[Paul_S]

The best thing about how big skype is is that they have to maintain backwards compatibility (hardware skype phones that can't upgrade) so you can use whatever old version you want and it has to be supported by them. Which means you can stick to the old version which works fine without having to suffer through the new and "improved" glitzy version that is popup crazy and wants to hog all your system resources for what is essentially a chat program.

[mhurron]

> they have to maintain backwards compatibility

Well, no they don't. They can drop any legacy client whenever they wish. Microsoft could even try to make it sound like they're doing a good thing by removing unmaintainable legacy stuff they inherited from Skype.

Microsoft is not really required to maintain backwards compatibility with Skypes legacy stuff. It is possible they updated the Linux client for exactly this reason; update what you can, depreciate the rest for the good of everyone else.

[fredsted]

> old version which works fine

And has a bunch of security holes.

[Paul_S]

Which specific ones do you mean?

[slig]

Well, I suppose they can identify exactly what version (and machine/OS) the client is using and specifically block old PC apps if they wanted to.

[baby]

I can't use Skype because I have an iPhone 3GS which doesn't have the latest iOS (available only on iPhones 4).

So I don't really get your point.

[beagle3]

Skype worked fine for me in Jan 2012, last time I used my iphone 3G (ios 4.2.1).

Voice/chat only, of course, because of missing front camera.

[moheeb]

Actually on Android the video chat works without a front facing camera present.

[lparry]

Not sure what you're talking about, iOS 5.1 is out for the 3GS and even iOS 6.0 is supposed to be coming out for it. Maybe you only have a 3G?

[riffraff]

I'm pretty sure i have skype working on a iphone 3 non-gs, anyway.