Skype crashed today? Here’s a fix

Many Ubuntu users have, in the last 24 hours, been experiencing bizarre crash issues with VoIP service Skype whereby the application randomly crashes then fails to start again.

Skype themselves have seemingly acknowledged there is a problem via twitter.
Skype’s not quite the same since Microsoft bought it, eh? Joking aside, reader Nana Ayeh was one of those affected: -
“Something weird happened today: at some time Skype crashed and wouldn’t launch again. Trying to launch it in terminal simply outputs ‘Aborted’ and nothing else. After some googling I discovered that not only I have this problem so I decided to share a tip for other users affected.
Some people suggested uninstalling Skype, and completely deleting the ~/.Skype dir before installing it again but there’s actually one file that’s somehow causing problems: shared.xml.”

So how to fix?

Deleting/renaming the file in question seems to get things running again:

• mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared~.xml

After that one will need to re-enter Skype password upon login.

By Joey Sneddon, Published May 26, 2011

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Microsoft purchasing Skype – what could this mean for Linux?

Share story: Update: Microsoft have since released a statement assuring that they will continue to ‘invest and support non-Microsoft platforms.’

Microsoft are to close an estimated $8.5 billion deal to acquire internet-telephony service Skype, allthingsd are reporting.

Skype – with a reported 600 million user accounts – is one of the most popular cross-platform desktop VoIP applications currently available.

Microsoft purchasing it would give Microsoft an unparalleled foothold in the desktop communication market overnight thanks to their already dominant position with Windows Live Messenger.

But what would happen to the Linux client?

Likely nothing.

Part of Skype’s success is that it is accessible to users of various operating systems. Yanking support for a Linux client would cut off millions of Linux Skype users, thus affecting their Windows and Mac OS contacts too. Not to mention that thousands of those Linux users are paying customers; and the purchase of Skype wasn’t done out of an altruistic epiphany on the part of Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft will likely be keen to have input in the design and development of Skype – potentially merging it with one of their own products – and this will take time to achieve.

The development of Skype’s Linux client has been slow, bordering on static, for a long time. One would guess that unfortunately this acquisition also wouldn’t see that sped up overnight, a shame for Linux users who feel they’re missing out on the features prevalent on other platforms.

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