It would be very nice to see Skype Linux with Video support. I use Skype all the time and it's the only thing that keep me from moving entirely to Linux. PLEASE SKYPE STAFF, MAKE IT WORK!!!

I vote for it as well!

Please, let Skype 2.0 for Linux HAPPEN SOON !

G.

yeah... sure maybe in 2 years
rotfl

my voice for skypinglinux is yours!

Yeah, right... when pigs fly. Seriously, I have an AMD 64 bit machine (have tried 32 bit mode and 64 bit) and every Linux Skype version I have tried was garbage. Works *great* for about 3 seconds and then the sound is gone and a restart just brings up that damned 'problem with sound device' error message. Don't even start to tell me to check perms and sound device settings nor the ever infamous and worthless, "Make sure your mic is not muted" BS. The true fact, Skype for Linux is a joke, has always been a joke, and always WILL be a joke until the devs release the code so REAL programmers can fix the damn thing. Skype is/was a good idea but the problems seem to be more than lowly windoze programmers can handle. C'mon guys, release the code... make your $$$ with SkypeOUT/IN. As it stands now, keeping teh code secret is costing you money. you will NOT make any (repeat) money from Linux users as long as the ever present problems are there... and hell will freeze over before most of us install M$ just to use Skype. Sorry for the rage and rant but some of these problems have been ongoing since Skype for Linux's inception and it is totally pointless because some of us could fix it if Skype developers weren't so secretive with the code.

You really need video conferences? Just look at http://www.ekiga.org. Damien and others follow the standards, skype does not.
Yes it works and it worked before skype had released linux version
of its client.

... but that does not mean that Alsa support and whatever it takes so that it works with a dualpone.nl would be very welcome. Solving the restart for each new call would also be welcome.

But ... I use a USB headset on a AMD1300 computer and have perfect quality.

It's great that there are other technologies out there, but networks rely on users and most are on Skype.

[quote=chilek]You really need video conferences? Just look at http://www.ekiga.org. Damien and others follow the standards, skype does not.
Yes it works and it worked before skype had released linux version
of its client.[/quote]

You're MISSING the point... WHO uses Ekiga/Gnomemeeting? If Damien were smart enough he would have thought of making Ekiga at least workable with MSN Messenger which is a lot used (aMSN thought of it !!!).

You say that but who are you going to convince to use Ekiga or dead Netmeeting?

re Video... Unfortunately we actually have to worry about silly things like licenses to go cross platform and implementation is not as cookie cutter as with Windows. There is considerable work to be done and a few things need to fall into place yet.

We will have Skype video capable embedded device prototypes running Linux in 2006. Hopefully we can get that to the Skype for Linux desktop client sooner rather than later. But that isn't going to happen in the next few months.

Developers who would fancy working on stuff like this should submit their resume to our website.

Well well well ....
Now let me think... :roll: Why did nt I see this coming ? :roll:
Please linux skype users, just tell me: Did you really think they were going to add ALSA support as quickly as they added video support in their WIndows version? did you really think linx users were going to have a stable WORKING version of skype that includes all the features the WIndows version has in a reasonable amount of time, given that the "last" "stable" release of Skype is more than 6 months old and given that new Windows versions have been released at least every month since then ?

To be honest, I actually believed in it :wink: . My hopes started fading away since the begining of this new year, seeing that no proper releases were made for Linux :evil: . And now, given the answer of Garetho, I am just in for the outcome I was trying to convince myself would never happen: Having to discard Skype solely based on the grounds that their Linux support is simply I-N-E-X-S-I-T-A-N-T. There is no need to be an advanced programmer nor a Linux guru to figure out that ALSA is definitely a better choice than OSS. The "Problem with sound device", aka NoALSASupport bug has been around for a W H I L E now. Linux users have litteraly spamed this forum with posts about this bug. Yeah, sure, the Skype team has released some "updates" to the Linux version 1.2.0.18 after its official release but, mind you, it was too hard to fix this bug. IT s been more than 6 months now ! One really gets to wonder "WTH are they doing overthere?" Maybe the answer is "the windows version needs video support , "why not release a beta for that platform and then see what happens... "

I have been a rather honest skype user until now, buying SkypeOut credit once in a while and telling people around me about its virtues. Well, now the situation HAS changed. I have tried many open source alternatives to Skype which just WORK (plain and simple). I am tired of giving out my money to a team of developers who first cant make a sensible decision (ALSA over OSS) , but worse, who arent even able to prioritize as a CRITICAL bug and FIX it. And dont even get me started on the DBUS problem. As to the video support, this, IMHO, is PURE UTOPIA (well, didnt garetho said it himself in his own words ?) ...

Come on Linux users, it is high time to stop begging for support. Get over it and stop using Skype. They can NOT release a proper working version of their software ... FINE ! They do not deserve our support and our money ! I am simply going to tell people around me about my Skrapie experience and show them better alternatives to it. I invite all of you to do the same thing.

PS: By the time Skype for Windows has tele-transportation built-in, maybe the Linux version will be able to use different audio devices for Input/Output ... or if we re lucky it will have beta video. GET OVER IT NOW, AND MAKE THE CHANGE ! Too bad and too late for Skype, they should have made a move earlier.

Here is why OSS has been prefered over ALSA... OSS is a better (simplier) solution for embedded systems... So, yes, Skype doesn't care about linux users...

djails - i can understand your frustration. we are definitely late on alsa support. it is something we expected would be there many months ago. you will find that the most frustrated people on that topic are the people who use Linux everyday at Skype - there are a large number of them and they are definitely vocal. we knew long ago that the OSS to ALSA transition wouldn't be trivial, despite what people might like to believe. our approach has been nothing but total honesty from the start so it's equally frustrating to hear people like yourself lament our commitment etc. of course we understand that reaction - given your position it's totally natural. still we hope you'll continue to use skype and will feel at least a little bit better about all this when the next release is out if you're willing to stick around a bit longer.

garetho - Thank you for your reply. It is comforting to know that skype developers do indeed read threads in this forum, and even more so to hear that they are themselves concerned with the development of Skype for Linux.

It is of course entirely understandable that Skype for Windows is by far the highest priority at the moment, however I hope your superiors understand that Skype for Linux has tremendous potential. (1) Firstly the Linux userbase is ever increasing (especially thanks to the enormous success of Ubuntu), and (2) secondly there are currently far fewer good softphone alternatives to Skype available for Linux.

Also, as you surely know the Linux community has always been very willing to test unstable releases and provide valuable feedback. If Skype were more willing to provide builds for testing, I think that development could occur at a faster pace.

In any event I would like to thank you again for your post. I believe that somewhat more frequent posts by the Skype-Linux staff on the development status, or providing unstable builds would do wonders in terms of soothing the temper of some of the users that visit these forums. I sincerely hope that development on Skype for Linux will continue in the future, and that you will continue to speak up for all of us Linux users.

[quote=garetho]djails - i can understand your frustration. we are definitely late on alsa support.[/quote]

we really appreciate your post , but i'm frustrated as him because i'm a network admin in italy with 100 pc installed running linux using skype.
as u can understand this 3 years project relies on skype too and if your project is dead my project too will probably dead...
so our frustration is because we have to understand what we have to do.
But if u tell us that linux project isn't dead then tell us when will next version be ready.
linux users aren't no more, at this time, only hackers but there's a growing numbers of installation in production.

thanks

Not all linux users are geeks. I am not a computer expert or anything like that. I am a UNIX/Linux user and 65 yrs old!. I chose Skype because it ran on Linux. I only use Win 98 for one word processing package (WordPro) that does not work on Linux (and now the new version of Skype will nor run on 98). Because Skype for Linux seems to be going nowhere I have essentially dumped Skype and gone over to SIP. It is well supported for Linux, is rapidly improving (Wengo, Xlite etc.) and more flexible. I no longer even suggest Skype to others because it is difficult so see where it is going.

[quote=garetho]djails - i can understand your frustration. we are definitely late on alsa support. [/quote]

Too late. It's become increasingly clear that whatever some indivuduals there may feel, skype the company as a whole doesn't give a damn about linux users anymore.
So I guess that's it. Way back when, I was somewhat uncomfortable with skype using a closed protocol (I wasn't that concerned about the software itself). Still, because I've moved to another country, I forked over money for SkypeOut _AND_ SkypeIn.

Silly me. I shouldn't have been lazy and checked the alternatives.

Now, it's going to take a while, but fortunately I'm one of the most computer savvy in my circles of friends. Which mean they often listen to me when it comes to computers - at least as long as it isn't too much of a fuss. I'm pretty sure that by the time my skypein account runs out, I'll have convinced them all to switch over to SIP based solutions.

I can only encourage everybody else to do the same - remember, whatever 'free spirit' that originally made them write a linux client has been gleefully thrown overboard the day ebay bought them off.

Well, I guess it's at least been profitable for the founders...

[quote=garetho]re Video... Unfortunately we actually have to worry about silly things like licenses to go cross platform and implementation is not as cookie cutter as with Windows. There is considerable work to be done and a few things need to fall into place yet.

We will have Skype video capable embedded device prototypes running Linux in 2006. Hopefully we can get that to the Skype for Linux desktop client sooner rather than later. But that isn't going to happen in the next few months.

Developers who would fancy working on stuff like this should submit their resume to our website.[/quote]

I hope you're right, I like others here are on the edge to find alternatives to Skype. I like others here made a lot of users change to Skype (mainly because msn is a pile of very bad shit). But the way the development team on Skype seems to ignore Linux is becomming so apearent that even I can't ignore it any more (and I'm very patient when it comes to software).

Edit:
If something starts happening I'd gladly start coverting msn-users again (and maybe make some of the Linux-users at my University change too)

yay, finally someone responding to us, after 6 months of complaints ... lol

anyways, thanks for responding, but I would like to know how long do we still have to stand in the wind for?

xboxrulz

gizmo-project now has alsa support - and as far as i know, they use global ip for audio, too:

http://gizmoproject.com/jasmine/GtkGizmo-1.0.0.18

as I said b4, it doesn't work

xboxrulz

[quote=xboxrulz]as I said b4, it doesn't work

xboxrulz[/quote]

well, as i said before ... it works fine on FC4.

by the way ... this is a BETA. it isn't even an official beta yet, but at least gizmo-project is involving its users in the process.

you say it doesn't work, but have you tested it? from what i've been able to deduce from the gizmo forums, a lot of the problems people are having with the alsa version stems from old .config files, installation of wrong sipphone library, etc ...

as i said - works fine for me, which is more than i can say for skype.

Just installed gizmo on FC4, and it works a treat. I have also come to the end of my patience with the poor support this company offers for their Linux customers.

Cod

[quote=swcodfather]Just installed gizmo on FC4, and it works a treat.[/quote]

can you confirm whether running gizmo increases CPU temperature drastically? my computer usually runs at 48-50 degrees, but with gizmo running it increases to over 60 in the space of about 10 minutes ... kill gizmo, and back down it goes ... it's probably not going to do much harm at that temperature, but it make me suspicious of what's going on (it doesn't actually seem to use that much processor time).

[quote=garetho]re Video... Unfortunately we actually have to worry about silly things like licenses to go cross platform and implementation is not as cookie cutter as with Windows. There is considerable work to be done and a few things need to fall into place yet.

We will have Skype video capable embedded device prototypes running Linux in 2006. Hopefully we can get that to the Skype for Linux desktop client sooner rather than later. But that isn't going to happen in the next few months.

Developers who would fancy working on stuff like this should submit their resume to our website.[/quote]

Garetho, it sounds very much as if you're in the same boat as us. It's was first October 17th when you told us there were implementations with ALSA support were being tested (http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?p=176617&highlight=#176617). Perhaps you and the other Skype developers on Linux are not being allocated enough time to work on Skype?

Well then the question is, can we help in anyway? Is there somewhere we can write to, or sign up to some form of productive constructive petition, rather than giving you lots of negative back-chat on the forums? If you have an address that we can write to, or some official petition area that your superiors will look at and trust, where they can see that we are a large userbase, and we are willing to be vocal about our needs, then perhaps we can help you and the other developers be allocated more time so that, in the end, everybody's happy.

You could potentially have a huge response, so if it will help you in any way get more time for the development of a system which you've said yourself you'd dearly like, then use our voice. You're obviously aware of our frustrations too, but with all due respect they're not quite the same. You have knowledge of the exact level of development, it sounds as though you do at least have an ALSA codebase to play with, whereas most of us not in the closed-beta program have nothing, and further we have no way of making any headway. We can't even work on it in our spare time!!! So please give us a way to help you get it developed faster, to channel and ease our frustrations, and I think you'd be amazed at the response...

Mike

Speaking from the betatester's point of view i have to second what Garetho said about the development of the Skype for Linux client: It has taken and is taking place yet it is, compared to the windows part developing slower. Fixing the bugs which is still rendering it unstable in certain situations takes its time. And like the devs in this forum know: Putting more coders on one subject would not speed development up.
So you might be unfaithful to Skype and use another VoIP client if Skype does not work on your rig right now but I am sure you will come back to enjoy the upcoming release.

[quote=mistermachine]gizmo-project now has alsa support - and as far as i know, they use global ip for audio, too:

http://gizmoproject.com/jasmine/GtkGizmo-1.0.0.18[/quote]

gizmo is great, but uses GTK, i like QT (i'm kde fan xD )

[quote=DarkMind][quote=mistermachine]gizmo-project now has alsa support - and as far as i know, they use global ip for audio, too:

http://gizmoproject.com/jasmine/GtkGizmo-1.0.0.18[/quote]

gizmo is great, but uses GTK, i like QT (i'm kde fan xD )[/quote]

heh ... me the exact opposite :wink:

[quote=DarkMind][quote=mistermachine]gizmo-project now has alsa support - and as far as i know, they use global ip for audio, too:

http://gizmoproject.com/jasmine/GtkGizmo-1.0.0.18[/quote]

gizmo is great, but uses GTK, i like QT (i'm kde fan xD )[/quote]

Except for some few progs in the kde that is better than in Gnome, I havn't understood why ppl use KDE, but in the end I guess it is a matter of taste

KR-Data, same goes with why people created and use GNOME in the first place. KDE was first, you should know that

xboxrulz

[quote=garetho]re Video... Unfortunately we actually have to worry about silly things like licenses to go cross platform and implementation is not as cookie cutter as with Windows. There is considerable work to be done and a few things need to fall into place yet.

We will have Skype video capable embedded device prototypes running Linux in 2006. Hopefully we can get that to the Skype for Linux desktop client sooner rather than later. But that isn't going to happen in the next few months.

Developers who would fancy working on stuff like this should submit their resume to our website.[/quote]

What licensing? Video4linux(V4L) is gpl. As for sound OSS is much better to use then alsa. Even arts in kde sucks for the most part.

As for resume I looked around for the linux developer's to submit theirs but didn't find it.

But on a serious note most linux users are geeky enough to test any new beta Skype is willing to put out. How about a timely release like a every month beta or even a 2 month beta?

The biggest issue I see is there is no roadmap for the linux version. What is Skype's goal for linux users? I hope it isn't going to end like Yahoo did. Yahoo cut there own throats when they stopped supporting and developing for linux. And Google is getting really involved with linux. Google even hired the most experienced linux IM developer, GAIM, to head there google talk program so they can get a compatiable version for linux out.

I hope Skype isn't willing to cut there own throats to protect there protocols they use. There are legal docs you can use such as a NDA, Non-disclosure Agreement.

Just some input from a linux developer.

[quote=sgrayban]As for sound OSS is much better to use then alsa.[/quote]

Others may not share your view. Please check the various forum threads to see how many there are...

Sound or no sound.. Developement is pretty much dead.

V4L is opensource -- there is no license fees they claim there is.

The lack of any new package for months now.

You picked one thing out of 5 to point at when really its the total lack of any development or beta releases.

Skype will turn its back on linux users just like Yahoo did. This is why Google will beat the snot out of the competition. Google knows linux users are in the dark for good P2P IM/VOICE/CHAT/VIDEO.

Trust me on this. I know what Google is doing.

That might be the point? if you include code under GPL in your program, your program must be released under GPL too. I don't know if this is the problem:
if V4L is called as an external program without including its code into skype
there should be no problem with GPL.

Perce

You use the library hooks. There is no need to actual tie the v4l code into skype.

Its called shared libraries and using the correct kernel modules.

I vote too for skype video

I vote for skype video too, and of course new exciting look!!!!