Skype for Linux Alpha and Calling on Chrome and Chromebooks | Hacker News Reader

Skype for Linux Alpha and Calling on Chrome and Chromebooks

blogs.skype.com

64 pointsbenbs19 comments

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12086223, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12091933

Similar discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12086769

I knew they would use Electron ಠ_ಠ

But I can't blame them, I can imagine the difficulty of maintaining a native Linux application considering that the majority of their users are either on Windows or Mac. Since they released the web client I knew they would come up with this "solution" to offer a new client for Linux users. At least the mobile version is native, otherwise I would be flipping tables. Guess Electron is winning more and more space among millennial developers, so maybe I should give up on hating these web applications disguising themselves as native software altogether.

What can one expect?

Productivity from native desktop development of tools like Delphi and XAML are probably bonn fire old tales that millenals hear from ancient grumpy old developers that cannot grasp how wonderful HTML 5 is.

Instead of getting mad, you could just stop using Skype. There are better cross-platform alternatives like Jitsi that actually treat their Linux users with respect.

Now if they only restore the quality of actual Skype calls/video that would be great. I see a significant deterioration of quality over time. I can't remember a skype call that wasn't disconnected, a conference call that someone didn't get muffled or a video call that worked well in recent time. I've been trying to use hangouts for most conf calls because of that.

Am I the only one that is disappointed that they no longer have a native Linux app? (The original Skype used QT)

What was the advantage of using QT instead of Electron? Isn't Electron optimised for the platform it runs in?

Mainly, it didn't need a crapload of RAM.

1. Electron is a massive resource hog.

2. Qt actually blends in with the platform's look and feel.

This is fantastic news - Skype is a decent product, and fairly universal, but it also happens to be NSA spyware. I'll now use it, because it's sandboxed within a web page!

Now that Android Apps hit ChromeOS Dev on Asus Flip, Pixel 2015, and R11, I'm not sure what more point there is for a web-version of Skype (on Chrome and ChromeOS) - except that Android Apps will not obviously be available for older devices. Still, glad to see progress is being made, because this has been a long-standing issue for further adoption of the ChromeOS platform.

By way of a plug, you can 2-way connect Skype chat with a few other services: https://sameroom.io/integrations/skype-integrations

As a Linux user I'll take anything when it comes to Skype, even if it feels a little cheap to get a packaged web app, I dont know why, there is no reason for it really, its not like I'm going to use it offline anyway.

As a long term Ubuntu user, I appreciate this much. As a Samsung SmartTV owner, I'm curious how long will it take for Microsoft to bring back Skype for this platform.

I wonder why the webrtc video calls only work on Chrome(OS) and not other modern browsers (Firefox, and even Brave which is also a Blink based browser).

Sweet. I was just struggling today with the old Skype on Ubuntu from 2014. Wouldn't receive files properly. This is a god send.

Just need to get proper desktop notifications integrated into this alpha version.

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