Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#21

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 1:59 PM UTC

cabirum wrote: post #14

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

Skype client should be axed instead. It's a pile of ugly looking mess and eats half of computer's resources. I dread to turn it on anywhere else than on my overpowered home PC. And don't even get me started on the Android client. It's completely useless on a high-powered tablet, and equally useless on a low-powered phone. I remember the times when official IM clients were lightweight and pleasant to use. Now you eith…

umm.. Skype certainly has some usability problems, but "half of computer's resources"? Are you trying to use it on a raspberry pi?

Rhetorics. Of course I didn't eat half the resources, but was a noticable drain on the overall performance of some computers I was working on, and the UI of Skype itself was very unresponsive and freezed for seconds quite often.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#22

Post by ido » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:00 PM UTC

marcf wrote: post #11

Can they optimize Skype so that it doesn't require 80MB-130MB just to run in the background? How can it require this much memory to run an instant messenger? Couldn't they delay load some of the features if they aren't yet being used (such as video codecs and audio codecs and other such features?)

I guess in a time where 4-8gb ram is the norm, 80-130mb memory consumption is not seen as a priority.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#23

Post by pestaa » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:09 PM UTC

ido wrote: post #22

marcf wrote: post #11

Can they optimize Skype so that it doesn't require 80MB-130MB just to run in the background? How can it require this much memory to run an instant messenger? Couldn't they delay load some of the features if they aren't yet being used (such as video codecs and audio codecs and other such features?)

I guess in a time where 4-8gb ram is the norm, 80-130mb memory consumption is not seen as a priority.

Yes it would be a great trade-off, but the window still takes seconds to display.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#24

Post by citricsquid » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:10 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

Skype client should be axed instead. It's a pile of ugly looking mess and eats half of computer's resources. I dread to turn it on anywhere else than on my overpowered home PC. And don't even get me started on the Android client. It's completely useless on a high-powered tablet, and equally useless on a low-powered phone. I remember the times when official IM clients were lightweight and pleasant to use. Now you eith…

I'm running Windows 7 and the Skype client is using 132mb of ram, that's with 18 chats open (of which 3 are group chats). Not sure if my usage pattern is typical, but I don't think 132mb ram is much, it's using less than about 6 other programs I have running.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#25

Post by pestaa » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:11 PM UTC

belorn wrote: post #10

Maybe this will help the uptake of xmpp.

I hope you're right and very afraid you are not. Neither Skype nor Microsoft are keen on utilizing open source.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#26

Post by davedx » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:13 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

Skype client should be axed instead. It's a pile of ugly looking mess and eats half of computer's resources. I dread to turn it on anywhere else than on my overpowered home PC. And don't even get me started on the Android client. It's completely useless on a high-powered tablet, and equally useless on a low-powered phone. I remember the times when official IM clients were lightweight and pleasant to use. Now you eith…

I don't disagree with you. Skype is ugly, bloated and has been crashing frequently since the last couple of updates on my computers.

The problem is: it works.

I tried to do a Google Hangout last night, and the plugin couldn't find my mic. Logged into Skype, it worked perfectly.

It'll be a while yet before someone really takes Skype's business. For now it's my #1 goto communication line as a remote freelancer.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#27

Post by UnoriginalGuy » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:13 PM UTC

rbn wrote: post #19

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

Skype client should be axed instead. It's a pile of ugly looking mess and eats half of computer's resources. I dread to turn it on anywhere else than on my overpowered home PC. And don't even get me started on the Android client. It's completely useless on a high-powered tablet, and equally useless on a low-powered phone. I remember the times when official IM clients were lightweight and pleasant to use. Now you eith…

Skype has a Win8 App

It does indeed. But have you used it? It is missing most of Skype's features and requires you to sign in using a Live Account.

Merging Live and Skype Accounts is a problem for me personally since I want to use Skype on insecure WiFi (and obviously my Live account is also an e-mail account).

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#28

Post by briffle » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

meaty wrote: post #7

citricsquid wrote: post #2

I still use MSN and I guess I don't really mind, MSN has a lot of history but it's a mediocre client and Skype is much better. I used to have 100s of contacts on MSN with ~50 online at any one time, now everyone that used MSN casually uses Facebook chat so I have... 2 people online (both of which are listed as away) and anyone that uses IM seriously seems to use Skype. It was inevitable. Does anyone here still use MS…

I use it to talk to my other half whilst in the office - that is it. I'll switch to IRSSI over SSH onto my hosted server (I'll just run a local ircd) and she can use mIRC on her laptop instead. I have no intention of using another hosted service. It would be more reliable as well - Live Messenger reliability has always been crap. (For ref, I do not use Skype, Facebook or any social tools).

Just as an FYI, you can setup your own XMPP server in 20 min, and chat with people on facebook, gtalk, etc. www.prosody.im

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#29

Post by antonioevans » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

Skype client should be axed instead. It's a pile of ugly looking mess and eats half of computer's resources. I dread to turn it on anywhere else than on my overpowered home PC. And don't even get me started on the Android client. It's completely useless on a high-powered tablet, and equally useless on a low-powered phone. I remember the times when official IM clients were lightweight and pleasant to use. Now you eith…

I think you need to update your skype.

Re: Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

#30

Post by LiveFanChat » Wed, Nov 07, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

Shame its such poor reporting....they are actually closing Skype and "rebranding windows messenger"

Basically skype is dropping the p2p architecture and is going to be using the old messenger architecture with MS servers sitting in the middle of all traffic......

I've been waiting for someone to announce a "new and improved" P2P chat application to counteract this very problem.

Quick someone put a call out to Kim Dotcom and get him working on it.

Cheers, Dean

http://blog.collins.net.pr/2012/11/rip-ms-messenger.html