Arrrgh! Arrrgh!! Is it September 19th already?
Sadly, no. I just wasted a good number of hours with my Skype setup on Ubuntu 8.10, then 9.04, then 9.10! Hours of my life that I'll never get back!
Last night I decided to try out the new features and call quality improvements promised in the latest 2.1 beta 2. I uninstalled Skype 2.0.0.72 and installed Skype 2.1.0.81 beta 2. First thing I noticed was that the call audio was played through my laptop speakers, not my USB uConnect U-901.
No problem, I thought to myself! Been here many times. Skype provides a handy dropdown to select the desired audio device for input, output, and ringer.
Wait a tick! ... I have three dropdowns, all with one entry called PulseAudio... now what?
Googleing, fiddling, ... arrgh... The best I could do was switch my audio preference to use one or the other in System > Preferences > Sound. But am I going to do that every time a call comes in? Or am I going to listen to my music through my speakerphone? Ummm... no.
Skype: the ability to choose among multiple audio devices was elegant and intuitive in the prior version. How is this an improvement?
In what I read on the forums and blogs, either Skype 2.1 now requires PulseAudio, or that is the impression that is out there in the user community.
I placed three calls using 2.1 beta 2, and there were metallic artifacts and dropouts at least every 15 minutes of talk time. This never happened on 2.0.0.72. Now, I don't know if this is due to its beta status, or if its due to PulseAudio, but something is wrong with 2.1 as it stands.
Hopeful that my problems could be solved with upgrading Ubuntu, I upgraded to 9.04... nope. To 9.10... nope.
Uncle! This should not be so hard, Skype! I see many others struggling with this problem, too. I give up. I'm going back to 2.0.0.72.
Skype...? Hello-oooo... You only post the BETA for download? Where is the latest STABLE release? Even cached links to the previous stable version on skype.com result in a "page not found." Why would you offer no stable release for download at this time? This is just unacceptable, guys!
I was able to locate skype-debian_2.0.0.72-1_i386.deb but, I would have much preferred getting it from the publisher directly for safety's sake.
Beware of Skype 2.1 beta 2, at least on Ubuntu 8.10, 9.04, and 9.10. If you want to try it, be sure you have the 2.0.0.72 package in hand first!!