Skype Preview - the most expressive Skype ever, is coming to Linux

"Skype Preview puts chat front and center"

What if your business depends upon VOIP, Voice communications, Screen sharing (yes, that is mentioned) and heavy-duty use? A mobile app that is supposed to perform as a true business program has NEVER occurred. I hope you can break that mold, but based on your performance to date, and responses I have received, you are coming late in the game to try to challenge snapchat.

Work to your darned strengths, will you. Support your core users BEFORE attempting to garner a new demographic.

So a New Skype is out. WILL MY REPO TELL ME AN UPDATE IS AVAILABLE, OR WILL I NEED TO GO OLD SCHOOL AND REMOVE THE CURRENT TRASH BEFORE I DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL WHAT YOU OFFER NEXT? At the moment, I do not seem to be able to get to https://repo.skype.com.

Will this be Skype for linux beta 5.5? Or, as you infer here, "Skype Preview" 5.5? No one at Skype seems to understand version numbers, but this is important to us.

[EDIT] Holy Cow! you put a version number in the DEB name??? Version 8.5.76.55323? Thats a far cry from 5.4.0.1, and much later than the 5.2 that I was told by MS was the latest! I just checked my software sources, and Skype is enabled. I just checked for updates, and there is NO update for Skype yet. I think your Repo is dead. You should tell us when you do stuff like that.... Is https://repo.skype.com still operational? Or do we need to use this download link?

[EDIT2] Have you changed the platform requirements? Originally this was Ubuntu 14.04+, which makes sense. The current Long Term Support and later. I now have unsatisfied dependencies, which makes me think you changed more than just the versioning scheme.

[EDIT3] https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10328/what-are-the-system-requirements-for-skype

Tells us :

Did this change and MS/Skype not tell us? This is rather important, don't you think?

[EDIT 4] Last Rant. This is a preview. We have had a very good and stable Skype 4.3 for a while. WHEN will Linux get an actual stable release of SKYPE?????

New skype version causes xorg segfaults on my installation

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1714122

Hello JSV_450,

thank you for your feedback.

The Skype Preview 8.5 is released to separate update channel (unstable) in our update repositories, as it is an early version, which needs you to opt-in to it. It can have some unforeseen issues, so any feedback is greatly appreciated and helps us make a great product you will enjoy using. The preview channel will receive regular updates and eventually becomes the new Skype.

This version already addresses many issues reported for Skype for Linux Beta 5.x by you, the Linux community, including the addition of screen sharing, more languages, spellchecking, code-snippet sending, improved A/V settings and calling.

The Linux client is going to get the same features as the Windows and Mac versions for the first time, so that is the reason for changing the client version number, to be in sync across all our platforms.

There was no change in requirements compared to the Skype for Linux Beta 5.x. If you hit any issues, please provide more details, so we can address them as soon as possible. You can use either this Community forum, or directly the "Report a problem" option in the client.

Kind regards,

stay tuned :-)

JonasT

New skype version causes xorg segfaults on my installation

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1714122

Hello Yury,

thank you for your report, we will take a look at it.

Kind regards,

JonasT

Multi screen screen share issue.

On multi screen Linux I've no option to choose the screen I want to share.

Only one single big screen is shared, in older (4.3) version i can share one or another by starting screen share in the screen I want to share.

Thanks for the new features!

Hello Marco,

thank you for reaching out. This is currently a known limitation and we will be looking at how to improve the multi-screen scenarios in the future.

Thank you for trying the new Skype client on Linux and keep the feedback coming!

Best regards,

Martin

When using the new Skype Preview 8.5.76.55323 I can no longer send chat messages to users on version 5.4.0.1 of the Linux client; they just sit there on "Sending" and never go through. I can call these users OK, but the call quality sounds a lot worse that when I was using 5.4.0.1 myself, it sounds a lot more muffled, sort of like it's struggling for bandwidth…

I've had to revert to 5.4.0.1 due to being unable to send chat messages.

Got past a couple of glitches (the logs are useful) before hitting wall :

- dependencies added: libsecret, libv4l2 on top of what skype beta needed

- PLEASE dont hardcode paths, let us control $PATH. Eg. /usr/bin/wget. In my distro (Tinycore) that links to Busybox which does not support all options. Installed full wget at /usr/local/bin/wget but of course, the path is hardcoded. Had to manually relink.

Got logged in, could see recent chats, clicked on one - Skype window blanked completely. Menu remains but nothing responds. Only option that worked was Quit Skype from the tray icon. In fact whatever I click on having logged in it does that so unusable.

Nice to know this is actually happening. All those frustrations aimed at you during Beta (guilty as charged) would have been lessened if MS just communicated with us. Though the whole premise of removing P2P and basing on Electron is still wrong.

Okay, I think I need to align my terminology with yours. I suggest better details on the intent and changes you have made, such as a Changelog we could review. In my world (as small as it is), this "Preview" would actually be considered a "Beta Test Article". I have found it does actually work for receiving and making VOIP calls. A significant step up from the "Beta" 5.4.0.1. It is functional, not quite production quality, but can be used with caution.

My dependancy issue turned out to be the GNU Standard C++ Library. My system had v4.7-dbg, and this Skype preview wanted v4.9-dbg or higher. Once that was corrected on my system, Skype For Linux 8.5 installed without issue. This is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

I tried two cameras, a Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000 and a Logitech C170. I tried them independently (not connected at the same time) both on /dev/video0. Skype 8.5 preview found them, but could not use them. When a video call was placed, Skype 8.5 hung and could not be brought back. I killed the process and rebooted. Both cameras worked with Skype 4.3 and Cheese.

When I put out a beta article to test, I often provide access to log files that would not be present in the production program. This so when a race condition/infinite loop/bad other thing happens, I can ask the tester to forward me the logs. I could not find that here. In the camera issue, where Skype 8.5 hung, can I find log files to forward to you? Logs that I get view and vett (i.e. human-readable)?

I will put the VOIP component and chat to test today for evaluation. Video will wait until we see if there is something missing from Skype, or if a specific config is needed for my system. I'll get back to you with my opinion if this fits the bill as a useful tool again, even if it's "preview", or if it more akin to the 5.4.0.1 frustration generator.