Clearly, Skype On Linux Has No Future | Hacker News Reader

Clearly, Skype On Linux Has No Future

digitizor.com

12 pointsdkd90312 comments

Skype has always had a pretty bleak future on Linux, updates are sometimes years apart, but at least the application keeps on working. Skype is a multi platform product, Microsoft obviously knows this and although Linux will never be a first class platform for Skype, I would be very surprised if it was to be dropped completely.

Isn't this just a bit of an overreaction? An MS provided feed of one of their press conferences is provided in Silverlight? Of all the indicators for future Linux Skype support, this has to be a pretty poor one...

That Microsoft's PR didn't even bother to check for Linux compatibility?

I sometimes wonder how many softies actually have ever seen a Linux [desk|lap]top in person.

Well, Smooth Streaming (using Silverlight) is Microsofts "new" streaming platform. It's like asking Adobe to not have Flash on their website.

Nope, it's like asking Adobe to support Linux with a flash client, oh wait Adobe do that and it's even updated quite often ... you can hardly accuse Adobe of being a one OS only operation.

Get back to us when MS have a Silverlight plugin in the Ubuntu repos and allow their browser to be used on other people's OS.

I'm quite sure Microsoft really doesn't care about Linux. It cares about Smooth Streaming though.

> oh wait Adobe do that and it's even updated quite often

Your memory must be pretty short, its only recently that Adobe have released new flash version to Linux at the same time as OSX & Windows, and even more recently that they released a 64bit version. Companies can change.

No, my memory, whilst pretty lame, is good enough to go back those few months. Adobe aren't all the way there yet, pretty close. But Microsoft haven't even started that journey.

I'll be surprised if they follow the lead that Adobe set for them but it's still possible. Indeed Silverlight may well be part of the reason that Adobe finally pulled their finger out and got serious about their flash plugin on Linux.

Companies can change for the better, first they have to want to though and there's no sign of that with MS yet AFAICT.

When any cross-platform product is purchased by an "operating systems" company there's always going to be some element of cross-platform questioning. After all it's not Microsoft's job to further the Linux, iOs, OSX, Android, WebOS et al platforms.

That said, MS spent $8.5B on the deal, so it seems to be something they're likely to take seriously. I guess a Windows-Phone-7 version will get a lot of love, and expect to see new versions ship on Windows before other platforms. But that's a long way from removing Skype from existing platforms. MS has a history of programs on other platforms, not least MS Office on the Mac. If there's a business case for it, it should fly ok.

It's a long way though from selecting a live-stream platform for the website, to the cross-platform strategy overall. By implication, since Silverlight pretty much only runs on Windows, you could argue that this isn't a snub of Linux, it's a snub of _all_ non-Windows platforms.

I just can't see MS deprecating support for Skype on all mobile devices, and all other non-Windows devices anytime soon. I would imagine that makes up a significant chunk of the Skype userbase, and it doesn't make sense not to leverage them. I wouldn't spend this sort of money to reach Windows-only users.

Of course MS the company has no shortage of haters in the non-MS OS community, so expect to see much wailing and gnashing of teeth from them. Every little action MS makes, no matter what, will be met with loud cries of anguish, and predictions of doom.

Perhaps though it's sanest to consider what is actually happening, rather than what "definitely will happen any day now" from pundits with an axe to grind.

Silverlight runs on OS X. http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/... IIRC since day one. I used to be on Tiger when Silverlight showed up in public.

>After all it's not Microsoft's job to further the Linux, iOs, OSX, Android, WebOS et al platforms.

Shouldn't they be using this as another opportunity to win users for their OS. Surely if they show me how well their software works then that's big attraction to use their OS and hence buy in to their other offerings.

This announcement has me really annoyed. I set all the family up on Skype with webcams for Christmas and have been waiting for the Linux client to be eventually updated. Now I'll be searching for an alternative ...

I don't hate MS, they do some pretty cool stuff, they seem to hate me though.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this article was a knee jerk reaction to something somewhat related to the Microsoft/Skype deal. AFAIK, the stable release of Moonlight targets Silverlight 3. Side note: Skype has always been a bit weak on Linux in my experience.

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