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Skype for Linux 1.4 Gold, The Panacea

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.

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32 thoughts on “Skype for Linux 1.4 Gold, The Panacea

  1. jlynton said 2058 days ago

    all seems to be worming fine on Kubuntu gutsy beta :)

    still no sms though :(

  2. rastokrupansky said 2058 days ago

    and where is support for video?

  3. einars.lielmanis said 2058 days ago

    Awesome, and good work! Didn’t expect it this fast. Nice to see remade and finally usable file downloads window. The glitch of changing b) to ugly smiley is still there, though (y’know, sometimes lists are being written as a) … b) … c) … and this messes them up)

  4. cole2026 said 2058 days ago

    It would be awesome if you would compile some amd64 architecture packages.

  5. akhuraskin said 2058 days ago

    I’m still waiting for groups support… :(

  6. sz_wolfi said 2058 days ago

    Yeah – but for me (running on Fedora7) skype-1.4 became useless:
    -while the 1.3 version works with my USB-headset
    (esp. the microphone)
    -the 1.4 version only produces distorted microphone-input
    I had to downgrade back to 1.3 :-(

    aplay -l
    card 1: Adapter [Plantronics BT Adapter], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

    the device is indeed a USB-soundcard !
    (the bluetooth-logic to connect to the headset is completely hidden from the OS)
    And like said – skype-1.3 works flawless – but not 1.4

  7. liam.macinnes said 2058 days ago

    uh…..Video? come on guys screw every other feature for now and get the damn software to parity with your offerings on windows and OS X

  8. rootkowski said 2058 days ago

    I’m very glad there’s a new version. It is always a step forward (not on fedora it would seem ;-) )
    In spite of a dose of disappointment among some users don’t get discouraged, continue the great job!

  9. bascii said 2058 days ago

    I really liked the 1.4 beta version. It works perfectly on Fedora 7 (64) and 6 (32). I would like to see the webcam-feature for the 1.5 version! :)

  10. ryan.pulkrabek said 2057 days ago

    I really need webcam support as well. I am sick of having to use windows.

  11. stephendenham said 2057 days ago

    I can’t seem to change the UI language to Spanish. Also, not having Groups is (for me) a big step backwards.

  12. ilya_yakubovich said 2057 days ago

    Installed without any problems on Ubuntu Feisty. Thank you. :)

  13. alinuca_s said 2057 days ago

    WE WANT VIDEO !!!!

  14. bernhardhartleb said 2057 days ago

    Thank you! You did a great job. I’m very happy to see those chrashes fixed. Hopefully you got a good codebase now to start working on some bigger features. Unfotunately I know too many people which still use Windows because of things like missing skype features.

  15. daniel84at said 2057 days ago

    UI looks nice, but have some bugs with NVidias-TwinView: Contextmenus always apear on the first screen.

    AND: my USB Audio Headset does not work anymore. Worked on 1.3 flawless. If i call the echo321 it works, but very low volume. If i call a windows-skype, the other side nearly hears anything. Tried mixercontrols, ALSA/OSS – no effect.

    My System: Kubuntu 7.04, KDE 3.5.7, Headset:
    “0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter”

    would be cool to get it working! THX

  16. dr_ivago said 2057 days ago

    I don’t see Dutch as an UI option?

    btw did a dist-upgrade from feisty to gutsy (beta) and my skype alpha build still worked, now tried the feisty deb and static builds without luck, dynamic build works but will there be a gutsy deb in the repo once it’s released?

    and SMS + video would be really welcome in 1.5!

  17. dr_ivago said 2057 days ago

    btw if you click a button in the comments you get this ironic message:

    “Skype buttons require that you have the latest version of Skype installed. (Don’t worry, you only need to do it once”

    an extension in Firefox for linux that handles callto: links etc. would also be nice

  18. jojo_man99 said 2057 days ago

    Me and my girlfriend want video chat in Skype for Linux. Will we be using skype 1.5 with video or ekiga 3.0 a year from now?, i don’t know… it’s up to you guys…

  19. tboutcher said 2057 days ago

    Video support is what is held me back from signing for the payed service.

  20. theokashii said 2057 days ago

    Video! Video! Video! till then wengophone

  21. graham.allott said 2057 days ago

    It’s good to see new Linux versions released, but (like a lot of others) I’ll not be installing one until video is supported…

  22. nicolaidenmark said 2057 days ago

    I second to what’s been said multiple times:

    For the love of God: ADD VIDEO!!!!

  23. kristjansiimson said 2056 days ago

    I love to see that at least the Linux version *is* under development and there *is* progress. As far as web cam feature goes, I use Kopete for that.

  24. andy_jefferson said 2055 days ago

    So when will groups be added BACK ?
    Timescales for other additions ? or are there other things going to be removed in the next release? ;-)

  25. sz_wolfi said 2053 days ago

    as it seems I’m not quite alone:
    Can some more people check, whether USB-audio-devs
    which work OK in 1.3 – FAIL in 1.4 ?

  26. lady6thofau said 2053 days ago

    still no video :(

  27. emullet said 2053 days ago

    I can’t seem to send chat text anymore. I type it in then about a minute later a small yellow ‘caution’ sign appears and when I mouse over it says the chat text couldn’t be sent.

  28. fiacobelli said 2049 days ago

    No video= no panacea=no go. Sorry. I have to use something else.

  29. mcanonic said 2045 days ago

    CONTACT GROUP FEATURE, it should be easy to replace.

    Without it, I’ll continue to use Skype 1.3

  30. sy_ali said 2038 days ago

    Why was grouping removed?

    I can’t use it if something simple like that doesn’t exist anymore.

  31. oyelekci said 2031 days ago

    How difficult is building video support? I’ve been a Skype for a long time but I am about to give up and start using Ekiga – that would be a real shame

  32. oyelekci said 2031 days ago

    How difficult is building video support? I’ve been a Skype for a long time but I am about to give up and start using Ekiga – that would be a real shame

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