Since updating to the Skype for Linux 8 series, I have noticed man MANY changes to how Skype looks and feels. I have yet to find a single change that I consider to actually be an improvement. Here is a list of the changes I have noted, and been frustrated
by.
1) separate windows for individual chats is gone. It used to be default that every chat had its own window. Then, in the change from Skype for Linux 4 to 8, that got changed to having to "pop out" every chat. Thankfully; Skype would at least remember that
my last chat with someone was popped out and would open a new window whenever they launched a chat with me. Now, with the latest update, that option is gone as well. This forces me to click back and forth between active chats constantly, instead of just having
side by side windows I can simply glance at.
2) In the contacts list it was once standard to have the ability to sort your contacts by online status. Now all you can sort by is time, unread and active. In addition, the original 8 had at least the option to create a list of favourites. The latest update
has taken that away as well.
3) When the new update installed, I was walked through the initial configuration of the new version. This was unexpected, usually updates are expected to preserve most of your existing settings if at all applicable.
4) The configuration walk through promised that I could always change the theme later in Settings. This is incorrect. The settings dialogue box makes no mention of themes whatsoever. Changing the theme can be found, oddly enough, within my profile of all
places. There I find another path to Application Settings (note that this is a different label than found in the menu Tools|Settings, but takes you to the same place), but changing the theme is not there, it's all by itself further down.
5) Among the settings that has apparently been taken away by the update is the option to NOT log chat history. Now logging everything is my only real choice. I can delete a chat, but that then kicks the contact off the top of my contact list when sorted
by Active. Granted, for a sort based on Active, this makes sense, but what I am trying to achieve is something at least slightly similar to sort by Status and deleting chat history breaks that. Note that, despite the fact that I had chat logging disabled in
the earlier Skype 8, all those chats which I expected to be unlogged reappeared. The visible chats go back for several MONTHS. Previously, with Skype 4, logging was done locally and it was assumed by most users that was the only place chats were being logged.
Having old chats come back from the grave proves that chats are also logged on central servers against my wishes. (and despite Canadian privacy law that says Skype can only log with my express consent OR a valid court order...)
6) I have lost the ability to create custom groups of contacts (e.g. a Favourites list) that is not tied to a group chat. Creating a group chat is easy enough to figure out, but on first use, the labelling and phrasing is ambiguous enough that I thought
I was creating a favourites list when what I was really doing was effectively creating a chat room.
7) The process to remove people from a group chat is a tedious PITA. I don't know whose bright idea it was to make
invisible buttons that only show up if A) You've taken the pointer away from where the button will appear and then B) do a mouse hover. Note that the contact list by default only shows the top three contacts and reorders itself every
time you delete someone. That means that the next contact is brought into view and then I have to repeat A and B again. I understand the desire for a clean looking interface, but working "under the hood" in tools, settings or preferences is no place for playing
hide and seek with the buttons!
8) Starting with the very first update made after Microsoft purchased Skype, I have been getting the same bug with every update. Every time there is a minor version change (e.g. 8.8 to 8.10) very old and obsolete contacts get put back on my contacts list.
With today's update I am once again looking at having to delete numerous contacts who have been dead for years. While we're on the subject of deleting contacts. I used to be able to just remove a contact, so that I didn't see them on my list and they couldn't
see my status on theirs, but they could still send messages "blind" as it were. (chats to someone who appears offline, in expectation that they will see it when they next sign in). Now the only option is to block. On the plus side, the options for reporting
abuse have expanded and that's a good thing. But losing the ability to just remove contacts and/or arrange contacts arbitrarily is irksome.
