14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s commitment to Linux grows every day, and after working with the open-source community to improve Skype, the company is now releasing the application as a snap.
With snap support, Skype can be easily installed on Linux Mint, Manjaro, Debian, Arch Linux, OpenSuSE, Solus, and Ubuntu, and furthermore, users can be provided with automatic updates whenever new versions are ready.
This helps Microsoft make sure that the latest improvements are always available for all Linux users, and judging from how fast the snaps ecosystem expanded since the launch in 2016, the software giant made the right call by embracing them with Skype.
Microsoft and Canonical, now BFFs
Microsoft has obviously used this occasion to praise Skype for Linux and snaps, saying in a press release published together with Canonical that the whole purpose of this decision was to make new features available to everyone as smoothly as possible.
“We want to be able to deliver the same high quality experience on Linux as we do on other platforms. Snaps allow us to do just that, by giving us the ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter what device or distribution they happen to use,” said Jonáš Tajrych, Senior Software Engineer at Skype, Microsoft.
Canonical, which has become a close Microsoft partner in the last couple of years, has also applauded the software giant’s decision to release Skype as a Snap because this way, it “puts the Linux user first.”
Skype suffered a major overhaul in 2017 and improved substantially on the majority of platforms, as Microsoft migrated to new infrastructure whose purpose appears to be transforming the service from a VoIP solution to a more advanced messaging application available cross-platform.
Given the increasing focus on Linux, Microsoft couldn’t leave the open-source behind, and today’s announcement doesn’t come as a big surprise. Times have definitely changed, and while former CEO Steve Ballmer once said Linux was a cancer, Microsoft now reiterates its love for Linux with every occasion.