that modern phones do. Some people complain that newer phones have poorer call quality than old flip-phones, but personally talking on the phone is one of the least-used features. I spend a lot more time using it for texting, photos, voice mail, and various apps (taking notes, calculator, playing games, Tinder, etc.).

However, in the software world, I will readily agree that most PC-based software was far, far better 10 years ago than today. PC-based software in the last 5 years has really, really gone down the toilet. Windows 8/10 are a prime example here, but even Linux distros really aren't doing that great either. The web is a horror show, with every site full of dozens of JavaScript scripts running, mainly for spying/tracking purposes. I don't even agree that the web is prettier; too many sites are mobile-centric, and look stupid on a regular PC screen.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you try https://whispersystems.org/ ? There is a desktop version but it doesn't support voice: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/

Hmm. The parent says he needs voice though, no? 'Desktop version': - it is a Chrome App (arguably not a desktop client?) - it in (restricted) beta, aka not available - the beta requires (acc. to the link you provided) "your Google account email"

These three issues are kind of connected. They're requesting you your Google account email so they can associate your account with their private beta (available in the Chrome store) and let you install it from the Chrome's webstore.

You can go the other way around and "build" it. Just clone their repo and point Chrome to the cloned directory so that it knows that there's an unsigned extension there. Done.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#320

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…

Fun fact: I have a friend who worked for Skype in Prague. He said teams in Prague have nothing to do with desktop clients.
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