On Aug 5, without previous warning, Skype locked out all Mac users running Leopard or earlier versions of OS-X. Those customers are given instructions to update, but following them does not solve the problem. The Skype Community Forum is currently swamped with complaints. A company representative active on the forum said "Unfortunately we don't currently have a build that OS X Leopard (10.5) users could use" but did not answer the question whether they intend to provide one or not. It seems Microsoft shows their true colors. But users may perhaps try Tox, ekiga, linphone, gnutelephony, Jitsi or other replacements.
In previous news Skype ditched ALSA for PulseAudio and it's vital for NSA.
Related Stories
Encrypted or not, Skype communications prove "vital" to NSA surveillance. Newly published memo leaked by Edward Snowden details the value of Skype data.
Last year, Ars documented how Skype encryption posed little challenge to Microsoft abuse filters that scanned instant messages for potentially abusive Web links. Within hours of newly created, never-before-visited URLs being transmitted over the service, the scanners were able to pluck them out of a cryptographically protected stream and test if they were malicious. Now comes word that the National Security Agency is also able to work around Skype crypto-so much so that analysts have deemed the Microsoft-owned service "vital" to a key surveillance regimen known as PRISM.
A new Skype for Linux update has been released by Microsoft ... the developers have explained that, starting with this version of Skype 4.3, the direct ALSA support has been dropped and users will need to use PulseAudio 4.0 for the best audio experience.
According to the changelog, the new cloud-based Group Chat experience has been implemented into the software, the file transfer support is now much better when using multiple devices at once, the accessibility for blind and visually impaired users has been improved, PulseAudio 3.0 and 4.0 support has been added, and numerous bug fixes have been implemented.
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[Ed's Note: The AC also included the following - I decided to leave it in.]
The cynic inside me finds it hard to swallow the words "best audio experience" just because Microsoft said so. If I was to add a group of tags to my story submission, I would include:
Linux-Audio | Microsoft | Lennart-Poettering | RedHat | DoD | Skype | Backdoor | Walled-Garden | NSA | Cloud | Elitist-Development-Model | Faithful-Brownshirt-Of-The-Oligarchy | If-Infiltrated-EQ-1-Then-Manipulate
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @01:24PM
...if any of the people I talk to actually used them. Unfortunately, they all use Skype, and they aren't going to change just to appease me or to "fight" for open-source.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @01:38PM
Yes, that's the problem with proprietary protocols: You're locked into a specific product. Note that this isn't even about Open Source; you can't even get another proprietary client for the proprietary protocol. So if Microsoft should at any day decide to completely drop support for OS X, then Apple cannot just provide its own client as replacement. Apple can, of course, write a separate VoIP application, but without cooperation from Microsoft it won't be able to communicate with Skype.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BasilBrush on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:39PM
Apple can, of course, write a separate VoIP application.
Apple has been shipping one for years. Originally iChat (AV), and these days Facetime. But like you say there's the problem that it won't connect to Skype users. So it remains a niche app used purely for people that have Macs or iOS devices. You have to use Skype for talking to PC and Android users.
But the risk of MS cutting out contemporary Apple devices is small. The very success of Skype is down to it's ubiquity. If it's not ubiquitous any more, then it will get replaced by something that is. It's no more of a permanent monopoly than ICQ was.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 07 2014, @08:46PM
Please, remind me: How large of a segment of the computer market did MS alienate by no longer supporting MAC OS versions 10.5?
On any particular day, I bet more people notice a fart in the wind than this.
Nothing to see here; move along.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday August 08 2014, @09:39PM
Please, remind me: How large of a segment of the computer market did MS alienate by no longer supporting MAC OS versions 10.5?
A vanishingly small one. It's a very old OS version, only needed by those hanging on to very old PowerPC Macs. And yet today Microsoft reversed the decision, and are going to support 10.5 again. Which nicely illustrates my point.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by redneckmother on Thursday August 07 2014, @03:20PM
You are correct that most people aren't concerned about lock-in, and most are also not concerned about security or privacy.
I recently examined some open alternatives, particularly most of those listed in TFS. The one that impressed me most is Jitsi, and I am following their development with some interest.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Thursday August 07 2014, @01:34PM
Thank you M$ for confirming what dicks you are. As if conformation was necessary.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 1) by BasilBrush on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:42PM
Oh come on. I despise MS as much as the next man, but OS X 10.5 is a 7 year old OS version. And whilst for Windows that would make it almost current, it's 5 full versions ago for OSX.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by ticho on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:48PM
What kind of boneheaded argument is that? If the OS is capable of running the app, it makes no sense to disallow it. If they do not want to support it, they can just slap an "UNSUPPORTED" sticker on the version and stop caring about it.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:52PM
If the OS is capable of running the app, it makes no sense to disallow it.
Clearly it's no longer capable of running it. The latest version of Skype must be using some API that doesn't exist on 10.5.
It's hardly unusual.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Alfred on Thursday August 07 2014, @03:09PM
Can you really count them as versions if they are given away free?
I used to be a big apple guy, before it was cool :-), but the MS guys were right, some these new versions are like service packs.
Of note is that 10.5 would run on a PPC, 10.6 is Intel only. By dropping 10.5 you are indirectly requiring an Intel chip. I think we can all agree that this proves there is probably some NSA reason for this ;-)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 07 2014, @07:23PM
No. Don't overstate your point. Not " I think we can all agree that this proves there is probably some NSA reason for this", but rather "I think we can all agree that this proves there is plausibly some NSA reason for this". (Yes, I saw the smiley. Even so accuracy is better.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday August 07 2014, @08:22PM
The NSA jab is mostly because of the "vital for NSA" at the end of the summary. Granted it has been know for some time. The rest of the comment was adding possibly good info not given yet.
While we are on this topic, have you heard "Weird" Al's new song "Foil?" Very good stuff.
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday August 08 2014, @09:41PM
Can you really count them as versions if they are given away free?
Are you trying to say that there's never been a new version of Linux since Linus first launched it in the 1990s?
Price tickets are irrelevant to software versions.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday August 07 2014, @01:38PM
It seems Microsoft shows their true colors. But users may perhaps try Tox, ekiga, linphone, gnutelephony, Jitsi or other replacements.
Even the FSF, headed by someone that thinks using lynx is perfectly adequate, acknowleges there are no good alternates to skype.
Unfortunately, these programs only replace some of Skype's functionality, and only in some situations
That's before you get to the point where everyone uses skype. Until software using webrtc becomes as simple to install and forget about as skype, it's not going to be usable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:05PM
Is there somewhere an overview about the different programs and their abilities/limitations (and interoperability)?
(Score: 2) by TK on Thursday August 07 2014, @05:01PM
Best I can do:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_telecommunication_services_and_product_brands#Software_clients_.E2.80.93_general_brands [wikipedia.org]
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @06:08PM
Here's a small comparison http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Skype_Replacement [libreplanet.org]
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Thursday August 07 2014, @10:14PM
I find that lynx is a perfectly cromulent browser.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Techwolf on Thursday August 07 2014, @01:41PM
Last week, did a forced upgrade that now requirs pulseaudio. Not all linux users can run pulseaudio. And no option to run without sound.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:13PM
i stopped using skype sometime back as it generated all sorted of network noise..
But pulseaudio is available for every linux platform - I donot think it is limited to a certain kernel (unlike alsa).
Can you please specify which users cannot use pulseaudio?
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @04:20PM
even while I *can* run pulseaudio, I certainly don't *want* to run pulseaudio!
(I certainly wouldn't run Skype anyway though)
(Score: 1) by jorl17 on Friday August 08 2014, @12:59AM
Could you please enlighten me as to why exactly you don't want to run Pulseaudio? I'm genuinely curious. Back in the old days, with unstable drivers, it was a nightmare, but in every last Linux install I did before I left the linux userland, it was great. In fact, I found it a work of art in many regards, compared to Mac's coreaudio, and Window's sound management too. Not latency wise, though, as I can't judge that reliably (no background...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 07 2014, @04:08PM
why do people still use Skype?
(Score: 2) by TK on Thursday August 07 2014, @04:54PM
For the same reasons people use Facebook:
*Some would argue that it does it better than any other [soylentnews.org]
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday August 07 2014, @05:45PM
"All their friends are using it" and employers, customer department, dates etc..
(Score: 1) by jorl17 on Friday August 08 2014, @01:01AM
I'm a student currently doing research in academia and all my tutors use it. I also like it to keep in contact with friends, though I often dream of writing a much lighter and more efficient clone of it..