Microsoft to retire old versions of Skype -- Mac users should be worried

 

Hate all you want, but Skype is awesome. The fact that it is supported on like, everything makes it one of the best video chat solutions. It works on Linux, Android, Windows Phone, iOS, OS X -- it is the bomb. Microsoft shows no favoritism to platform when this software is concerned.
 
Today however, in a bit of shocking news, Microsoft announces that in an effort to move everyone to the newest version of Skype, it will be retiring older versions for Windows and Mac. Does this mean that outdated versions will move to Florida and join AARP? No, well...maybe. Actually, it is not at all clear what retirement means in this case.
 
"As we look ahead to the future, we're focusing our efforts on bringing the latest and greatest to the most recent versions of Skype. As a result, we are going to retire older versions of Skype for Windows desktop (6.13 and below) as well as Skype for Mac (6.14 and below) over the next few months" says Tom Huang, Microsoft.

 

Huang further explains, "don't panic -- whether you’re using Skype for Windows desktop or Skype for Mac, you can download and update to the latest version today for free. We encourage all users to update to the latest version today to continue using Skype without disruption".
 
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa -- stop the clock. Disruption? This seems to imply that Microsoft will purposely block access to older versions. However, the company is mum on that for now. But, you are a HindSight Technologies reader, so you should enjoy being on the most recent versions of software, right? As fas as I can tell, there is no downside to this, right? Wrong.

Newer versions of the Skype software may not run on older computers. Case in point, the new version for Mac requires Mavericks (OS X 10.9.x). This could mean that if your Mac cannot run Mavericks that you cannot use Skype! The Windows version however, is supported all the way back to XP SP3.

Are you worried about the potential "disruption" to older versions? Tell me in the comments.

Photo credit: Robert Kneschke / Shutterstock
 
~ Brian Fagioli

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Windows 8.x claims 10% market share, but Windows 7’s massive gain is the real story

Great news for fans of Windows 8 and 8.1, Microsoft’s divisive operating system has finally claimed 10 percent of the desktop market. According to NetMarketShare, which monitors such things, in December Windows 8 lost 0.01 percent share, but Windows 8.1 grew by 0.86 percent. Windows 8 now has 6.65 percent of the market and Windows 8.1 is sitting on 3.5 percent, bringing the OS’s combined share to 10.15 percent. Great job Windows 8.x.
 
However, as seems to regularly be the case, the new operating system’s gain was dwarfed by that of its elder sibling. Windows 7 put on a growth spurt that’s nothing short of stunning.
 
In November, Windows 7’s market share grew by 0.22 percent. Or, to put it another way, gained four times as much market share as Windows 8 and 8.1 combined, which seemed impressive at the time. However, in December, the older OS grew by a staggering 2.62 percent to give it 49.26 percent of the desktop market.
 
Let me spell it out for you. The heavily promoted Windows 8.x -- two new operating systems combined -- grew by 0.86 percent. Windows 7, the much older non-promoted OS, leapt by 2.62 percent in the run up to -- and including-- Christmas. In other words, in a single month Windows 7 grew by a quarter of Windows 8.x’s total share.
 
All of this growth has to come from somewhere of course, and it comes at the expense of Windows XP which dropped from 31.22 percent to 27.84 percent, a fall of 3.38 percent. Windows Vista also contributed, losing a modest 0.11 percent share.
 
Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) grew from 2.42 percent to 2.86 percent in December, for a moderate 0.44 percent gain.
 

 

Next month’s market share figures will be interesting, as they’ll show us just what sort of Christmas Windows 8.x had. Can Windows 7 continue to pack on market share, or was December’s surge a statistical anomaly? That certainly seems likely, although you never can tell with Windows 7 which has beaten Windows 8.x's gains in three straight months now.

 

~ Wayne Williams

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