I have been using Skype since the 2.X days, way back then it was a newer entrant on the market. It offered IM services combined with VOIP, and that was unique enough to gather the support of coworkers, friends, family, and more. It became the client of choice, and there isn't much I regret more.
Skype hit a sweet spot in the 3.X generation. Though there were certainly bugs, it worked. It had customizable UI components, the VOIP had improved, its footprint on the CPU was reduced.
However, 4.x onwards marked a significant change: features were removed, redone, and reworked. The Skype tech-supporters were notorious jerks even when the program worked, so trying to report any of these new problems was greeted with a stream of 'are you sure you're connected to the internet?' hogwash.
Since, this program has been 'improved' into the ground. It constantly sucks CPU when idle, it crashes when closing AND opening, it fails to send messages (sometimes for days at a time), and the chat UI went from simple to ugly. The devsupport team was never great, now their product has caught up.
If it wasn't such an inconvenience to move my Skype contacts to a competitor, I would have dumped this steaming pile when it automatically updated to 4.X.
Price: Free
review details
- Interface
- Features
- Ease of use
- Value
- Recommend to a friend? No
- Posted Apr 10, 2015 for v7.3
Skype
review details
