
Skype 4.0 for Linux - Intermediate
http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2012/06/skype_40_for_linux.html
======
SnowLprd
Ooh! Ooh! Does it have the new _Conversation Ads_ feature?

[http://blogs.skype.com/en/2012/06/skype_advertising_update.h...](http://blogs.skype.com/en/2012/06/skype_advertising_update.html)

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...](http://memeburn.com/2011/07/microsoft-and-skype-set-to-allow-
backdoor-eavesdropping/)

~~~
itsboring
I'm inclined to agree with your points, I always preferred the linux client
over the windows one, but skype just gets on my nerves recently. My team has
switched to mumble for meetings and stuff and we find it immeasurably better.
Plus, channels are a much better method for general collaboration than the
outdated concept of conference calls.

~~~
etherealG
what do you use for a mumble server? I would happily choose this if there were
an easy to use free version like skype.

~~~
itsboring
We use the murmur server on a linode, so it's totally free (if you have a
linux server already). Just "apt-get install mumble-server" on ubuntu server.

Still have to use skype for external calls and stuff, but for internal comms
we love it so far.

------
Paul_S
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.

~~~
baby
I can't use Skype because I have an iPhone 3GS which doesn't have the latest
iOS (available only on iPhones 4).

So I don't really get your point.

~~~
beagle3
Skype worked fine for me in Jan 2012, last time I used my iphone 3G (ios
4.2.1).

Voice/chat only, of course, because of missing front camera.

~~~
moheeb
Actually on Android the video chat works without a front facing camera
present.

------
phenom
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-...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2012/06/skype-calls-to-feature-ads-big-enough-to-interrupt-any-
conversation/)

~~~
bobobo1618
I'm on Arch Linux and installing skype4 from AUR has no dependencies that the
skype package from multilib didn't...

Must just be Ubuntu ^.^

~~~
FreeFull
The new version of skype is in the official repositories. Just installed it
and it looks good so far.

------
lsaferite
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? :(

------
BitMastro
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"

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

~~~
sciurus
On linux Empathy, Gajim, Jitsi, and Pidgin all support audio and video chat. I
believe they're all interoperable with each other and with the video chat in
gmail.

I think that Jitsi (formerly named SIP Communicator) supports audio and video
chat on Windows and OS X as well. I don't think that any of these projects
support video conference calls yet, but it's on the "near future" section of
Jitsi's roadmap.

<https://jitsi.org/>

~~~
Bjoern
Great stuff, thanks for the tips.

------
Shish2k
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...](http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-
skype/on-your-computer/linux/)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Worked fine for me, file dl-ed from [http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-
ubuntu_4.0.0.7-1_amd64...](http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-
ubuntu_4.0.0.7-1_amd64.deb)

\--

Edit had to install 6 deps using gdebi; when I ran the app it crashed before
authentication completed and took down my desktop session on Kubuntu 12.04.

------
scribu
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.

~~~
decklin
You can communicate with the Skype client over DBus, which allows you to
replace a lot (although not all) of the UI with something else. Two examples:

<http://code.google.com/p/skype4pidgin/>
[https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/skyy...](https://github.com/technomancy/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/skyyy)

The protocol is incomplete (the "native" Qt UI isn't built on it), but it is
at least documented on their dev site.

~~~
scribu
There's also <https://launchpad.net/~skype-wrapper/+archive/ppa> but it's
buggy and still requires you have the main Skype window running.

------
o1iver
Arch Linux AUR packages available at:
<http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=60059>

_I have tested it; works great!_

~~~
mcrittenden
The community Skype package has been updated to Skype 4 now, so no need for
the AUR. <http://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/i686/skype/>

------
perssontm
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 :)

------
benatkin
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.

~~~
theatrus2
Since Skype is one of the slipperiest applications out there in terms of
network access, I'd imagine ads could be served by any node in the network.

------
vegardx
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.

~~~
fepa
>> the clients are totally different on each platform to the point where it
get's hard to use.

I've been annoyed by this too, how hard is it to keep the UI somewhat alike,
at least between the desktop applications?

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

~~~
donniezazen
It has been already updated in Arch Repos. I see no reason Why Debian would
block it.

~~~
keporahg
I meant if anyone knew whether Skype had any plans of updating the repo since
it's owned by them (<http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/>), or
whether they intended for people to just use the provided packages.

------
sciurus
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.

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

------
smoyer
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?

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

~~~
mkenyon
I'm curious to see your numbers on that.

~~~
olenhad
opensource-> fewer bugs -> more users -> more satisfied users -> firefox style
extensions or even an "app store" -> code improvements -> support for more
platforms -> praise of the world's hacker community

~~~
eric_bullington
Actually, it looks like a lot of what you're referring to has been possible
since fall of last year. See: <http://developer.skype.com/> Skype now has an
enhanced API and plugin architecture that allows exactly the type of firefox
extensions that you're referring to. Unfortunately, the underlying
communications protocol remains closed, and so requires a binary that appears
to only work on 32-bit systems (not to mention ARM). I'm actually OK with them
keeping the communications protocol closed-sourced, but they need to provide
binaries for a greater variety of architectures if they really want this
program to work.

~~~
Zash
Is that really compatible with FOSS?

------
factorialboy
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.

------
technomancy
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.

------
barbs
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?

~~~
balac
so far it seems ok to me, it hasn't got the super huge interface like on mac &
windows, apart from the call window it largely looks the same.

------
whacker
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.

------
zfran
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.

~~~
jrockway
Create two user accounts and run one instance in each? This is Linux...

~~~
jkbyc
true. And in case you see "No protocol specified" when running skype from user
account xyz, try running "xhost + SI:localuser:xyz" first

------
ArchD
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)

~~~
ArchD
It would be more accurate to say seemingly instead of apparently. The nuance
is that the description in the download list implies that only the old distros
are supported, but actually at least on F17, the F16 package still works. Why
on earth they would release a 32-bit package but not a 64-bit package in this
day and age, however, is a mystery.

------
drizzt
It works like a charm!

------
leke
It's a trap.

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

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

~~~
protopete
Non-authorative suggestion: 1995 movie "Four rooms" and the phrase "room for
improvement"

