May 5, Microsoft's Skype will shut down for good

This Joel on Software blog post is now 25 years old, https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-..., but when it first came out it was widely viewed as gospel.

I'm generally a big fan of Joel Spolsky, but in retrospect, I think this advice is just wrong, and I think Skype is a perfect counterpoint. That is, sometimes a rewrite is a horrible idea, but at the same time sometimes not doing a rewrite is a horrible idea. If making changes to the code becomes such a nightmare that your rate of progress is much less than your competitors, you're going to lose.

While there is still some good advice in that blog post, hard-and-fast rules are rarely correct. Most things in engineering are tradeoffs, and it's tough to know sometimes what the right balance is.

“Skype for Business” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_for_Business) sort-of was that. It put the “Skype” brand on “Lync”, which was a rebranded “Office Communicator” (IIRC, there were some technical changes along the line, too, but I may misremember that)

It got replaced by Teams.

> I am surprised they never launched a "2.0" version built from scratch and without all the vestigial tails.

I'm surprised that you are surprised!

Rewriting a million-lines-of-code project from scratch without the stupid bits is easy. Getting the equivalent of the working bits, instead...

Joel expressed this concept quite well already 25 years ago: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...

They did launch a from scratch electron crap at least once. That version didn't migrate settings/account. Had to help at least 3 different people who suddenly lost access to their contacts.

Sell the brand to Signal

> The value of the brand is so strong, I am surprised they never launched a "2.0" version

I am not.

The brand is strong in a negative way, I have never met anyone who ever liked Skype.

> No one in my family but me has iPhones, so I think Facetime is out,

So FaceTime lets you make a link that you can give to someone with a web browser and they can use it to reach you, and it works pretty well. You might just try it.

> I suppose I'll have to talk my parents into installing Signal desktop, but I was kind of hoping for something that gave you the "user is online" status thing like Skype does.

That's probably the biggest limitation: It's a webpage for calling you (the person with the iPhone), not a page for you to call them. If you want them to open a app/page when they are available, I think Messenger is best in terms of features and usability.

If your parents/grandmother aren't already on WhatsApp I don't think you should link their phone number (which might be linked to their banking etc) with a public chat system because there are a _lot_ of online scams targeting the elderly through WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and linking to the mobile number associated with other (higher value) services. It is very easy to lock-down Messenger so nobody who isn't already a friend can't target them.

Google Duo (might be lumped in with Meet now) worked well for me when I was on Android and everyone around be was iOS. It's cross platform and worked out of the box.

Discord probably has a bit more going on since it also has a community focus, but it may be worth looking into since it's a platform that won't be going away anytime soon. It also works from the browser if having them download something is a headache.

WhatsApp works well for most people and runs on any device.

I gifted a MacBook, iPhone and Apple Watch to my elderly father, and I now use FaceTime. He came from a PC and is not technical, but he adapted fairly easily. (The fall detection feature on the watch gives us both some peace of mind.)

I would make the jump to Signal. It's super easy and secure. Has all the features you'd need (minus the online status). It's how I communicate with my whole family.

Why not just use something like Google Meet? You send a link and the other person just needs a browser.

It's a pain to deal with syncing issues on Signal Desktop.

I gave my grandmother an old iPad I had. It’s been amazing.

She’s also in Iran, so it’s one of the only services that somehow the govt doesn’t target when killing video call apps.

If your grandmother happens to have a Google account already, Google Hangouts. [1]

Wouldn't need to set up anything. And works as reliably as anything I've seen.

EDIT: Signal is a very HN recommendation for drop dead simplicity. Syncing keys?

[1] https://hangouts.google.com

I forgot about that. It used to create a lot of issues in a shared house I once lived in, we had a housemate who left Skype running and flooded our router with junk packets.

I assume this was a joke, but if you do want an actual way, I always used Audacity for audio tests.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

Another option you could look into is a mobile VoIP app like Acrobits Softphone or Groundwire with a VoIP SIP provider like voip.ms. The apps are a one-time purchase (~$6.99-9.99 last time I checked). Toll-free calls are free and the airtime from voip.ms is incredibly cheap (local calls start at $0.01/min).

It's not free but you can try the Burner app.

Google Voice is pretty cheap for that use case.

if you don't call 800-numbers often, it's a tiny economic cost...

This. And most importantly for me, Skype allowed to call using my numbers (for bank it will look like i am calling from my cell). Any other voip service would just put random number which will trigger additional security checks.

Would love to hear about service doing that

I find telegram is amazing for meeting people you don’t already know, especially in group chats or for having slightly more anonymity.

Signal is great if you already know everyone you’re talking with and don’t really care for large group chats (100s of anonymous strangers).

Telegram requires permission to view all your contacts on iOS :)

So I refuse to use it now.