Skype

[JimHebert]

I am totally new to Linux or I should say I just got my feet wet a couple of days ago. I decided to go at it the easy way by installing Wubi Ubuntu. I later decided to install Skype for Ubuntu. It wound up in a total disaster and just uninstalled Ubuntu. I'm willing to try something else but first I'm going to do my homework. Is there a distro that works well the first time you install Skype and keeps working well? I don't want to have to fight it. Please supply web pages or forums with reviews and info. about it. Thank you.

[danielsmw]

JimHebert,

There are many distributions that work well the first time you install them, and Ubuntu tends to be one of the best for this. With that said, I'm surprised you couldn't get Skype to work. Make sure you downloaded the newest version from Download the latest version of Skype for Linux.

Can you, perhaps, be more detailed about what happened? Unfortunately, "total disaster" isn't a description that's easy to work with. To me, total disaster implies that your entire operating system crashed irrecoverably, which I doubt Skype can do. =)

Anyway, don't give in, give some more error details, and let's see if we can fix it.

[JimHebert]

Go to Ubuntu Forum and search "Skype". You'll see that everyone ran out of answers and left me hanging. You did not send me any web sites giving good reviews as I asked??? Everything I read on the forums is problems of one sort or another with Skype for Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse, etc

[danielsmw]

While I don't mean to come off as sarcastic, what you say could be true of any program. I could search the internet for Microsoft Word if I wanted to, and I would find lots of people having trouble with it, even though for most people it's a fairly stable application.

I have to also say that while I - and most people here - will be happy to help you, you may want to watch the way you phrase things. I'm sure you didn't mean for it to come off this way, but your reply sounded a bit demanding, you know?

Anyway, with that said, I still need to know what happened in your case. I'm not even exactly sure what kind of links you want; do you want links to things about Skype? Different Linux distros? Please specify a bit. I really don't want to leave you hanging, please just give me some more info before I can give any to you.

Talk to you soon.

[JimHebert]

Not trying to be sarcastic. I just want to see one review, just one positive thing about someone who has installed Skype without having having to go through a obstacle course in the process and has it working 100% all the time. Like I said, I don't have time to waste trying to install something that doesn't work. If you can find that, please advise me of the write up and the URL, then I may reconsider. I think that is very easy and logical to understand.

[danielsmw]

After a 3 minute Google search, I will admit that I haven't found one singing praises of Skype. I can tell you from personal experience that I have installed it successfully, and so has my friend in New Jersey. We use it all the time.

However, if you did have an issue with Skype, perhaps you should consider Ekiga for videoconferencing. I think it's actually a bit more stable, at least for Linux. I could be wrong though, as I don't use Skype on Linux for more than a video chat a week or so.

But even beyond that, you may want to consider the possibility that there was no issue with Skype. You said you're fairly new to Linux, right? Something may have gone wrong that you just didn't notice or understood incorrectly. I think it's important to go back over what happened and see if we can actually figure out what caused your big problem. As I've mentioned, I doubt that a system-wide collapse, which you imply happened, can be the fault of Skype alone.

Finally, please realize that I'm just trying to help you. Perhaps you have encountered radicals in the past who try to convince you of the glories of Linux and demand that you convert; I'm not one of those people. I'm not trying to sell this to you, so please don't challenge me to. I'm also not trying to sell Skype; if you don't want to use it, you're welcome to make that choice. I'm not here to answer challenges against the quality of software components. I'm here to help you with whatever problem you might be having, and I'm still willing to do that if you can give me a little bit more information about what happened.

[JimHebert]

As I've told you before, go to the Ubuntu forum and search the thread "Skype". That says it all. Basically went in circles installing a bunch of stuff and wound up with nothing. Then nobody came up with any more suggestions. I'm not about to go through a time wasting ordeal like that again. I've got much more beneficial things to do. I don't really need Linux or Skype for Linux. It is just something I heard friends mention and had a little free time so I thought I'de look into what it was all about. I was a bit discouraged to say the least.

[peteh]

I don't have Ubuntu, I have openSUSE. I downloaded the appropriate skype rpm, installed it and have used it for over a year without the slightest problem.
You still don't say what you've done or what specific problems and error messages you get.

[JimHebert]

To Peteh:
And you still haven't checked the Ubuntu Forum. Give me the exact URLs from beginning to end. Starting with the Suse download, ... to the Skype download URL. Meanwhile I'm going to do a bit of investigation of my own about Suse before getting on another wild goose chase that leads nowhere.

[bigtomrodney]

And you still haven't checked the Ubuntu Forum. Give me the exact URLs from beginning to end.

To be fair you're asking us to do something you haven't done yourself. All anyone is asking is for you to describe your problem, post errors and then we'll see where we can go.

You can add me to the list of people who experienced Skype 'just working' so I'm afraid we can't help you unless you're willing to meet us half way. All it takes is for you to post your error message or describe the problem. And do remember we're not a technical help desk, we're all Linux users here who just like to help out other users.