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Re: undefined

#101
post #11

As others are saying, the new Electron-based app is so bad on so many levels. Recently it has been failing to deliver incoming messages. They don't even appear, it just causes confusion to anyone trying to have a text conversation. Plus the lack of features that versions for other platforms have. At this point it's just better to use web.skype.com on a browser tab. I find that more reliable than the Electron client.…

That they can mess up even text chat is unbelievable. These are problems in networking that have been solved for decades. An undergraduate should be capable of writing a text chat program with 100% accuracy. This is pathetic.

I see you've never used slack ;)

Re: undefined

#102
post #96
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had conference calls with Microsoft using Skype on Windows 10 on a Surface Book, and 3 Microsoft employees still haven't been able to get Skype to work.

I use Skype for Business and not only is it very poorly coded/architected, but the design paradigms actually make communication harder.

Actually I like it better than any alternative we have use so far (NIH InHouse solutions, NetMeeting, Sametime, WebEx).

Re: undefined

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Discord for all sorts of things, not just games. What features do you find it's missing that would be useful?

The main complaints that I have seen are with video calling and screen-sharing. These should be added soon™, though.

Ah, fair enough. That's what I've been using Hangouts for, and I don't think it'll change, but more competition is always welcome.

Re: undefined

#104
post #97

No one is talking of chat logs. My Skype logs with my brother are incredibly important and go back several years as we live on separate continents but pretty close nonetheless. This would be horrible -- if I hadn't switched to Windows 10 thanks to Windows Subsystem for Linux. If you do the same, here's how I set up, hopefully helpful to converts like me: https://github.com/chx/chx.github.io/wiki/How-I-set-up-my-Wi...

The old Skype for Linux app stores its logs as a simple sqlite database from which you can export them fairly straightforwardly, see e.g. https://pastebin.com/bWXCQK83 for a simple script which brings them into Pidgin's log format.

Re: undefined

#105
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What reliable alternatives would you suggest?

That very much depends on what are your requirements. If you need all the stuff skype supported originally - chat, voice, video, screen sharing etc. then I don't have a solution I'm afraid, particularly if you need support for various operating systems. What we need for the internal communication (within the company) is a simple IM, integrated with ticketing system (a bunch of generic rooms, per-ticket rooms, linking…

For voice I can highly recommend Mumble, it's trivially self-hosted too and feels well integrated on all platforms.

For video though your options are definitely more limited, keep an eye on Riot, I'm not sure that it's ready yet, but when it is it will present an extremely good option. If you only need mobile, Signal does it today and is probably one of the most stable and secure products around, can't vouch for the video quality though personally.

Re: undefined

#106
post #96
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had conference calls with Microsoft using Skype on Windows 10 on a Surface Book, and 3 Microsoft employees still haven't been able to get Skype to work.

I use Skype for Business and not only is it very poorly coded/architected, but the design paradigms actually make communication harder.

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#107
post #84
post #11

As others are saying, the new Electron-based app is so bad on so many levels. Recently it has been failing to deliver incoming messages. They don't even appear, it just causes confusion to anyone trying to have a text conversation. Plus the lack of features that versions for other platforms have. At this point it's just better to use web.skype.com on a browser tab. I find that more reliable than the Electron client.…

What I don't understand is what is so complicated. Chat apps aren't exactly rocket science (pretty much the opposite) and have been around since the 90s. Only the live video is more complicated but that doesn't seem to be the main problem with the linux app.

You could start by defining "linux" app.

Linux is not really a thing. It's a mess of numerous operating systems. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, redhat, slackware, all themselves available in different incompatible editions.

I pity developers who have to support desktop applications on linux.

Re: undefined

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nitpick, I assume by "race condition" you mean "used lots of CPU". This is a common colloquial conflation, but race conditions [1] (which are not generally identifiable without aid of a debugger and the application's source code) and high CPU usage are unrelated concepts. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition

What are you going on about here? I have never once heard someone confuse "race condition" with "high CPU usage."

Now you have: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14522211

Re: undefined

#109
This is a real shame. I had used Skype for Linux as part of a research project creating a Tor Bridge that used QR codes in a video stream to send the Tor data. It had a pretty decent RPC that there were Python libraries for. As far as I know, there aren't any other Skype clients with an RPC as powerful.

Re: undefined

#110
post #11

As others are saying, the new Electron-based app is so bad on so many levels. Recently it has been failing to deliver incoming messages. They don't even appear, it just causes confusion to anyone trying to have a text conversation. Plus the lack of features that versions for other platforms have. At this point it's just better to use web.skype.com on a browser tab. I find that more reliable than the Electron client.…

> sometimes flips the order of a few messages, so that if you send two messages, the first one appears below the second one.

Turns out eventual consistency doesn't work well with chat apps.

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