Should I get Skype?

Greetings, Mortals.

The Mighty WERDNA was just wondering,

should I download Skype?


What practical use does it have?

Is it just a pointless chat program?

Can you send files to people using Skype?

If anyone who has used Skype, can answer any of these
questions, I would certainly appreciate it.

Thanks!

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

Just how 'mighty' are you?

Anyway, might wanna check the Skype site since most of your questions are answered there. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/features/

I don't use it for anything but chat, but it excels at it.

I use skype and its never given me cause to grumble, except the delayed webcam support for linux (which has since arrived).

beter than M.ainstream S.heep N.etworking anyway (that looks like a kids toy rather than a professional communications tool).

Alas, it doesn't have a built-in scientific graphing calculator.


It's pointless being able to resolve project issues with someone on the other side of the world (UK <-> Australia), using a live two-way audio/video feed, while pasting example snippets and sharing screenshots and binaries.

Re what GfK said :-)

Since when were chat programs pointless? Or even chat programs that have voice chat, for that matter?

Yeah I use it all the time for webcam. I was having issues using the preinstalled webcam software, so I downloaded Skype and it was extremely easy to use and it works great.

And the thing Skype does that's special among chat programs is that it enables you to call actual phone numbers over the internet. It isn't free, like it is if you're calling internet to internet, but its cheaper than most long distance telepone rates. I used it when I went to Europe to call home.

it's also very good for chatting while playing online games with friends..
the bandwidth claim is fairly low, and the audio quality is good.. :)

Yes

You can talk to people.

No. I use it at work almost every day. (Cheaper than calling the boss on the cellphone, and sometimes with better quality too)

Yes.

Ok!

Thanks for your input everyone.

I will definetly download it.

The ThankFul WERDNA(Lord Of ^_^)

In a nutshell... Apparently, it's good for having a chinwag with a friend.

So am I the only person who routinely gets much worse audio quality with Skype than - for example - MSN Messenger?

Voice on Skype is great and the ability to call landlines sounds great though i've not used that personally, voice is better than MSN and less laggy. The interface is not as intuitive as MSN (I sometimes initiate voice calls that I dont meen too for instance).

On MSN i've never had a random spammer add me, on Skype I get random contacts, usually from Turkish men asking me to teach them English. I've since changed my profile photograph to something less flattering and this has decreased.

MSN has never popped to the front whilst i've been playing a multiplayer racing game and caused me to crash out of a race. Skype did once, so I swore at the Turkish bloke in several languages to increase his chance of understanding.

Overall I preffer MSN for it's simpler interface, although MSN's use of flashing ad's and that sidebar has taken some training for me to mentally block out - and ocassionally the advert at the bottom expands outside of its boundaries and this has begun to make we want napalm Microsoft's office buildings, thankfully i'm not a member of the NRA so if I did go postal the only people to be effected would be some Fenland farmer saying "I likes my Turkies I do, 'ere 'av you seen my webbed feet?" - which would be no real loss.

@Banshee I am glad to see somebody here has a good sense of humor :)

> MSN has never popped to the front whilst i've been playing a multiplayer racing game and caused me to crash out of a race

For this and the other item you listed, it is possible to set Skype to not load on demand and to make yourself unlisted to the general public.

But if I was totally unlisted I wouldnt be able to toy with random Turkish people. There was this one time I pretended I was emo and suicidal and about to kill myself, that got him really worried. Then another time I pretended I was about to do something and 10 minutes later came back asking him loads of questions about the person he was talking too because there had been a blast.

And this guy was being all fundamentalist at me so I pretended to be a Christian fundamentalist, that was fun.

I need something to replace what I used to do to cold callers because now they use recorded messages for phone sales I cant do windups anymore :(

Theres a setting to stop all that.