I would like to see 1.4 as a working package for Ubuntu dapper. Dapper is still an important Ubuntu version, specially as LTS (Long Term Support) version.
I would rather update my Skype for Linux regularly to new versions
than my Dapper installation once

Use static tarball.
It is built specifically in a way to allow running on older debian versions.

Can you put the static version also in repository, for example as package "skype-static"?
Currently the dynamic linked version is useless and installing static version from tar.bz is inconvenient for inexperienced users.