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Skype 4.0 for Linux

by Intermediate on 6/14/12, 2:54 PM with 112 comments

• by SnowLprd on 6/14/12, 4:48 PM

  Ooh! Ooh! Does it have the new Conversation Ads feature?

  http://blogs.skype.com/en/2012/06/skype_advertising_update.h...

  I, for one, cannot WAIT to see these new ads, which Microsoft describes as "content that could spark additional topics of conversation that are relevant to Skype users."

  Isn't that great? Ads are now "content." And the motivation isn't to make a bundle of money on ads, it's to "spark conversations."

  Add this to the craptastical user interface and built-in backdoor eavesdropping, and it's plain to see that Skype has a bright future ahead!

  http://memeburn.com/2011/07/microsoft-and-skype-set-to-allow...

• by Paul_S on 6/14/12, 4:09 PM

  The best thing about how big skype is is that they have to maintain backwards compatibility (hardware skype phones that can't upgrade) so you can use whatever old version you want and it has to be supported by them. Which means you can stick to the old version which works fine without having to suffer through the new and "improved" glitzy version that is popup crazy and wants to hog all your system resources for what is essentially a chat program.

• by phenom on 6/14/12, 3:35 PM

  You should probably stay on 2.2 beta....

  1. Skype 4 require download 95 additional packages for ubuntu version (all marked i386 even if you using amd64)

  2. I am not sure but giant ads probably included too [1]

  [1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/skype-...

• by lsaferite on 6/14/12, 3:39 PM

  Did hell freeze over?

  I've been waiting for an update to the Linux Skype client for years. Years!

  Of course, if I have to install a ton of i386 packages or have big ass ads all over the place I think it's not worth the effort.

  Is it too much to ask to give paying customers access to just a lib that can be used in other GUIs? :(

• by BitMastro on 6/15/12, 12:07 PM

  I think the future is WebRTC, it's an open standard and the browser is one of the most ubiquitous software you'll ever run. I don't use Skype much, but I have friends using Skype, MSN, Facebook, gchat (I still haven't used hangouts). All these services requires registration and sometimes a specific software to communicate. I wish that by the end of the year it won't matter what service you're using, you'll just send a message like "Hey let's talk, click on this link"

• by Bjoern on 6/14/12, 8:11 PM

  Curious question, is there any good open source application out there supporting voice and video? Possibly, multiple people as in G+ Hangout?

• by Shish2k on 6/14/12, 3:51 PM

  Clicking from the linked article to get to the download page, the download is still for 2.2 :-/ Anyone got a direct link to the 4.0 page?

  ED: The English version is 2.2, the American version is 4.0...

  For non-americans, use the american link: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/l...

• by scribu on 6/14/12, 4:36 PM

  At some point, Skype announced that it would open-source the UI part of the Linux client, allowing people to implement whatever interface they wanted.

  I guess that was before they were bought by Microsoft.

• by o1iver on 6/14/12, 3:31 PM

  Arch Linux AUR packages available at: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=60059

  I have tested it; works great!

• by perssontm on 6/14/12, 9:35 PM

  It still says try skype 2.2 beta on the page, but when I download it, I get a file called skype-debian_4.0.deb :)

• by benatkin on 6/14/12, 4:57 PM

  I'd rather run Skype inside its own virtual machine, with ads blocked by restricting network access. Since a full Linux distribution can be obtained for free, this could help enable that.

• by vegardx on 6/14/12, 5:39 PM

  I find it sad that Skype has evolved to be MSN Messenger-replacement, there were so many good alternatives. At one point MSN was even usable-ish, as you could choose whatever client you wanted. With Skype, not so much.

  I'm switching a lot between OSX and Windows, and sometimes even Linux, and the clients are totally different on each platform to the point where it get's hard to use. And don't get me started on that Android-client they have made, total utter garbadge.

• by keporahg on 6/14/12, 9:48 PM

  Anyone know if the version in the Debian Skype repo (http://wiki.debian.org/skype) will be updated?

• by sciurus on 6/14/12, 3:14 PM

  They used to have a statically-linked version available for download; where did that go? It's the only one that didn't crash on my Debian testing system.

• by baldfat on 6/15/12, 12:52 AM

  Just happy that M$ is showing more love of Linux. I never thought a new version would ever get out!

• by smoyer on 6/14/12, 4:23 PM

  Do you think they heard my comment yesterday (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107759)? Thanks for finally deciding to provide me with new Linux software. I'm also super excited about seeing more meaningless ads ... but where were you when I needed you?

  I'm actually a bit surprised that you're even trying this since it seems to be a well-proven fact that Microsoft can't make money on search or ads. And if you needed additional revenue, did you ever consider asking people to pay you for your service?

  As an interesting aside, Skype's move to using super-nodes that are controlled by them is also useful for the change to an advertisement supported business. Can you imagine how hard it would be to share ad revenue with regular users whose computers had been promoted to super-nodes simply because of bandwidth capacity and their up-time numbers?

• by olenhad on 6/14/12, 4:39 PM

  Just opensource the damn thing. It would profit them far more than anyone else.

• by factorialboy on 6/14/12, 3:53 PM

  Not bad. Not close to Skype for Windows, but that's not a bad thing. Plus no ads.

  I'm primarily an Ubuntu user (Unity or XFCE) and use a secondary Windows 7 laptop with Skype as a communication device.

• by technomancy on 6/14/12, 4:03 PM

  I've moved as much as I can over to Jingle via Empathy, but so far when I haven't been able to avoid Skype I've found the Android client much preferable to the old Linux one.

• by barbs on 6/14/12, 11:58 PM

  Can't wait to try this! But I'm on my mac at work atm. I'm worried they've bloated the interface and made it horrible like they did with Skype 5 for mac...has this happened?

• by whacker on 6/14/12, 3:48 PM

  The rpm package has a bug: It has a bunch of translation files that conflict with the older skype version.

  So remove the old version of skype first before installing the new one.

• by zfran on 6/15/12, 12:18 AM

  Can't run two instances at the same time. Complete deal breaker for those of us that use a personal account and a professional one.

• by ArchD on 6/14/12, 3:54 PM

  Ubuntu 12 and Fedora 17 are the latest versions of Ubuntu and Fedora but apparently not supported according to the download distribution list. (s/11/12/, basic idea remains -- only old distros are listed)

• by drizzt on 6/14/12, 3:32 PM

  It works like a charm!

• by leke on 6/14/12, 6:26 PM

  It's a trap.

• by Toshio on 6/14/12, 3:17 PM

  Obtrusive conversation ads coming to a Skype-for-Linux near you in 3... 2... 1...

• by MidwestMuster on 6/14/12, 4:03 PM

  What kind of codename is "Four Rooms for Improvement?" (what they called this release)