Skype

Skype Alternative(s) – Update

maggie

We recently discovered this great free alternative to Skype which doesn’t need to be installed on your system.  You can access it directly on the web at https://whereby.com.  You can have video conversations with up to 4 people at once and guests to your “room” don’t have to register to join in.

It takes less than a minute to create your room and share the link with someone you want to join you for a video chat.

I suggest you “claim” your room by registering;  this allows you to “lock” your room to stop non-invitees from joining; it also reserves the room for you so that no-one else can claim it. There’s lots of information on their site but essentially it’s a very quick and easy process.

Update: Zoom (https://zoom.us/)

Zoom is a great replacement, not only for Skype, for also for TeamViewer as it can also allow secure remote access for help with your computer!

You need to create and maintain an account via zoom’s web portal. Then you download the app (https://zoom.us/download) and install it into your system – very easy!  The advantage of running the program from your system instead of the via web is that it is much faster than the http(s) protocol, so video and audio work better with less break up.

Skype on Linux

maggie

Although Microsoft acquired Skype and incorporated it into their Office 365 suite, and since then into Windows 10, it is still possible to download it for Debian here: https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/. However, it will only work if you have a 64-bit system.

If you’d prefer not to dabble with this installation you can use a great, yet very simple, alternative directly on the web. See Skype Alternative for more details.

If you’re continuing with the Skype download and installation, you need to choose the Linux DEB package (not Linux RPM or Linux SNAP) which will download skypeforlinux-64.deb into your Downloads folder.

Open a Terminal and change the directory to your Downloads folder:

cd Downloads

Then you need to find the file within your Terminal. You can do this by listing the contents of the directory in the order downloaded so that the skype file is at the bottom:

ls -ltr

Now to install it, you need to type:

sudo gdebi skypeforlinux-64.deb (you’ll be asked to enter your password before you can proceed).

You should now find Skype in your applications menu (Debian) or Internet menu (MX-Linux).