First post, by Gemini000
- Rank
- l33t
So I'd been using Skype for years now when I attempted to log in today and found an error message saying I've been logged out due to using an outdated version. >_>;
So I updated and started getting fed ads which would pop in and out, confusing me as to which chat windows had actual new messages coming in and which didn't, the ads themselves were lagging the system down (impressive given an 8-core 4 GHz CPU), plus some of my keystrokes were getting missed.
Given the fact most of my friends are on Steam now, given the fact that Steam has voice chat, given the fact that I rarely ever use video chat, and given the fact that file transfers can just be done with eMail, I've finally decided I've had enough of Skype's shenanigans since Microsoft bought it up and uninstalled the blasted thing. :P
I read up a little too following. Not only are the more recent versions more crashy and laggy compared to the older version I was using prior, but it turns out even PAYING customers will see ads sometimes in them. That's just ridiculous on about a million levels. x_x;
Microsoft is doing a terrible job of maintaining Skype and the experience has just been getting slowly and subtly worse every step of the way for people who just want to do simple voice chat. I think Microsoft probably knows it too, since all their money comes from their calling features and people who just use the chat features exclusively are either going to give in to the ads and buy better features for calling people, or are just going to be like me and ditch it for other software since we're not going to buy their premium stuff no matter what. :P
I'm fairly certain we're looking at the beginnings of a very slow and painful demise of Skype once competing products begin to offer similar services. Pidgin for example can already do almost anything Skype can, in fact, video support for Windows is already ready, but part of the upcoming 3.0 version so it's not in the current stable 2.x builds.
But yeah, I'm out of reasons to keep using Skype and the recent forced update gave me several more reasons to stop using it, so off it went. :P
...oh, you wanna know the greatest irony though? You know how a bunch of programs with login features will often send you to a webpage when you go to uninstall asking you why you wanted to uninstall and everything? Skype's uninstaller TRIES to do this, but just takes you to their main help website and not a specific page, as the specific page it's supposed to take you to likely doesn't exist anymore. Smooth. XD
--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
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