Linux 1.4 Alpha Update
By
Andrew on May 23, 2007 in New betas and releases.
Well, here we are a few weeks later and as promised, we have another release for you.
This is an update to our Alpha release, and includes a few features missing from the first release as well as numerous bugfixes.
Some of the highlights of this release (with regards missing features from 1.3) are the ability to create a new Skype account, Emoticons in Chat, Dialpad, Technical Call Info, and access to the Skype API via X11 and D-BUS.
You can also find in this release the first birthday reminders on the Linux platform, which not only tells you about birthdays today, but also for the next couple of days, giving you a chance to plan some last minute gift ideas and celebrations for your friends.
A number of bugs reported have also been fixed, but we want to ask you to keep those bug reports coming via our Jira development system. This bug reporting system allows you to keep track of bugs that affect you personally. You can also watch bugs and be e-mailed about comments and changes of bugs.
We’ve also worked around some of the problems affecting Qt 4.3.0 early users, however we should still note that there are still some outstanding issues related to usage of Qt 4.3.0. Unless you need to upgrade for other applications, we recommend sticking to Qt 4.2.2 or a patched version of 4.2.3 for now.
Stay tuned! There’ll be another release in another few weeks with more changes and fixes, as well as a couple of new features.
Download Skype for Linux 1.4 Alpha
Comments
It is great to see progress being made on Skype for Linux. I have been using the first alpha build on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn without any serious problems and am impressed with the stability. Is the video support planned for future releases going to be denpendent on v4l? What pixel formats are going to be supported (e.g. YUYV, UYVY)? I am curious as some apps such as Ekiga work fine with my hardware (Sony SZ-330 w/ built-in webcam), but others such as aMSN and WengoPhone 2.0 do not. Good luck with coding and thank you for the updates!
tmhoogland | Wednesday, May 23
too bad, it's still for glibc >=2.4
Then, No chance to test it again...
sega_sai | Wednesday, May 23
yep, agree with sega_sai... glibc update is too complex to try it for skype-alpha test only even considering that skype 1.3 has lotta buggy issues on my hardware...
iz-sai | Wednesday, May 23
Great news! This reminds me of waiting for a more complete Mac version, hopefully we'll see the momentum contiue
adambraunton | Wednesday, May 23
We *might* release a hotfix for this alpha in the next few days featuring glibc 2.3 dependency instead of glibc 2.4, stay tuned.
berkus | Thursday, May 24
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libdbus-1.so.3.2.0 /usr/lib/libdbus-1.so.2
Helped me to get it to work on Ubuntu feisty
agris_zd | Thursday, May 24
On feisty I have also needed to build this symbolic link to bring it to work. Now I can enjoy this new version.
And I'm still waiting for the first video-release....
uwyuwy | Thursday, May 24
Glad to see new releases coming out for Linux!
I am trying to migrate my PC environment from Win to Ubuntu, but unfortunately Skype is still stopping me from doing it completely. Can't wait to see releases come out with video and SMS functionality.
hm67892 | Friday, May 25
Great job and congratz on the new alpha! I'm running Debian Testing, so I'll be looking forward for that glibc 2.3 version...
da_apz | Friday, May 25
I am using Ubuntu 7.04 and alpha is working great. the voice quality is better than 1.3 Keep up the good work. I will report bugs if I see any.
raha_mohebbi | Friday, May 25
I works well on my Ubuntu 7.04. Nice to see the emoticon bnack in the chat window. When can we get the list of them so we can click them rather than guessing them?
Keep up the good work!
etlpltn | Friday, May 25
Great work, it's really nice to see the program improve so quickly. Hope it'll keep on going like this.
Thanks a lot!!!!
maartenjonathan | Saturday, May 26
Thanks for your work Skype developers!
skype 1.4.0.64 is working fine on ubuntu 7.04 and gentoo (on amd64)
ohm314 | Sunday, May 27
hopefully this will also be for ppc linux. (Crosses fingers)
czechman86 | Monday, May 28
I'd love to use the bugtracker, but seem to be unable to create an account. Whatever I enter, I get onto an error page saying
"You must specify a password and a confirmation password" and "You can create JIRA account only with existing skype username (use your skypename and login here)."
(1) There is only _one_ password box (not a second one for any type of confirmation password)
(2) I keep trying to enter my Skype credentials as login (the fact that I can post comments here makes me believe I must remember them correctly), but there's no way of getting beyond that error page.
Don't think it's a browser issue (FF2, JS on), so what am I doing wrong? Others have apparently made it inside. Can anyone help?
ogehrke | Monday, May 28
Well it sounds good !
keep it up guys im sure you'r doing really well.
after the final release let's all go partyyy xD
nad.himself | Monday, May 28
It's ok on debian Etch. Good job guys, go on ...
I'm sure you're going to do a wonderfull video support
yanlot | Wednesday, May 30
Finally a decent development cycle. Good job guys!
As to the 1.4 alpha: works like a charm on Ubuntu 7.04 32bit, however CPU usage is still a bit high especially that I have a dual-core system. My biggest test so far was skypeing out to Cuba - no problems at all.
But please, focus on Video. There is nothing that we need more. Once this is done and dusted you can focus on other things, but I'd say at this moment video is top priority.
ptashek_l | Friday, Jun 1
Thanks guys, please keep it up. Remember: VIDEO
leomilano | Sunday, Jun 3
I've been playing with the D-Bus API and noticed that while Skype now promotes itself as using Protocol 7, it cannot perform certain actions via the API, such as searching for users (which I think is specified in Protocol 5) or downloading avatars. Any chance we'll get these in the final version?
Oh, yeah, don't forget the video support
archivator | Sunday, Jun 3
When, when, when are you going to have webcam support in Linux???
pocmatos | Tuesday, Jun 5
Is there any NEWS regarding new alpha release ? its more than two weeks now
keep up the good work, honestly the Skype's software quality is a lot higher than other companies. Well, I suppose this is what we all expect from a multi billion company, right ?
raha_mohebbi | Thursday, Jun 7
Thank you for the continued efforts on the Linux client -- your user base appreciates it very much!
arunissatan | Monday, Jun 11
Here, I don't really have a need for video support.
However, supporting Skypecast using the new protocol that is being deployed tomorrow for Mac and Windows is of prime importance.
Lowering Skype's abysmal resource consumption to more humane levels matters too.
perkelix | Tuesday, Jun 12