back to article Microsoft Edges bets on browser-only Skype

Microsoft has added Object RTC to the latest insider preview of Windows 10. The move paves the way for Skype users using Microsoft’s Edge browser to make voice or video calls without faffing around with browser plug-ins. Object Real-Time Communications uses components built into the Microsoft Edge browser to control audio and …

  1. msknight

    WebRTC is coming, but seems to have avoided much take up from the people I talk with. I think part of the reason is lack of user education. People still seem stuck in the old fashioned "must download and install app" mentality .. but it'll come.

    Time will tell whether this is another Microsoft stab at the browser wars, but they'd be foolish to try it IMHO.

    Still, dumber things have happened ... like putting servers in walls...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      People still seem stuck in the old fashioned "must download and install app" mentality .. but it'll come.

      Let's just say that some of us like to double check what exactly we are running. The problem with on the fly downloads is that it requires the browser to be open to ad hoc running of code which may have a less than benign origin, and *please* don't try to tell me that a certificate will fix this.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Still, dumber things have happened ... like putting servers in walls...

      Oh I don't know - I gather the server in question ran for many years unattended until it started to fail.

      Amazon could do with that sort of uptime for their cloud services.

  2. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Shirley if you can use Skype inside Edge without the faff it's because Microsoft just compiled Edge with Skype built-in. So if you don't use Skype you now have extra bloat and security holes to worry about?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This. Over and over again, this. I don't want a browser that contains everything including the kitchen sink.

      1. P. Lee

        Bloat

        Probably not as much you think. Addressbook IM and video are already part of most os' environments, so it's just a question of calling the right libraries. The added bit is the presence publishing and a stub to make sure the firewall ports are open. MS is going to put Skype in your windows whether you like it or not.

        I'm slightly disappointed that isp's / ietf haven't picked up the ball to engineer some presence publishing mechanism so they can pick up inbound / outbound sip call fees. Some sort of threeway email handshake or DANE thing.

    2. YetAnotherComentard

      Yes....and quit calling me Shirley!

  3. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    Browser Plugins

    Although they were originally hailed as a way of adding flexibility, browser plug-ins have become something of a pain-in-the-neck in recent years

    To be fair, when browser plugins were first being touted, Javascript, CSS, etc weren't powerful enough to handle the things people wanted to do. This is why Java & Flash took off: They provided the flexibility & speed that web designers wanted. The problem is that the plugins got too big & complex (and weren't designed for such a hostile environment like the modern Internet)

  4. Teiwaz

    One one hand we have more and more things being packed into the browser as if the browser is the be all end all of a computing experience, resulting in bloated browsers slow to load and packed with features a lot of people don't use.

    On the other hand, browsers are currently a little better for standards compliance (not always open standards unfortunately). Hopefully we will be able to communicate with contacts without having to have an associated app installed and configured, and for the occasional user.

    We need to get a balance though. Web browsers can't go on getting more and more complex and bloated and include every single function in the internet besides html and web.

    Can't we modularise, with a web browser instance which just has 'web' functionality and another when required to use the likes of RTC, complex webapps or video.

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Can't we modularise, with a web browser instance which just has 'web' functionality and another when required to use the likes of RTC, complex webapps or video

      You mean a web browser with a ActiveX, Flash or Java plugin....?

  5. Remy Redert

    It might just be me bring cynical, but it occurs to me that abolishing plugins also handily gets rid of such plugins as no script, adblock and all its other varieties that help put control over the browser in the hands of the user.

    If I don't get to control what does and doesn't run in my browser, I'm not going to use your browser.

    As an excellent example,vcertain advertisers have gotten wise to the fact that unmodified Chrome auto-runs embedded html5 video, while flash and its ilk are click to run. However I couldn't see any option to do the same to all videos. As a result I'm now finally running adblock again having earlier gotten rid of it and filtering by blocking flash content instead.

    1. Teiwaz

      I don't encounter as many annoying video adds much these days (apart from youtube, then they're really annoying - I don't think advertisers have considered that repetition doesn't reinforce their message it acts as a form of aversion therapy).

      This may be due to not having flash installed or only visiting about a dozen different sites on a regular basis. But I don't have adblock installed either, about the only plugin I must have is vimperator.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I don't encounter as many annoying video adds much these days (apart from youtube, then they're really annoying - I don't think advertisers have considered that repetition doesn't reinforce their message it acts as a form of aversion therapy).

        Oh yes. After I was made to wait for yet another 25 second ad for Microsoft A-f*cking*-zure I abandoned the site I was watching, and I have not been back since - I've dug out a competitor instead. There is now also no way I will touch Microsoft Azure either - I see it as a sign of desperation that they need to advertise it so much.

    2. Rimpel

      >abolishing plugins also handily gets rid of such plugins as no script, adblock

      plugins != extensions, abp and noscript are extensions and aren't to be abolished.

  6. Wibble

    Hmm, browser extensions that give access to your mic & camera. What could possibly go wrong?

    Who's sponsoring this; the NSA?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No one else noticed that Skype is now unavailable in several territories? Apparently you can still send text messages in the desktop app if you were already logged in, but anyone trying to connect via the app cannot log in. Meanwhile, the browser based version is also text message only but does allow log ins.

  8. Adam T

    So...

    Will this be ActiveX all over again?

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Normal Skype has gone TITSUP?

    Can't connect to the server for the past 30+ mins (from windows 7)

    Perhaps MS wants you to use it rather than via the app?

    1. Adam T

      Re: Normal Skype has gone TITSUP?

      Hah yeah, everyone's emailing one another here over the loss of Skype. First they couldn't watch Netflix, now we can't Skype. It's the interweb apocalypse alright.

      Now if only my email server would go too, I could have a nice peaceful, productive Monday. (our local mobile mast went last week too after a powercut...that'd be icing on the cake).

      1. Mike VandeVelde
        Big Brother

        Re: Normal Skype has gone TITSUP?

        the spooks are installing surveillance upgrades

  10. Clani

    but is Skype Down

    it might be all well and good them doing this but as it appears to me that skype is currently unavailable have they accelerated the transition

  11. Rick Giles
    Linux

    I didn't know...

    Skype was still a thing.

    After Micro$oft bought it, I promptly uninstalled it and blocked it in DNS and the firewall.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why build it into the browser and not the OS itself?

    I found a very silly idea I have to run a browser to run then a service within it. Please, just support that service at the OS level.

  13. Semaj

    I don't give a shit about Edge or other browser integration but does it mean we might be able to use 3rd party programs such as pigeon again?

  14. Tubz Silver badge

    No thanks, don't want Microsoft recording my conversations and flogging the data off to 3rd parties, even after I opt out. OK, lets just say it, SPYING !!!

  15. Anguilla
    FAIL

    Avoid M$oft's Win 10's Build 10547.

    I have twice tried to install build 10547 in place of [fully working] build 10525.... Each time I TOTALLY lost access to Internet.

    This despite inSSDer Wi-Fi channel identifier showing that my Lenovo E440 was receiving my two Wi-Fi signals, and "seeing" many others around me.

    AND despite my drivers showing that both the LAN drivers & Wi-Fi drivers were correctly loading.

    The Windows checking program said that there were problems with the driver installations, but offered no solution!

    Caveat Emptor !!

    Thankfully, I was able to "Wind back" the installation to build 10525 & able to access Internet via Wi-Fi *&* LAN again.

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