Skype Snap App Remains Hopelessly Outdated (omgubuntu.co.uk) 55
An anonymous reader shares a report: The official Skype Snap app for Linux has not been updated in nearly six months, and Microsoft is yet to say why. When introducing the cross-distro build in early 2018, the company said the Skype Snap app would give it the "... ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter which device or distribution they happen to use." Clearly, not. Because at the time of writing this post the Skype Snap app sits on version 8.34.0.78, which the Snapcraft store reports was 'last updated' in November 2018. However, the "regular" Linux version available to download from the Skype website is on version 8.47.0.73, released June 2019.
Firefox (Score:2)
Should work on any platform.
On Firefox, you need to temporarily change your user-agent to masquarade as Chrome during the login, otherwise you get a "does only work in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge" error.
Internal power struggle (Score:2)
Snaps outdated? How surprising... (Score:3)
There is no way for Snaps to be up-to-date and secure. The author of that snap would need to track every single package contained within that snap -- but, if you already maintain it, why would you even bother doing all that redundant work instead of simply having the package as part of the distribution? And the moment you stop updating the snap every time something inside gets a security update, you become a problem.
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Problems with Linux Package Managers:
RPM / DEB: Conflicting / altered package names make it impossible to write a spec or dsc file that works across distros. Different distros have different packages and deps, making proper dep management impossible as what is included implicitly on one distro is explicit on another.
SNAP: Duplicate base system installation required along with any and all dependencies used by the app. Restrictive permission system makes using files anywhere but the user's home directory diff
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That last paragraph is so fucking true it hurts. If distro maintainers agreed on a single naming system, half the problems of the Linux world would just go away.
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And then we solve cache coherency and we're good to go.
Re: Snaps outdated? How surprising... (Score:2)
So, you're saying none of the current standards is any good, and you propose a new standard everyone should follow that will fix everything?
Well, have I got an XKCD for you...
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It takes a while to put the exploits in (Score:2)
You don't want them to rush it, do you? After all, you need to make sure it can be remotely turned on without your knowledge, and that takes testing.
So? (Score:2)
In 6 months about umpteen gazillion bugs are discovered in Windows some of which need an update to Skype.
Thos NOT being Windows perhaps there just was no problem?
Thanks, Slack! (Score:2)
Same old Microsoft (Score:2)
Same old Microsoft, nothing changed. Still evil and corrupt. Defend its office monopoly at all costs. The only thing that changed is, Microsoft lost the server war and had no choice but to allow Linux in there. Otherwise, it's evil as usual at aging monopolist Microsoft.
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Wow, you work for Microsoft? Must be a fun place, full of your ilk.
That's containers for you (Score:2)
That's the "future": containers. As everything is self-contained, every little security update to a widely-used library like libpng or libxml or libssl means that most containers need to be replaced/rebuilt. And because containers are usually not managed by operations but by programmers, long-term maintenance and post-release security come as a "priority", just not as important as tab/space enforcement and camelCase/not_camel_case style decisions.
We've had this model for years, where each non-core applica
This really is news! (Score:2)
People still use Skype?
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When condemning a once useful tool now rendered a shadow of its former self by the new owners, it is important to go a step further and suggest a replacement. Luckily we've recently seen the rise of WebRTC.
Jitsi Meet (https://meet.jit.si [meet.jit.si]) from any Firefox or Chrome derivative means nothing to install (unless you wish to bypass security by sharing your screen), and typically works better than skype anyway. It's all open source and open protocols so the only thing it lacks is a centralized address book - you
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Is there something that lets you make international phone calls cheap like Skype does? That's the primary reason I use it.
Snap is pure cancer (Score:2)
snap is a cancer
Isn't that the whole point of Snaps? (Score:2)
I thought that was the point of Snaps. You no longer have to deal with vagaries of dependencies and updates, you just get it to work once, then bundle every dependency as a monolithic binary and wash your hands. The Snap way.
Linux? I think you mean Ubuntu (Score:2)
Snap is not a general method for application distribution and is both unneeded and unwanted.
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snap is complete garbage
Outdated? (Score:2)
Has anything useful been added to Slype in the past 5 years? The only thing it does now that didn't do when it was launched, is... support animated emojis?
Fucking useless bloatware doesnt even let me copy paste properly because someone thought it was a brilliant idea to make a text message app based on SQLITE and now what should be a simple text box is full of OOP nonsense.
Snap maker left (Score:2)
The guy who was making the snaps left (quit, got fired, died, etc.) and nobody added this as a task in their CI system.
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Good riddance. Idiots should have spent money on somebody who understand how packaging works.
snap devs are trash.
SKYPE is being phased out (Score:2)
It is EOL April 1, 2020. I would be surprised if it kn Linux it is not deprecated prior to the Win/OSX being shut down. When MS bought SKYPE and ran it all on internal servers that is when the gov't gained access to SKYPE calling.
At least MS has official Linux support.. (Score:2)
I wouldn't know because I don't use Snaps (Score:2)
Snaps are horribly incompatible with a variety of things - specifically they almost universally have issues with IMEs (input method editors) and I need them because I use a CJK language. They also have a variety of weird permission issues because Snap uses its own permission model, and performance issues because they don't use native shared libraries (or sometimes they do, sometimes they don't). It's an interesting idea, but as it is native packaging is universally a better option for any and every reason p
Microsoft doesn't give a shit about Linux. (Score:2)
To quote pre-insanity Kanye West.
but but... (Score:2)
... MS loves Linux!