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Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

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Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#371

Post by drzaiusapelord »

mrmondo wrote: post #126
pritambarhate wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past year, the Mac client has also become very fragile. If I quit the Skype App without signing out, next time login keeps failing unless I go to the library folder and delete my Skype user profile directory. Quite shameful for such a high profile software.

I do have my own suspicions that a certain company deliberately degrades the quality of any software they release for platforms other than their own.

Err, if anything the OSX versions of MS software is more stable than the Windows versions. MS is big on eating its own dogfood so anything new is built on the newest technologies, so we get a lot of .NET stuff using the newest version of the framework that the devs don't have a lot of experience with just yet and other Microsoftisms that just end up causing issues (most recent libraries and APIs, integration with the registry, integration with AD/GPO, IE/Trident integration, random Windows Update patches get installed in the background, etc).

I just tried installing the Azure backup agent and after an hour of futzing with it, I just gave up. It installed like four different pre-requisites and forced Windows Update to run and install stuff without my permission. Still won't work and gives an ambigious error message that even google can't help. I never see this like this with MS on other platforms.

On other platforms the development is simpler and using more mature technology because there's no real benefit or pressure to dogfood.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#372

Post by vlunkr »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #185
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #31

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…

I agree with most of this, but I don't think flat designs have anything to do with it, or are negative in any way.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#373

Post by Klathmon »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #347
untog wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most things worked far, far better 10 years ago than today. Apparently this is progress. Sigh. If you wanted to look up a business on your phone you'd have to call directory enquiries - did that "work better" than your smartphone? Did you prefer RealPlayer over HTML video? Was WAP better than LTE? Was Windows XP the pinnacle of OS design? Yeah, sometimes progress is a double-edged sword that outdates some things we…

Of course LTE and HTML video is better :p Having so many apps constantly spitting unnecessary data out to trackers and heaven knows what isn't better. Neither is simple apps that can't cope when you go out of data coverage, which seems to be becoming more common. I'd rather have gnome 2 than 3, I'd rather have Win 7 than 10 or XP. I don't consider any of them the pinnacle of design, but I don't think they're currentl…

Just because software isn't moving in a way that you personally want doesn't mean it's wrong or that it was objectively "better" before.

We don't have apps that work offline? Maybe look around more. FFS half of the web apps i use work fine offline.

And claiming that there has been no innovation in the OS space for years is silly. There is plenty of innovation, it's just that people don't like change and will instantly reject something that isn't the same as what they are already using. FFS just look at stuff like the ip command or systemd in linux. People lament that it's the end of days because a command is different exactly because they want to innovate past the constraints of the old systems.

And if we are playing the "What i want is what is best" game...

I much prefer Windows 10 over linux now. It's gotten that nice and i'm tired of constantly fixing stuff on my workstation.

And I much prefer current hangouts to the old google talk plugin. "small", "light"? Did you ever use it. You needed to download and install 2 separate programs to get Google Talk video chat working. Sometimes you'd need to do some port forwarding bullshit just to get it to work.

Now i install chrome and sign in, and within a minute hangouts is installed and working.

Don't want to install chrome? Run it from a browser tab by going to https://hangouts.google.com/

Don't want to make a google account? You can video-chat with guests by sending them a unique link.

All of those things were impossible with the old google talk.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#374

Post by systems »

pentae wrote: post #122

What I don’t understand is - Why is there not a serious competitor to Skype? If there was a cross-platform Skype clone that worked on OSX, Linux, Windows, iOS and Android that was stable and secure - the whole world would jump onto it. All it has to do is not be a bloated piece of crap like Skype. Instead, everything else out there is fragmented. We’re all waiting, get on it already!

viber also comes to mind, as a possible competitor

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#375

Post by Houshalter »

Skype on Windows is also a disaster. I only use it to instant message, not call, and it still takes multiple minutes to start up. I really want an alternative but have been lazy about making the switch. Maybe today will be the day I do that. Any good alternative IM clients with cross platform support?

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#376

Post by matzipan »

stonogo wrote: post #346
untog wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most things worked far, far better 10 years ago than today. Apparently this is progress. Sigh. If you wanted to look up a business on your phone you'd have to call directory enquiries - did that "work better" than your smartphone? Did you prefer RealPlayer over HTML video? Was WAP better than LTE? Was Windows XP the pinnacle of OS design? Yeah, sometimes progress is a double-edged sword that outdates some things we…

> If you wanted to look up a business on your phone you'd have to call directory enquiries - did that "work better" than your smartphone? Bad example. I didn't need a smartphone for this task because there was a real live human being, who brought to the task all of the adaptability and intuition that modern systems lack. I didn't need Yelp, or Google Maps, or even the entire name of the business I was looking for. "I…

Sorry, but I'd be surprised if Google or Siri don't answer your question to "I need the number to the printing company on the east side", it's a pretty trivial thing to lookup. Also, Google and Siri bring you cost efficiency and scale, something you can't easily do with directory enquiries.

> Realplayer sucked but it was about a thousand times more reliable than the current compatibility crapshoot.

So Vorbis/MP3 and WebM/H.264 is not good enough for compatibility over all the browsers?

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#377

Post by aikah »

lawl wrote: post #247
LoSboccacc wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the example I gave is exactly how stuff has broken in projects. static linked on a kde library that had widget, new one doesn't have that nor a fallback, application crashes. or just go get some old static compiled stuff run on your modern distro and see yourself. like, mindrover the europa project port.

This will be my last reply. > static linked on a kde library that had widget, new one doesn't have that nor a fallback, application crashes. As I said before, please read up on what static linking means. > like, mindrover the europa project port. $ file Mindrover\ The\ Europa\ Project\ DEMO\ r1-lgp-x86.run Mindrover The Europa Project DEMO r1-lgp-x86.run: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dyna…

Completely off topic but thank you ! I was starting C programming and I was wondering how to check an executable dependencies. If I were to package an executable which was dynamically linked to use it on another computer without recompiling binaries, how could I proceed ? does ldd show the dependencies of the dependencies too ? Would it be sufficient to put all shared libraries into the same folder as the executable ? thanks.

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#378

Post by edsiper2 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #278
smarinov wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for letting us know it was dead. I haven't realised it for the part few years of daily usage.

I used Thunderbird daily for the better part of a decade until about 3 months ago. It's nothing personal against the project, which is currently the best serious desktop mail client available afaik. It's simply that Mozilla doesn't care about it anymore since everyone uses webmail now. Thunderbird is doing feature releases about once a year now [0], and Mozilla has pulled most (all?) of its full-time developers [1].…

You should try Nylas N1

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#379

Post by jjawssd »

balabaster wrote: post #275

There are viable alternatives to Skype. I've been using Slack ( https://slack.com/ ) for a while too... it does everything useful that you could ask of a chat application and works very much like IRC worked back in the day. Everything it doesn't do natively, there's an integration for, just like with IRC bots. You can do: - Private chat with one or more parties - Open Group chat via channels (both private and public…

Slack is not a Skype replacement

Re: Dear Skype/Microsoft: Problems with Linux client

#380

Post by matzipan »

Klathmon wrote: post #373
anexprogrammer wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course LTE and HTML video is better :p Having so many apps constantly spitting unnecessary data out to trackers and heaven knows what isn't better. Neither is simple apps that can't cope when you go out of data coverage, which seems to be becoming more common. I'd rather have gnome 2 than 3, I'd rather have Win 7 than 10 or XP. I don't consider any of them the pinnacle of design, but I don't think they're currentl…

Just because software isn't moving in a way that you personally want doesn't mean it's wrong or that it was objectively "better" before. We don't have apps that work offline? Maybe look around more. FFS half of the web apps i use work fine offline. And claiming that there has been no innovation in the OS space for years is silly. There is plenty of innovation, it's just that people don't like change and will instantl…

Windows 10 is a pretty good OS but has serious issues with drivers (it tries to be clever and breaks stuff). And the startup is sooooo slow and the UI crashes twice before I ever get the chance to give it input.

The Mail, Calendar and OneNote apps kept me hooked. But the lack of a decent terminal was killing me. Also, Skype didn't work properly half the time and the new "Video" and "Messaging" apps built on top of Skype were crashing 90% of the time.

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