[kwlug-disc] Skype

[Ron Singh]

I use Skype a lot.

I depend on Skype for video comm with my kin,  with clients and IT
suppliers.

On Windows, Skype 5.x was excellent in terms of reliability, clean layout
and easy of use.
I ditched Windows some 10 months ago and went all Linux, using Skype 4.3
sourced from LM's software repo
On Linux, Skype 4.3 was excellent in terms of reliability, clean layout and
easy of use..
On Linux, Skype 5.x BETA was barely acceptable in terms of reliability,
clean layout and easy of use..

I did the upgrade to Skype 8.11(X220 laptop with LM 18.1 Xfce) yesterday
and man, that was just a huge mistake -- issues pop up with many
much-needed configuration features removed.

Most tellingly, upon boot-up and launching Skype 8.11, only the outline of
Skype can be seen on the desktop, nothing can be clicked on since the
outline just showed the contents of one's desktop. Only on minimizing to
tray and then un-minimizing or full-screening will bring up the proper
"Open Skype" page in all it's glory.

I decided to purge the laptop of Skype 8.11 and tried again on other
laptops running LM 18.1, LM18.2 and Fedora 27, same thing. Same issue.
I have used old firmware, new firmware, 4.4LTS, 4.11, 4.13 kernels, but
yeah, same thing, same issue.
Every OS tried was a bare metal install, no VMs involved.

Through tear-filled eyes full of rage, I grabbed the 5.5.0.1 SkypeforLinux
Beta from here:
https://repo.skype.com/deb/pool/main/s/skypeforlinux/
and re-installed 5.5 Skype and now I am able to usefully Skype my behind
off again, feebly trying to ignore it's tablet-y interface.

In a perfect world, I would ditch Skype and use something like Discord and
get on with it, but I need to communicate with with over 2 dozen folks via
video-chat and the only common denominator for them all is Skype. Sure
looks like nothing like this exists or will ever exist.

In an even more perfect world, MS would release the SkypeforLinux source to
be worked on by the Linux community, but that's for an alternate reality.

Sorry about the rant, just wanted to sound off a bit.


Thanks,

Ron Singh
"
​calming down with a glass of win"
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