Why so little support for Skype

[myotis]

I have been trying for weeks now to get Skype working properly on 8.04. With my questions to the forum going unanswered. And it seems similar questions to the Skype support forum about 8.04 are also going unanswered.

Given the heavy use of Skype in business, and certainly for me, not getting Skype working has forced me back to Windows, I would have thought this was a fairly important aspect of getting Ubuntu into wider use.

Is Skype particularly difficult or is there some other reason for the problems people are having. Or is it the other way round and taht problems are so rare that people have little expertise to offer in terms of solving them. ie I am just one of a small unlucky minority.

Graham

[Vishal Agarwal]

I did downloaded and installed it. It was not very difficult. What is your problem ?

[Bachstelze]

Because Skype is evil. Don't use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Security_concerns

[mehaga]

Because Skype is evil. Don't use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Security_concerns

Sure, use MSN like everybody else :p

[-grubby]

I did downloaded and installed it. It was not very difficult. What is your problem ?

Yeah, they even have a page for Linux (http://skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/)..

by the way, on that page, even if it says Ubuntu 7.04 it runs fine in Hardy. Also, Ubuntu is not the maker of Skype, so it can't choose to support it or not

[mehaga]

Forgot to mention... Skype is easy to install and works well for me. It's a bit uglier than the windows version, but it works.
EDIT: Only, 64 bit version requires special install procedure )

[th3james]

Because Skype is evil. Don't use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Security_concerns

Yeah, skype should be avoided where possible, ekiga or something that uses an open protocol is a much better idea

[jespdj]

EDIT: Only, 64 bit version requires special install procedure )
Installing Skype on 64-bit Ubuntu is not difficult. Add the Medibuntu (http://medibuntu.org/) repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list - that repository contains a package for installing Skype on 64-bit Ubuntu (and also for 32-bit Ubuntu).

It's no more difficult to install than any other software package.

[myotis]

I did downloaded and installed it. It was not very difficult. What is your problem ?

As this is the community forum, rather than a help forum, I won't repeat the questions I have been asking on the help forums, but its related to getting video working, and Skype disconnecting if video is enabled

[myotis]

Because Skype is evil. Don't use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Security_concerns

Interesting, but given its common use as a business tool, I don't have much choice.

Graham

[myotis]

Yeah, they even have a page for Linux (http://skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/)..

by the way, on that page, even if it says Ubuntu 7.04 it runs fine in Hardy. Also, Ubuntu is not the maker of Skype, so it can't choose to support it or not

I don't understand the last bit, for me,it ran fine in 7, but not in 8, (same version of Skype) suggesting that its some change in Ubuntu that has broken it.

The questions asking for help to get it running in Hardy indicate that it does not run fine in Hardy for everyone.

Graham

[myotis]

Forgot to mention... Skype is easy to install and works well for me. It's a bit uglier than the windows version, but it works.
EDIT: Only, 64 bit version requires special install procedure )


Yes, I am assuming it does work well for most people, but their does seem to be a number of people who are having problems, which seem to have no easy solution - if a solution at all.

Graham

[Vishal Agarwal]

I have been trying for weeks now to get Skype working properly on 8.04. With my questions to the forum going unanswered. And it seems similar questions to the Skype support forum about 8.04 are also going unanswered.

Given the heavy use of Skype in business, and certainly for me, not getting Skype working has forced me back to Windows, I would have thought this was a fairly important aspect of getting Ubuntu into wider use.

Is Skype particularly difficult or is there some other reason for the problems people are having. Or is it the other way round and taht problems are so rare that people have little expertise to offer in terms of solving them. ie I am just one of a small unlucky minority.

Graham


Your entire thread does not describe your problem. Pls describe your problem.

[myotis]

Yeah, skype should be avoided where possible, ekiga or something that uses an open protocol is a much better idea

But a bit limited if the people you need to contact use Skype :-(

Graham

[myotis]

Installing Skype on 64-bit Ubuntu is not difficult. Add the Medibuntu (http://medibuntu.org/) repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list - that repository contains a package for installing Skype on 64-bit Ubuntu (and also for 32-bit Ubuntu).

It's no more difficult to install than any other software package.

Its easy to install, either directly from the Skype download, or the Medibuntu repository as you suggest. The latter even giving a choice of installations for Qt and sound software.

Not that any of them helped with my video issues.

Graham

[myotis]

Your entire thread does not describe your problem. Pls describe your problem.

My problem is that the six or seven questions I have posted in the help forums over the last few weeks have all gone unanswered. So I am not asking for help with the Skype problem here, just wondering why there is so little help available for Skype.

I would however be delighted if you can offer me some help, but I suspect the community forum isn't the place for that. If I can work out how to post a link to a question, I will post you a link to one of my questions, but in fact after loading the medibuntu version yesterday, the problems have changed slightly, and I need to update my most recent attempt at getting help.

Graham

[dixon]

I don't understand the last bit, for me,it ran fine in 7, but not in 8, (same version of Skype) suggesting that its some change in Ubuntu that has broken it.

The questions asking for help to get it running in Hardy indicate that it does not run fine in Hardy for everyone.

Graham
Yeah, since 8 we have pulseaudio, that's the problem :(

[billgoldberg]

As this is the community forum, rather than a help forum, I won't repeat the questions I have been asking on the help forums, but its related to getting video working, and Skype disconnecting if video is enabled

It seems to be a skype bug.

There is nothing Ubuntu nor another distro can do about it.

And since it's closed source, nobody can help fix it.

That's just how it goes with closed source apps.

--

BTW, you shouldn't be using Skype for security reasons. They even have backdoors open for certains governments.

Use Ekiga, or even amsn or something.

[billgoldberg]

Yeah, since 8 we have pulseaudio, that's the problem :(

If PulseAudio is causing problems, it takes exactly 10 seconds to switch to ALSA or something else.

[myotis]

Yeah, since 8 we have pulseaudio, that's the problem :(

But it seems to be working for some, if not the majority, of people.

Graham

[myotis]

It seems to be a skype bug.

There is nothing Ubuntu nor another distro can do about it.

And since it's closed source, nobody can help fix it.

That's just how it goes with closed source apps.

--

BTW, you shouldn't be using Skype for security reasons. They even have backdoors open for certains governments.

Use Ekiga, or even amsn or something.

But by reading through the forums, some people do seem to be getting it to work.

As for not using Skype, I would be happy to use something else (as long as it was multiplatform) but my clients and others who I collaborate with, all use Skype, so I am pretty well stuck with it and the reason I am back with Windows at the moment.

Graham

[Vishal Agarwal]

My problem is that the six or seven questions I have posted in the help forums over the last few weeks have all gone unanswered. So I am not asking for help with the Skype problem here, just wondering why there is so little help available for Skype.

I would however be delighted if you can offer me some help, but I suspect the community forum isn't the place for that. If I can work out how to post a link to a question, I will post you a link to one of my questions, but in fact after loading the medibuntu version yesterday, the problems have changed slightly, and I need to update my most recent attempt at getting help.

Graham

Sorry to say, that I get my posts unanswered, but this does not mean, to get me disappointed.

In that case instead of posting my threads, I look for similar type of threads and try to find out my solutions. And posting some thread doesn't mean that U will get the answer 100%. Because some how it the person of that particular knowledge are not watching that thread, it will remain unanswered. And nobody is going back to see the old threads. It's all the chance that when u are posting a thread, it is picked up with experienced hands and u are answered.

[Vishal Agarwal]

But by reading through the forums, some people do seem to be getting it to work.

As for not using Skype, I would be happy to use something else (as long as it was multiplatform) but my clients and others who I collaborate with, all use Skype, so I am pretty well stuck with it and the reason I am back with Windows at the moment.

Graham

Did u tried the windows version of skype under wine in Ubuntu ?

[myotis]

I look for similar type of threads and try to find out my solutions

I do this before posting a question, and it wasn't just the lack of answering my questions that prompted this post, but the fact that other skype questions were going unanswered as well.

But, in general I agree with everything you have said here.

Graham

[myotis]

Did u tried the windows version of skype under wine in Ubuntu ?

No, I haven't tried that, in fact I am running Crossover office, so I will give that a try.

Thanks,

Graham

[Keyper7]

Could you please post links to the unanswered questions? There might be several reasons why they haven't been answered by the time you posted and nothing will be accomplished now if no one knows exactly what you're talking about.

[myotis]

Could you please post links to the unanswered questions? There might be several reasons why they haven't been answered by the time you posted and nothing will be accomplished now if no one knows exactly what you're talking about.

Thanks, Yes, I will do that, at least the ones where I initiated the question and not where I asked for clarification in an existing Skype thread, but I want to update the last one after I have tried out the combinations available with the Medibuntu repository. I hadn't realised the versions in this repository were different to the download from Skype.

But I'm not really trying to accomplish anything here other than chatting in the cafe, as it didn't seem to be just my questions on Skype that weren't being answered and the same applied in the Skype support forums.

So this is a chat about Skype and not about me not getting answers.

Graham

[myotis]

Could you please post links to the unanswered questions? There might be several reasons why they haven't been answered by the time you posted and nothing will be accomplished now if no one knows exactly what you're talking about.

Ok here is the most recent post, with some additional info:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5660892#post5660892

Graham

[ooobuntooo]

I use Skype at lot, haven't had any problems with it.
I wish they would make Skype for Symbian OS (Mobile Phones).

[myotis]

I use Skype at lot, haven't had any problems with it.
I wish they would make Skype for Symbian OS (Mobile Phones).

Yes, lots of people seem to have no problems, I'm just on of the lucky minority :-(

Graham

[Keyper7]

Thanks, Yes, I will do that, at least the ones where I initiated the question and not where I asked for clarification in an existing Skype thread, but I want to update the last one after I have tried out the combinations available with the Medibuntu repository. I hadn't realised the versions in this repository were different to the download from Skype.

But I'm not really trying to accomplish anything here other than chatting in the cafe, as it didn't seem to be just my questions on Skype that weren't being answered and the same applied in the Skype support forums.

So this is a chat about Skype and not about me not getting answers.

Graham

I understand, I just wanted to say "don't lose your hope yet". :) Those forums are rather active, so sometimes a question that only a few people are capable of answering goes unnoticed because it's buried quickly below other threads.

I wish I could help you more, my camera works with Skype but it's from a completely different brand (it's the built-in camera in my Dell Vostro 1400, brand is OmniVision if I remember correctly).

Since it worked with Ubuntu 7, pulseaudio might be a good guess. Have you tried going to sound preferences and changing to ALSA?

I'd also recommend trying the official skype linux forum (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showforum=18), which seems to be quite active.

[myotis]

I understand, I just wanted to say "don't lose your hope yet". :) Those forums are rather active, so sometimes a question that only a few people are capable of answering goes unnoticed because it's buried quickly below other threads.

I wish I could help you more, my camera works with Skype but it's from a completely different brand (it's the built-in camera in my Dell Vostro 1400, brand is OmniVision if I remember correctly).

Since it worked with Ubuntu 7, pulseaudio might be a good guess. Have you tried going to sound preferences and changing to ALSA?

I'd also recommend trying the official skype linux forum (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showforum=18), which seems to be quite active.

Thanks, but since June I have posted five questions asking about video and Skype without getting any response, and I have hijacked several Skype/video threads with a "I have a similar problem..." approach, which haven't brought any responses either.

I have tried every solution that I have picked up in other peoples thread.

I have posted to the official Skype/Linux forum, with no response but it was only yesterday I posted, but other people with similar Ubuntu/video problems who posted before me aren't getting replied to either.

I am using Alsa, and one of the Medibuntu install options uses its own sound and QT files, presumably to avoid version compatibility issues, but that didn't help.

And I replaced a perfectly good Logitech 5000 (which worked with 7) with a Logitech 9000, because that was known to work out the box with 8 - which made no difference.

When you add this to all the other problems I am having getting Linux to work, I admit I am struggling to stick with it. As a hobby its all very interesting, but as an OS for a small business, its proving far too expensive both in terms of time and equipment(so far, to get things working I've bought a new laser printer, two wireless cards, a graphics card and the two new webcams (the 5000 was originally bought because my previous one wasn't Linux compatible).

On the other hand lots of stuff work really well, and I by far prefer the overall feel of Linux to Windows, but its a massively frustrating experience.

Graham

[jrusso2]

Skype installed OK, but each time I turn on the webcam it crashes. On Mandriva it works fine. Just Ubuntu seems to have this issue.

[myotis]

Skype installed OK, but each time I turn on the webcam it crashes. On Mandriva it works fine. Just Ubuntu seems to have this issue.

Do you actually mean turn on the web cam, or pressing the "test" button.

If its pressing the test button, you can fix that by manually changing the resolution values in the Skype config file, or using the skype version from medibuntu.

This was my first problem (well know my first was that Ubuntu wouldn't recognise the camera at all) so assuming this is an indicator of you having the same problem as I am, fixing this problem won't get you any closer to getting Skype video working.

I am still living in hope of a fix.

Graham