I also use it on a regular basis and have no complaints. I've even used it for sharing desktops etc on conference calls and it has worked without a hitch.
Just don't mention certain words, instead of bomb use the word grenadine etc.
Skype sucks due to the many drop outs, it's often in heavily used areas where the signal quality is poor.
Skype works great. Before Swisscom had international call time included, I used it extensively. Now I stopped using VoIP because 1. I don't need it anymore and 2. because I don't need nerds in some basement in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris or Beijing to record my every word. And no - I don't have anything to hide - I'm just one of those people who thinks that sacrificing the privacy of one's people is sacrificing its freedom. I honestly don't see much difference anymore between what our governments are doing and what the Stasi and the Gestapo used to do.
There's a good article on Heise.de on this topic btw:
Skype is fine being using it for years on both computers and skype specific phones and rarely have drop outs. Also the receiver doesnt even need skype for it to work
I look forward to your essay on why you think using your Swisscom line is more intercept-proof when making international calls. There are good reasons not to bother with VoIP if you have decent landline connectivity (setup is fiddly, extra billing, etc etc) but resistance to interception is not one of them.
What an ignorant statement, how do you know your landline is not calling a VOIP or equally vulnerable line at the other end? No guarantee whatsoever
Not quite sure whether it's me you're calling ignorant there, but my main points are that a) a vast number of PSTN trunks are VoIP now, and b) the ability to intercept communications is not restricted to VoIP - the interception of calls at the exchange or trunk level has been going on pretty much since the invention of the telephone. If anything, a consumer-level VoIP connection is going to be harder to intercept.
I find facetime leaps and bounds easier to use than skype, and skype was pretty easy...my 80 year old mom loves it, too. She got an iPad for that reason and is now thrilled with her iPad for other apps we got for her, etc. I know bashing on the successful, popular products is en vogue, so I just thought I would provide the counter arguement
There's no such thing as resistance to interception. However, it's a heckuva lot more difficult and more expensive to listen in on landlines than it is to call Microsoft and have them forward the entire "monitored" conversation.
How does Sype suck? It works flawlessly for me 100% of the time, it's all down to quality of the internet connection on both sides.
Because Skype is free, and international telephone calls cost money?
Am I the only one who followed the Snowden reporting? The NSA is listening into some 50 million landline calls within Germany per day alone, apparently any call going in or out of the US from anywhere.
If I remember the articles correctly did the British their part of the case by monitoring all calls going through the transcontinental undersea cables...
First of all, I don't live in Germany - the Swiss government can be expected to be somewhat less forthcoming when it comes to co-operating with the US than the German one. The US has had plenty of time to install their equipment all over the place in Germany while I don't recall there ever being a larger US presence in Switzerland.
Second of all, I don't call people in the US very often.
Also, Germany's privacy laws are a joke compared to the Swiss ones.
I'm not saying nobody is spying on us here - I'm just saying it's somewhat less likely than in other countries. Germany being the USA's best buddy etc.
two tin cans and a piece of string.
Yes, I noticed that Switzerland stood up admirably to the US on the issue of banking privacy.
So OP...Define "Skype sucks"!!
So we can address the real issue quickly and efficiently, while avoiding gross idiotic generalization and spreading unfounded negative rumors.