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Holy crap! Skype Linux goes 64bit!
By Fabio on Tuesday September 1st 2009 09:34 | Category: software
It has finally happened. After suffering years of complaints from it's userbase Skype has now finally come up with a native 64bit version of it's voip client. Did I mention the new Beta also has SMS and Pulse Audio support?.. it does!
There has been an official Skype client for Linux for some years now but despite the efforts of putting out a client for Linux the community still wasn't quite pleased to find out that Skype had no intention of supporting the 64bit architectures. Besides being 32bit only the Linux client was also very underdeveloped compared to the Windows and Mac versions. In the beginning even lacking video support, but now it appears Skype has warmed up to the Linux community because it's new beta release 2.1 supports both 64bit and high quality video.
However it's two years ago that Skype first added support for video to Skype 2.0 beta for Linux and now that the Linux version of the popular VoIP client. has hit 2.1 beta, Skype has amped up the audio and video quality a bit. Skype for Linux now uses the same SILK audio codec as the Windows and Mac clients, and packs support for high quality video.
Skype 2.1 beta for Linux also supports sending SMS messages, organizing contacts within contact groups, and a few chat enhancements. The update also brings support for Pulse Audio.
Also a new panel icon has been added that shows the number of missed events. Skype 2.1 is still beta software, so it might be rough around the edges. But if you're willing to put up with the occasional crash or dropped call, it's probably worth upgrading for the improved audio and video quality.
Thanks a lot Skype developers!
Skype 2.1 for Linux is available for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and OpenSUSE.
UPDATE 10-16-09:
It appears I was too soon claiming the 64bit capabilities of this software. I recently discovered the truth on this topic. Skype, though offering a 64bit download does nothing more than emulate 32bit on a 64bit machine by installing the lib32 packages. This is an easy way of running 64bit apps on Linux but is nothing close to native 64bit. I apologise for the hasty article.
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