Linked by Howard Fosdick on Thu 8th Nov 2012 02:24 UTC
Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Live Messenger in 1st quarter 2013, forcing users to switch to Skype. Most would want to switch to Skype anyway with its more advanced capabilities, and the switch makes sense to Microsoft, since they purchased Skype for $8.5 billion last year. However, the move may be seen as typical Redmondian high-handedness by those using Messenger with dial-up. Technically Skype works with dial-up but in practice most agree you really need broadband for decent use. Will everyone view Messenger as replaceable by Skype?
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Member since:2008-07-15
I mean, it feels as if skype's performances have just gotten worse within the last 2-3 years.
Welcome to the world of Microsoft. Okay, I'm partially sniping here, but only partially. Look at Microsoft Office, which has gotten larger and slower over the years without adding any additional value to the most commonly used parts of it (Word, Excel, Outlook, and later Sharepoint). Look at the Windows Live suite itself. Bigger, slower, buggier and even worse, ad-infested. Until recently even Windows followed this pattern, with Windows 7 being the first Windows release in several years that wasn't slower than the version immediately preceding it (Windows 8 seems to set the trend again however, thanks to the slowness of the Metro/Desktop combination).
In short: Could Skype's performance be improved? Certainly. With Microsoft in charge, is that likely? Probably not. I'm just glad they haven't too badly messed up the Mac version yet, although how long that's going to last is anyone's guess.
RE[2]: Could it be fixed?
by lucas_maximus on Thu 8th Nov 2012 12:20
in reply to "RE: Could it be fixed?"
Member since:2009-08-18
As for office, lets not forget the ton of work that was put into supporting things like infopath, connecting to sharepoint, connecting to databases etc etc that happened over the years.
While for users of a lone desktop things might not seem very different, I bet there are a ton of changes for Enterprise users.
Anyway the same comments could be made for pretty much any program, the Linux kernel, the GCC compiler, Open Office and more besides, MacOSX etc. etc. etc.
Also why does anyone care anymore? We have loads of ram and hardrive room and ridiculously powerful processors (even in our phones).
The only thing that I have seen significantly slow down a computer in the last few years in is ironically Firefox (memory leak is still there) and McAfee.
Until recently even Windows followed this pattern, with Windows 7 being the first Windows release in several years that wasn't slower than the version immediately preceding it (Windows 8 seems to set the trend again however, thanks to the slowness of the Metro/Desktop combination).
Windows 8 is easily faster than Windows 7. Especially while using the desktop.
Metro apps are slow to start-up but once running are nice and snappy.
In short: Could Skype's performance be improved? Certainly. With Microsoft in charge, is that likely? Probably not. I'm just glad they haven't too badly messed up the Mac version yet, although how long that's going to last is anyone's guess.
The linux version actually got a decent update after Microsoft bought them.
I really hate most of this crap that spoken of about Microsoft.
Edited 2012-11-08 12:24 UTC
RE[2]: Could it be fixed?
by lucas_maximus on Fri 9th Nov 2012 13:48
in reply to "RE: Could it be fixed?"
Member since:2009-08-18
BTW as for "bloat" in Office ...
http://i.imgur.com/QwOHb.png
11mb of ram being used.
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I mean, it feels as if skype's performances have just gotten worse within the last 2-3 years.
I'm a role-player but, with time, many of the people I play with have moved far away. We manage to somewhat gather once or twice a year, but there are always at least one or two who just can't be there.
Back in 2009, we decided to try to use skype to have a game together anyway. The main group was here in Europe, while one player was in Japan and the other in Australia (don't ask about the time difference, first time I had to wake up at 6AM to play a game...)
We didn't have a premium account, so we used a laptop for each of them - basically, we saw them and they saw us (except for the other guy playing through skype).
It worked incredibly fine. It really felt like they were here in the room with us. The only thing we had to keep in mind was for the DM not to let everyone speak at once, for that is just too much through skype.
One last thing: it worked nicely on windows, mac and linux (we're a pretty varied bunch).
Fast-forward to 2012: for the last year-year and a half, things have steadily gotten worse. We have the same games, but we keep losing connexions, more often than not, the only guy using it (the one in Japan came back) just can't use video, as it just gets bad even faster, the sound goes weird for no apparent reason.
Again, that's on any and all systems.
So I wonder exactly how ownership by microsoft is going to change that in the future. I must say, I'm not keeping my hopes up...