Skype too unstable -- alternatives?

[dessaya]

I'm running kubuntu 64 bits. I have a couple of friends who use Skype for IM, and I would like to stay in touch with them.

I found the skype application too unstable. At first it crashed randomly after a couple of minutes of using it. This is discussed in some other threads; one of the proposed solutions is to reinstall skype (?).

This seems to have worked, but today I found that my notebook battery was being drained. top showed that pulseaudio was using too much CPU. I closed skype and pulseaudio went back to normal.

So, my question is: Does anyone else have these issues with Skype? Is there any way to use Skype IM without using Skype?

I tried using outlook.com having linked my microsoft and skype accounts. All my Skype contacts show as offline. Also, other IM services like imo.im seem not to work with Skype anymore.

Thanks!

[Habitual]

try at https://login.skype.com/account/login-form