Update or shut up: Microsoft's choice for desktop Skypers Microsoft's hurrying desktop Skype users to new client software. As revealed in a post late last week, Redmond's new plan will mean that come March 1st, users of “Skype for Windows desktop (7.16 and below) or Skype for Mac (7.0 to 7.18) will no longer be able to sign in.” To avoid that conversational crimp, you need merely …
There's no way I'd used Skype app on Windows system as this would require that I've unblocked network access for all crApps (thanks MS for making this so difficult). The only acceptable solution for me is an iPhone app as MS does not control the platform (and Skype is not getting access to contacts). Obviously legacy account, no way I'd signed up for MS account (especially now that it required providing phone number). I bet MS will let this continue as they won't completely give up on users from major platform. And for now the desktop application for Windows 7 runs just fine on Windows 10 (not that I used it much or set it to launch automatically), just use proper browser so download page is not making fuss.
Skype was a threat to corporate videoconf - H323. It was free, and it just worked, anyone to anyone, any device to any device. Once you had HD Skype in the TV, there was little motive to spend a 2K dollars on a classic VC codec. But Microsoft has killed off the TV Skype, and there are barriers to stop you calling Skype for Business from home (free p2p) Skype.
If you are on a platform where Miscrosoft gets a dollope of money, Windows there is a future. For Android/Linux/Mac, there is no money, and so it is likely to become harder to talk to corporate.
But I think Microsoft are probably too late. If you are running Skype for Business in your Corporate VC suite, you have a big screen + PC +microphones in the suite. The same hardware can run one of many other, open / free systems. Some of them will work just fine on anything Microsoft does not want to support for free.
"But I think Microsoft are probably too late. If you are running Skype for Business in your Corporate VC suite, you have a big screen + PC +microphones in the suite. The same hardware can run one of many other, open / free systems. Some of them will work just fine on anything Microsoft does not want to support for free."
Corporate environments rarely run free software! We like to buy things so that we have someone to hit over the head when it goes wrong. Given this, and the amount of businesses with Microsoft agreements where Skype is included (aspecially those big enough to run their own VC kit) I really don't get your argument.
Skype is for sure not for free. Millennial's managed to convince management to start using Skype for business, since the good old PABX was end of life, and Skype for business is for free, since they have one of these MS licenses intended to drive out all competition.
It is then when one starts to appreciate the ingenuity of Sir Graham Bell.. one wire, one device.
Over one century later Microsoft manages to replace it with: A blue tooth headset, a holder for the blue tooth headset, an USB cable for loading the blue tooth headset, a fully working PC with all the 19" racks full with required gear on the background to get the thing to work at all.
Why does Skype costs money: We lose calls after 5 mins, transferring calls is a nightmare due to the bad user interface of this product, windows get thrown all over the screen when using it, the blue tooth is buggy and looses connection frequently. Skype for business would be a good alternative though for organizations who dislike their customers, like the government.
"We like to buy things so that we have someone to hit over the head when it goes wrong"
Have you tried getting actual support out of Microsoft when something really has gone wrong? Its quicker to fix the issue yourself.
Paid Support is all about giving them an income stream with which they can fix the worst of the countless bugs which are the result of rushing the initial product to market, so by taking out support subscriptions you are in fact supporting and encouraging shoddy software development.
H323 is an open technology, is point to point and can be encrypted. But was designed for an Internet Addresss per codec, and that period is over.
Skype did have the potential to just work on everything. The boss is on holiday when the wharehouse burt down but can have a look via his big phone which will in general already have Skype. He can talk to the insurer, who also will have Skype on his tablet. He can talk to managers on the smartTV in the VC suite. Even the firefighter can stream live to the incident room using a 4G phone. You could use an APPLE , or Polycom client, but there are just so many different incompatable systems.
Paying is not the issue directly. Corporate would prefer to pay. Just the things you do to push a pay servicer, also tend to stop it being universal. Aunty Nelly will use a free service. Therefore boss will want the free service too so Nelly can see the kids on holiday. So Nelly or Boss needs to be able to call in to Corporate using the free app.
If Microsoft billed for End to End Encryption, Multipointing, and recording and other premium services, that could work. Just no US company can offer End to End encryption due to USA interception regulations.
Room for an open protocol, point to point system with extendable encryption. Even P2P requires some servers for call setup. So possibly with peering fees for Business users wanting servers away from prying eyes.
~ For both XP + Win7 on older netbooks.... Suggestions most appreciated...
~ Newer versions of Skype (after 6.18) do not run or put a huge CPU load on older netbooks so the UX is cr@ppy especially on XP.
~ This is a problem as many older folk in my circle of family / friends still use XP / Win-7, and have no wish to be force-upgraded to Windows-10....
~ I'll have to guide each through the install via Skype, so this part needs to be a relatively simple process... Cheers if you can help. Overall, Microsoft are asses!
My 92 y/o father in law uses Skype to keep in touch with his friends/relatives as far away as Canada, Hungary and Sweeden. I can only hope and pray the new version has an identical UI to the older version. Moving him from XP to 7 and a new version of skype 3 or 4 years ago was painful. He's now 3 or 4 years more confused......
He still doesn't understand why Skype sometimes shows him a picture of a pretty girl with the phrase "see who you know on Skype" or whatever advert it pedals at him - he keeps thinking she is trying to call him.
If only it was that simple.
If you have an 'olde Skype id', you now can't change your password, unless a compulsory update to a live ID is made.
If you're using your 'olde skype id' for work, and your work domain is in O365, when you try and use that email address for the live ID it doesn't let you.
Ah, you say, fine I'll move to Skype for Business.
However, if you're a Mac house, you still can't then talk to anyone else still on a skype id.
So basically MS have to get rid of Skype ids and they are doing it as quick, and forcefully as they can, and you'll just have to deal with it...
Outlook.com is the legalised ransomware.
Register a new ID using only username and password.
If you the attempt login using said username and password (even with a non simple password) on different IP/different device, you're locked out and forced to give a phone number to "Verifiy your identity".
It's ransomware in the sense, you either drip feed us more of your private information or you can't use this service, but in the meantime we've locked you out of your data. I don't believe it is in the name of security, my password is a non-simple 20+ characters, and its not wrong.
..."If you the attempt login using said username and password (even with a non simple password) on different IP/different device, you're locked out and forced to give a phone number to "Verifiy your identity".....
You don't have to use a phone number, you can also use a "primary" email address.
er...
Am I forced to go to work.... no, but it certainly makes paying the bills easier
Am I forced to drink tea... no but its nicer than coffee
The facts are that in modern life there are somethings that may not be forced on you but certainly are so beneficial that they are near a necessity.
By removing my access to my account they are worse than encrypting my files they are removing my access to the data, contacts, contact information and friends on that account, just as bad in many respects.
Then it does demand payment, it demands payment in the form of more data than I want to give. Why should I give MS and therefore the NSA etc. personal information? It is damned hard to set up one of the new accounts without doing so.
One thing I didn't notice here, when I swap my account does it keep contacts, conversations, data etc from my old account on my new one so it is painless (well apart from the setting up of the new account, the remembering that you now need a different account, updating CVs and everything else that points to the account etc etc etc etc etc etc)
What's the recommended upgrade path from "I uninstalled skype as soon as Redmond consumed it"? Usually there's an upgrade option under the help menu, but I'm not seeing it in the interface of "I haven't run your shit on this machine for years, you fucking assholes."
I'll see if I can find an installer over at www.ihopeyoudieinafireyoufesteringcunts.com, I'll let you know how it goes.
I stopped using Skype once MS starting enforcing MS logins for using it and I could no longer use the minimalist and usable client for MacOS. For chat there are hundreds of alternatives and for conferencing Hangouts has been more stable for years. Video chat has only ever really had novelty value but, again, Google has this nailed.
I have one customer where I have to use Skype for Business on their hardware and network. While it generally seems to work for me, many users complain that it is unreliable for voice so they dial-in on their VoIP lines which are sharing the ethernet with their computers.
So... this new Skype, is obviously not the same as the crap that has just been introduced and does not work reliably in a corporate environment.
Nor is it hopefully the same 2016 crap that requires you to have both a 365 account & an outlook.com account to work correctly for the licensing.
Moved to Discord last year for IM's and not looked back, as I tend to hang wither gaming crowds and they all jumped over with me.
It is genuinely refreshing to have a client that I like using rather than seeing as a necessary evil: Just like the good ol' Windows messenger days.
Video calling's coming in Discord later this year: Can't see Skype sticking around on my desktop after that happens.
A Skype where you don't miss notifications because you have more than one device signed in. This may just be me but if I make the mistake of leaving my phone signed in when I am at home, my laptop never alerts me to incoming messages and, probably due to the vagaries of the nO2 notwork, the alerts appear on my phone several hours late.
The fact that I get Skype notifications on multiple devices is one of the primary reasons I've used it for so long. That aspect is still working fine for me.
Call quality is still mostly fine for me, but lately my friends on the newer PC client have problems where they are marked off-line even when using their devices. As in they actually find their client has switched to marking them invisible. It's annoying.
I'm also not a fan of the changes they've been made to the UI over the last couple of years. I preferred the simple, time-stamped list of messages. I don't need the colorful chat bubbles. They take up more room, hide time stamps by default, and lump together successive messages that might have been sent hours apart.
But for my small operation I use x-lite on Linux and 3c.co.uk for free inbound ddi.
Outbound calls are done from an unlisted giffgaff SIM.
Benefits: Can have a free DDI per customer which means I can ditch a DDI if I want to completely sever contact with a shit client.
Giffgaff is cheap so calls cost peanuts.
No IM so I dont get long lost Nigerian relatives begging for money.
Everyone is a winner.
We've trialled using Slack video conferencing since we have people on linux (via web), osx and windows spread out over the country, but it's expensive for larger teams, and it doesn't seem to scale quite as well right now - for up to 8 people it's workable, but if enough people are working from home we get a noticeable drop in quality and stability. Skype for Business causes us endless problems however (crashes to desktop, weird missing audio issues, clunky invitation system in outlook that sometimes doesn't work).
What they really mean is 'the nsa cant spy on you without the update'.
My biggest worry is that they will make skype as shit as skype for business (lync in the old days), that app regularly crashes, regularly loses voice, cant cope in anything but massive network infrastructure and is a crock.
Skype Latest Version Offline Installer:
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-windows/
Just use the link you will be redirected to the page where you can download the offilne installer
the Complete and offline installer is here:
http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full
https://community.skype.com/t5/Windows-desktop-client/Skype-Latest-Version-Offline-Installer/td-p/4065236
(1) read el Reg article, become alarmed at the potential loss of Skype services and connectivity with family and friends come March 1, so ...
(2) start up Skype, run Check For Updates, attempt to download Skype update. Fails inexplicably with a cryptic message.
(3) navigate to Skype download page, get Skype update downloaded manually.
(4) run Skype updater; fails with "Skype update failed: error 1603"
(5) google for "Skype update failed error 1603", find instructions to uninstall Skype completely, download Microsoft "fix-it" tool to (rather vaguely) mitigate "problems that block programs from being installed or removed"
...
and on and on we go, and where she stops, nobody knows! It's enough to drive one to drink.
(6) uninstall old Skype plus related software found in applications list
(7) discover downloaded "fix-it" tool is in the form of a DIAGCAB file. Archaic system doesn't know what to do with that.
(8) run Skype installer anyway. Run loopback test, seems to work.
(9) go to the pub anyway.
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