Hate on skype. Why?

[Kereplaz]

Hello forumsmen,

Ive been watcing Linussss video for quite awhile now. And in many videos, especially wan shows Linus exhibits alot of hate on skype when the topic arises. My question is why?

For my part i dont live in north America, I have good internet connection and use skype non stop. Calls, video calls file transfer, chatting 24/7. For abotut 5 years now. Almost all my friends are on it and i dont have any major issues with it, therefore i dont understand the hate. Yeah i had my complaint when microsoft took over but that was mostly desing criticisms. I hope this is the right place to start this topic.

[sonarctica]

Because you can find out the IP addresses of people if you know their username.

[PillowSmoke]

MEMORY HOGGER!

[Thecrazyswede]

Because it was okay until microsoft bought it

[rashdanml]

Because you can find out the IP addresses of people if you know their username.

This is the main reason, but it's of little concern to me since I only use Skype for family conversations. If anyone wants to disrupt that, they'd be extremely desperate to even bother. 

[Coombzy]

If somebody wants to attack you via a DDOS attack then its a backdoor in if they know your username I personally just reset my ip or use a VPN.

[Worth]

Because microsoft ruins everything it touches

[Kaasgeelheid]

Because the win8 integrated version just mutes itself when it's not actively open (not minimized). Wat.

Now running a personal teamspeak server and it has never been this easy. I will never go back.

[UnAdmin]

I hate it because I have to restart it every time I get a call because my mic doesn't work and restarting it magically fixes it.

[juretrn]

I think Skype is just fine.

[AndyCapets]

Am I the only not hating it ?

[ForsakenLive]

It's a bad client, full of advertising, glitchy, functions don't work.

Also, you can easily be ddos attacked, thanks to the insecure user system, which allows very easily to determine your IP.

I's also very insecure in therms of data, most of what's talked wrote and shared gets supervised and it's used by Microsoft. There is evidence on this subject, testings were done to see how the Skype server deals with the information that gets sucked from a conversation. Everytime you for example, paste a link on the skype chat, the skype server will shortly access this link, see what it is and store the data of you visiting X subject. Testing was done by feeding the chat with the desired links, and right after that, the Skype server adress will show on the website log as a visitor.

Apart from that the high amount of memory it consumes, bandwidth and PC use compared to other clients, is much bigger.

 

The Client itself has very few options regarding configuration, there is no way to stop Skype from getting you killed in a game, it creates  an overlay that will take you to desktop if clicked in the same place of the game, or it gets done automatically if you are called, invited to a call, or someone leaves. There is no way to mute someone on a call, to control people's volume individually, to make easy game or contact groups which don't need conversations every time they start chatting, the file share system is total crap, the settings that go into your audio input and output lack plenty of features, and whatever you do, you are always on a older version, and if you update everything gets broken even more, and a 2 weeks later, you need another update, which you never know what contains, or what it does.

 

Why do we keep using something like this, and why aren't any good call systems that don't require a server to operate or making channels (e.g TeamSpeak, Raidcall, Ventrilo, Mumble). Razer Comms is still unknown buggy and ALWAYS requires me to restart my system every week or so.,..

[Misanthrope]

 

Hate on skype. Why?

 

Take a reasonable system like mine: Old dual core processor topping at 3.1 ghz and 4 mb of DDR 2 ram like mine. Open Skype, leave it open to away people to call you and stuff, normal wear an tear.

 

Now you might notice two things if you're a user like me: first you will notice that your CPU temps are 5 degrees above normal idle temps. You're doing nothing you merely have skype open to wait for calls. Now you check it on task manager, you see its not only constantly using your CPU hence the temps but also leaking memory like crazy and its already over 1.5 gb of memory.

And that is why I personally hate skype, its a fucking resource hog that leaks memory all the time. It is unacceptable that the thing struggles more on my desktop pc than on my smartphone.

[Scottonpc]

I like using Skype, although there is a risk of getting DDoSed because all you have to do is put the users Skype user name in a online Skype resolver and you get their IP.

[T.Vengeance]

Take a reasonable system like mine: Old dual core processor topping at 3.1 ghz and 4 mb of DDR 2 ram like mine. Open Skype, leave it open to away people to call you and stuff, normal wear an tear.

 

Now you might notice two things if you're a user like me: first you will notice that your CPU temps are 5 degrees above normal idle temps. You're doing nothing you merely have skype open to wait for calls. Now you check it on task manager, you see its not only constantly using your CPU hence the temps but also leaking memory like crazy and its already over 1.5 gb of memory.

And that is why I personally hate skype, its a fucking resource hog that leaks memory all the time. It is unacceptable that the thing struggles more on my desktop pc than on my smartphone.

 

What are you talking about? Skype doesn't even tax my system at all.

[Misanthrope]

 

 

What are you talking about? Skype doesn't even tax my system at all.

 

Of course because we all know that if it works well in your particular configuration right now it must work well for every single other user with every single configuration, OS version, updates and at any given point in time.

 

Once again, brilliant example of the validity of anecdotal evidence.

[TheProfosist]

Because there are better things available and skype doesnt do anything it does particularly well.

[T.Vengeance]

Of course because we all know that if it works well in your particular configuration right now it must work well for every single other user with every single configuration, OS version, updates and at any given point in time.

 

Once again, brilliant example of the validity of anecdotal evidence.

 

Nice unwarranted rude response. I wouldn't see any reason why hardware would drastically change RAM usage. Like yourself, I have 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and unless you don't run XP, Vista, or Win7, the OS would be the same. I have tried Skype on 3 of those platforms. It always uses up approximately 100-200mb of RAM. I run a Q8400 at stock clock which is less than yours. 

[Misanthrope]

Nice unwarranted rude response. 

 

No more rude that denying someone has an issue with bullshit like "well it works fine for me!"

[T.Vengeance]

No more rude that denying someone has an issue with bullshit like "well it works fine for me!"

I never stated that.

 

 

What are you talking about? Skype doesn't even tax my system at all.

 

is to say I don't believe that such a drastic (10 fold) increase in RAM usage is Skype's fault. Perhaps it was multiple corrupted updates, that's the cause of it. 

[Misanthrope]

I never stated that.

 

 

Nice try: It's implied out of a "What are you talking about?" I found that rude, as rude as all the other guys who go into forums of people reporting bugs and issues just to chime in "what are you talking about it works fine for me"

[ThreePinkApples]

Because their mobile app really, really do suck

 

There is no possibility to limit what chats it should load

There is no possibility to limit how long back in time you want to load

There is no possibility to know if you are "Away" or "Bussy", and no possibility to change to those (If you are away, the phone shows you as available, and if you are bussy it shows it as invisible)

If I am logged out of the Skype app for just are day (maybe to) the whole phone freezes up and the app crashes several times before it finally manages to finish loading

In february I had over 1,2GB of data used by Skype only (WiFi + 3G), so maybe the could encrypt text some more? (Only use text chat on the phone, only, have never taken a call with it)

 

This is my experience with the app on both iPhone 4S and Nexus 4

 

 

Oh, and the IP exploit on PC

 

 

For those of you complaining about RAM and CPU usage

I have had that problem, but it is atleast a year ago since it was fixed for me

[Kereplaz]

Thank you everyone who replied. Never heard of the ip eploit before so thats new. Some of the other mentioned issues are not know to me. I have a mediocre pc at best and it does not impair its performance at all as far as i can tell. Further about the lack of customization, i know that theres little customization but as i like to play full screen games i disabled the pop up and that game minimizing thing. Or i just go dnd. And as of yet i dont see a viable alternative to skype. Besides all my people are on it and not a lot of them have complaints about it.

[Torg73]

I been using Skype for about 10 years and there's been plenty of problems with it but in most part been a good VoiP, the security problem with getting DDoS is not a new thing when Microsoft took over its just that some people or more more prone to attacks on the internet then others.

 

It's true that the Skype App for Windows 8 has less options but that can be a good thing as not everyone that uses VoiP's are tech savvy like people on fourms like this one making it easier to use.

[GoodBytes]

Last I check, Skype is P2P. The idea of Skype is that you avoid the middle man once the connection is established.

Well it does use Super nodes and that is why its good in calling people in different countries, and it's also a requirement due to NAT's. The inner working of Skype is all confidential. So no one knows how it actually works in the background exactly, just a general idea.

The end results, is that Skype, due to its P2P like system, it makes it much harder (but not impossible), to have intercepted video/audio conversations, making it more secure as well, and in addition, cost much less. However, you are prone to DDOS. And if it wasn't like this, then it will be like MSN video chat, and then you'll complain how NSA collects all the video feed, and other security issues.

Ads in Skype are inevitable. The original Skype owner tried to avoid ads, but they were going down under big time, as too few people got any paying service. They were going to put ads one day or another. Microsoft has the infrastructure for advertisement already, and partners. Things aren't free, I am afraid. You can't have free and no ads. Already Mozilla foundation lacks funding from the lack of donations from people, and are looking into putting ads when you create a new tab. The way it will work, is that it only applies to new Firefox users. See it as a first time run type of thing. When you create a new tab, right now, you have the last 9 web sites you visit. Well, on a new Firefox install, those 9 square are empty, as you just opened Firefox. Well instead of being empty. Site will pay money to have their website on there. For example, you'll see one of the tiles say: Facebook.com. There will be a marking saying its an ad. And as soon as you visit other websites it will be overwritten, so the ad will be gone. So basically visit 9 web sites and no more ads.