Today we have released a new production release of Skype for Linux 1.4 with a codename Panacea.

You maybe wondering why we have chosen a codename Panacea?

Because Panacea is a goddess of cures in Greek mythology, she was the daughter of Asclepius, god of medicine, and the granddaughter of Apollo, god of healing. You can read more about Panacea on Wikipedia.

Skype for Linux 1.4 delivers a superior voice call quality in comparison with previous production release of Skype for Linux 1.3.

It is highly recommended for everyone to upgrade to the latest version. Download it right now.

We thank everyone who has given their feedback to us on Skype for Linux 1.4 Alpha and Beta versions. It has helped us to find and squash many bugs and problems and in addition we have learned what you want us to do.

You are more than welcomed to continue asking features and leaving all comments to us on Skype for Linux as you are the ones who are using it and you know the best what you would like to see there. Read how to leave feedback.

New features of the Panacea are:

• feature: Command line switches, run “skype —help” for more details.
• feature: —resources= to set an alternative to /usr/share/skype for resources.
• feature: Add an option to Sound Devices to enable/disable automatic mixer adjustment.
• feature: Allow keyboard/keypad to be used to enter DTMF numbers in call window.
• feature: Clickable links in chat topics.
• feature: Tooltips for emoticons in the chat window.
• feature: Chat toolbar with Add People, Send File(s) to Chat, History and Leave Chat buttons.
• feature: Confirmation dialog for Leave Chat button.
• feature: Drag-and-drop files to chat input box to send files to chat.
• feature: Drag-and-drop files to individual contacts in chat or contact list to send files.
• feature: Drag-and-drop users from contact list into chat input box to send contacts.
• feature: Drag-and-drop users from contact list into chat memberlist to add to chat.
• feature: Dragging of contacts into other programs (text entry) will copy skype:.
• feature: File transfer menu.
• feature: API OPEN FILETRANSFER and OPEN USERINFO commands.
• feature: Auto-accept file transfers.
• feature: “Cleanup transfers” button.
• feature: Key ‘F6’ to bring main window focus instantly to Quickfilter.
• feature: Interface language choice in Options based on translation files available (restart required).
• feature: “New version available” dialog.

Other changes and bug fixes are:

• bugfix #SCL-194: Don’t open two call windows when pressing enter on Call Ordinary Phones.
• bugfix #SCL-86: Change topic background drawing behaviour to hopefully avoid drawing issue.
• bugfix: API case-insensitive command matching in UI.
• bugfix: API crash when using OPEN CHAT with invalid chat name.
• bugfix: API crashing conference calls
• bugfix #SPA-387: API When issuing many API Calls, DBus suddenly stops.
• bugfix: Add a minimum size to Send Contacts/Create Conference/Add Chat Members window.
• bugfix: Add mouse hover support for several buttons.
• bugfix: Add tooltips to Play/Stop Voicemail button.
• bugfix: Added a subtle background change as well as animation to emoticon selector.
• bugfix: Allow searching through chat in the other direction after a failure in one direction.
• bugfix: Allow smoother positive resizing to Send Contacts/Create Conference/Add Chat Members window.
• bugfix: Automatically rename incoming files if they already exist.
• bugfix: Avoid a situation of file transfer icon on main window being displayed when transfer window is open.
• bugfix: Avoid some unpredictable/ugly event history expansion behaviour when contact list is hidden.
• bugfix: Centre Send Contacts/Create Conference/Add Chat Members dialogs.
• bugfix: Clicking on Send Contacts/Create Conference/Add Chat Members users shouldn’t allow you to edit their names.
• bugfix: Disable ‘Animated Emoticons’ checkbox when ‘Emoticons’ checkbox is disabled.
• bugfix: Disable Emoticons button in Chat Windows when Emoticons have been disabled.
• bugfix: Display exact Skype name match in search as first result on initial results display.
• bugfix: Don’t display Skype Name Taken error after logging out from initial signup login.
• bugfix: Don’t show dialog if we already have all the received contacts on our list.
• bugfix: Enable word wrapping in both Qt 4.2 (doesn’t wrap long lines) and 4.3 (wraps either words or long lines)
• bugfix: Search in chat using F3/Shift-F3 no longer duplicate the same match when changing direction.
• bugfix: Fix a crash on startup in some situations.
• bugfix: Fix for a bug where some matches could be skipped during searching.
• bugfix: Fix for pasting of foreign characters into chat input box from some places.
• bugfix: Fix height of chat window toolbar buttons.
• bugfix: Fix width/height of Myself Area in chat.
• bugfix: Make ‘Open Receiving Directory’ work for transfer events in event history.
• bugfix: Make Error dialog into Warning dialog on search failure (meaning keyboard focus is on Okay button)
• bugfix: Make chat window re-appear if it was closed a second before a new incoming message arrived.
• bugfix: Make multi-line ‘About Me’ (introductory) messages in user profile Windows-friendly.
• bugfix: Make multi-line mood messages Windows-friendly.
• bugfix: Make scrollbar always on and perform better width/height calculations in chat.
• bugfix: Never delete chat history when deleting events in event history, just hide the chats.
• bugfix: Never scroll-up on resizes if the scrollbar was at bottom already.
• bugfix: Pressing load history while loading history crashes client.
• bugfix: Put received contacts in Add column by default.
• bugfix: Remove birthday from new events when ‘Remind Me Later’ is selected.
• bugfix: Remove cancel button from Load History.
• bugfix: Remove hard-coded accelerator keys from chat window.
• bugfix: Remove one of the drag splitters from emoticons bar in chat window.
• bugfix: Resize display name on main window when event history is visible.
• bugfix: Stop Myself Card overlapping participants list in chats when resizing chat windows to minimal height.
• bugfix: Store the chat splitter position for each chat to disk.
• bugfix: Support . in Skype names for skype: URI handling.
• bugfix: Support for conference calls in skype: URI handling.
• bugfix: Unrecognised link should never get divided up (fdwww.smh.net example)
• bugfix: Update expanded event time descriptions at midnight.
• cleanup: Ability to copy data from profile fields.
• cleanup: Add 1 pixel border around blue area on contact cards.
• cleanup: Add a checkable display to Remind Me Later so it can be toggled on/off later.
• cleanup: Add click feedback to our buttons.
• cleanup: Add a faint line between multi transfers.
• cleanup: Add some borders to Myself and Services frame in main contact list.
• cleanup: Add spacing around change birthday button in profile editor.
• cleanup: Align Avatar in Myself Area in Chat to Top.
• cleanup: Change emoticons bar to match the intended design more closely.
• cleanup: Chat window clean-up.
• cleanup: Fix size of Privacy Button icon in Profile Editor.
• cleanup: Grey Buttons With Round Corners Look Cool.
• cleanup: Green Offline with Call Forwarding icon.
• cleanup: Line-up default chat splitter to Myself Area height.
• cleanup: Change minimum sign-in window height to 450 pixels
• cleanup: More main window tooltips.
• cleanup: Move Find button to Emoticons bar in chat window.
• cleanup: New icon for Add/Search on bottom of main window.
• cleanup: New icon for event history / contact list swapping button.
• cleanup: New Skype menu icon for login screen and main window.
• cleanup: Optimise event model population.
• cleanup: Populate %sskype and %sname variables in Call Events.
• cleanup: Possible fix for transfer window having super-long progress bar.
• cleanup: Remove a cascading layout from Transfer window (hopefully fixes some width calculation issues).
• cleanup: Remove border from chat history loading and send contacts faded screens.
• cleanup: Transfer window tweaks.
• cleanup: Use a tooltip in event history to show the full path of the file sent or received.