News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by xenreal on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @08:58AM (#19318886)
I see a terrifying problem with this approach. It's like the Microsoft strategy of EEE. They exterminate Firefox - the last non-chromium browser. And if it's become a tendency, we will wallow in monobrowser culture dark age again.

It's not obvious for everyone, but Google started to byte FF. I just can't use google search in Firefox properly, they force me to train their artificial intelligence on each search. Google sites are not locked to chrome-based browsers yet, but they work significantly worse, especially youtube on a mediocre machine.

But in reality, Firefox is the much faster browser. I develop very large webgl web assembly unity game (30Mb of code), and Firefox handles with such burden much better, than chrome.

It's like opera crush. To be compatible with the web, they forced to be compatible with chrome bugs and hacks. After a long time mimicking to a Chrome-based browser, they surrendered to darkness and joined the swarm.

Now the last standing browser is under attack of the giant corporation. If we will not protest, they just swallow us and put onto the glossy walled garden.

Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by cm2187 on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @10:18AM (#19319487)
But skype is kind of the worst of the worst of Microsoft. Hopefully it is just a lazy and/or incompetent team rather than reflecting the strategy of a tech giant.
Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by xenreal on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @12:05PM (#19320532)
Worst or not, many businesses are using skype. I am use skype for web, to chat with colleagues. Now I am forced to install chrome browser, to use skype.

It could be incompetent team, if they had no FF support at all. But they had and it was working perfect, even better than their hot pile of react native app on linux. But now for some reason they close it, without any explanations.

I guess, they forced to use some "special" proprietary WebRTC layer, for video and audio streaming, which not compatible with FF, and management decided that firefox 10% of users are not worthy to support.

But obviously, they just could not compete honestly, their 4% of browser market is laughable, especially take into consideration their desktop OS share. They have long going plan, to dominate browser market.

Strategy is very simple. If your system browser is chrome based, users would not bother to install chrome. The only competitior is firefox, easily devastated by EEE strategy.

Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by dx034 on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @11:32AM (#19320142)
Is it? It's not a great software but doesn't appear overly buggy or unmaintained compared to other office products. Office products and browser compatability are always an issue.
Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by guitarbill on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @11:40AM (#19320218)
IDK. Skype used to be reliable, but now it seems utterly useless. They took ages, about a year if I'm remembering right, to bring out Skype for their own Windows Mobile platform. I've personally hit a bug where the web interface allowed you to set a password that was incompatible with the app (too long I think).
Re:Web version of Skype can not longer be accessed using the... by howard941 on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @11:40AM (#19320221)
The enterprise version isn't production ready for serious use. $FORTUNE_500 where I'm at really wanted to make it work - I suppose we pay for it on a per-seat basis along with the Office 365 product - but client disconnects with >100 users for an internal webinar on our internal network resulted in an embarassingly broken presentation and a decision to bail off to a different vendor's product.