Reasons not to use Skype (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#121

Post by vic-traill » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #55

ploggingdev wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He also has this annoying habit of being right in the end I'm not familiar with his predictions, so can you give a few examples.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html This seemed like a far-fetched dystopia when I first read it. Now, Kindle et al. are not far away from this. I also remember reading some piece from Stallman on software patents, from the eighties or early nineties. Well before software patent trolls, etc.

This. Very much echoes my thoughts when I first read Right to Read, which I believe was at a job I left early 2000, so sometime before that.

And then the scenario stated becoming, if not true, the a helluva lot closer. And the irony of Orwell books being removed remotely from Kindle's in 2009 [0] was evident and tied into the dystopia feel of it all.

[0] http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18...

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#122

Post by toyg » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 2:25 PM UTC

xrjn wrote: post #102

Sir_Substance wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My team has been using appear.in for about two years now (I introduced it to them smug ). http://appear.in/some_words_doesnt_matter <- share with whoever, instant video call

We use Skype for Business at work, however when the boss isn't watching we switch to appear.in since it works much better and doesn't require craptastic software.

SfB is pants. Quality is always crap, UI is terrible, Mac client is constantly behind, there is no really-open interface for Linux and bots, etc etc.

But, the boss will see when you're "available" straight from Outlook, which is where he lives. It's not an IM tool, it's (yet another) instrument of workforce control.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#123

Post by falloutx » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 2:29 PM UTC

Whats up so many Stallman posts lately?

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#124

Post by RansomTime » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #119

RansomTime wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord might be an alternative for team/friend based conversations. They have group calling (don't need to share a server) now. Problem is that it's marketed towards gamers and so might not be fit for purpose for business purposes

Mumble is a better choice since it's open source.

I'm not sure if it's a better choice for everyone. With mumble you'd need to maintain a server, for instance.

If your primary concern is open source then mumble/jabber is probably your solution

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#125

Post by morganvachon » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:01 PM UTC

RansomTime wrote: post #124

driverdan wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mumble is a better choice since it's open source.

I'm not sure if it's a better choice for everyone. With mumble you'd need to maintain a server, for instance. If your primary concern is open source then mumble/jabber is probably your solution

Mumble's requirements are fairly low, you could get by with a $3/month VPS or even a RasPi. Maintenance is down to keeping the OS updated, which is trivial on pretty much any VPS Linux install, as well as Raspbian.

If you're truly paranoid there's a Mumble port for OpenBSD, though that obviously wouldn't fit Stallman's definition of Free.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#126

Post by arrakeen » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:02 PM UTC

lightedman wrote: post #20

joe563323 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RMS is a legend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman . Every one would be living in a little bit of a different world and all the computer tech guys would be living in a completely different world with out RMS.

"Every one would be living in a little bit of a different world and all the computer tech guys would be living in a completely different world with out RMS." Someone else would've likely done the same thing sooner or later.

free software and the web both happened at the right place and the right time. do you really think the web would be what it is today if you needed to buy a $10k webserver from IBM to host a site?

sure, someone else would likely have eventually come up with the concept of free software, but would it have missed the critical mass of the early web? the idea that free software didn't play a large part in the modern technology landscape is just wrong.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#127

Post by xrjn » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:24 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #122

xrjn wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use Skype for Business at work, however when the boss isn't watching we switch to appear.in since it works much better and doesn't require craptastic software.

SfB is pants. Quality is always crap, UI is terrible, Mac client is constantly behind, there is no really-open interface for Linux and bots, etc etc. But, the boss will see when you're "available" straight from Outlook, which is where he lives. It's not an IM tool, it's (yet another) instrument of workforce control.

Don't even get me started on the mac client... constantly drops calls, other end complains that sound quality is terrible despite high quality headphones, screen sharing stops suddenly mid presentation, can't see scheduled meeting directly in app, and overall horrible UX.

Also, despite the rigid security policy where I work, the mac client stores my password in the keychain.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#128

Post by drc0 » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:46 PM UTC

cryptarch wrote: post #63

wonko1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I can't see myself using it for work though, which the majority of my Skype calls tend to be.

Signal has voice calling as well. The bitrate is a bit low for my taste but it's pretty damned reliable, long distance as well.

the begin of the conversation is a bit lacking though, you need to wait few seconds and few "do you hear me?" tests. I don't use it often but happened not hearing the other side in the middle of the conversation, need to investigate this further.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#129

Post by chmaynard » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:53 PM UTC

danellis wrote: post #114

"The most obvious alternative is a long-distance phone card." What part of Stallman's position makes him fine with communicating and encouraging people to communicate using switches running proprietary software? For that matter, how does he justify using the Internet rather than anything other than community networks running open source routing software?

> What part of Stallman's position makes him fine with communicating and encouraging people to communicate using switches running proprietary software?

Richard Stallman is probably a direct descendant of the Massachusetts Puritans, which explains everything. No one ever characterized the Puritans as having a logically consistent ideology.

Seriously, we owe him a very large debt of gratitude for igniting the open source software movement. He is responsible for GCC and the GPL, and he attracted a group of very talented developers around him. Let's cut him some slack.

Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)

#130

Post by george_ciobanu » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

tscs37 wrote: post #110

For once I agree with RS; I haven't used Skype in ages, particularly because it's just crappy software. Honestly, I'd view Skype as malware at this point, the number of exploits is too damn high and it barely integrates with anything ever. It's the kind of integration you'd normally see from a cheap car purchase where the Entertainment System is a iPhone 2 taped to the seats and the trunk smells like dead raccoon.

I agree it needs improvement and we should have alternatives but it's the best in terms of video and audio quality/compression. The UX can be improved.