POST HERE TO GET SKYPE TO GET RID OF THE HORRIBLE SKYPE 5 INTERFACE

[DanielWJ]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/162489/fxsg_prompt.png

This came up a little while ago while Firefox was the active app in front of SKype, I recognized NOTHING, thought it was st bad, so Cancel, it comes up again, Cancel, BAM!

Skype unexpectedly quits and is DEAD, will not open. Any ways to confirm this is the work of a mac malware, and not just a bad UI? 

[aaroncutchin]

Agree.

[Robster2007]

Still the most bloated and user unfreindly chat program available.

I need to use Skype as so many people are on it BUT I front it with Adium so I have a nice consistant imple to use UI.

When will Skype EVER listen to us??????

[harrissjt]

How about this for an idea.

Take a look at the beautiful minimalist design of the email application Sparrow. http://sparrowmailapp.com/mac.php.  Now, apply the same graphics UI to Skype for Mac, except with an Icon Sidebar, Contacts Pane, and Main Pane.

The Icon Sidebar could contain icons to all of the usual commands ie. switch between Contact views, History, Favourites, Properties, etc.

The Contacts Pane could consist of two columns containing the Contact Picture and Contact Name (with Status/Mood text below) in the first, and the context sensitive Skype Status Icon in the second.

The Main Pane could contain Skype Home/Facebook as the default tab, but the user could open/close tabs on demand, each tab containing things like User/Contact Profile, History, multiple IM chats and/or video chats.

Placing the Status/Mood text below the Contract Name would enable the overall width of the Contacts Pane to be reduced further.  As the contacts are constantly in view, the user can easily see who's currently online, and drag-and-drop contacts into existing chats in the Main Pane with ease.

Importantly, as in Sparrow, the app footprint could be reduced by using function keys.  Shift+Command+T removes the Main Pane, and Shift+Command+M removes the Icon Sidebar (these options are also available as drop downs from the Toolbar).  There is also an 'Extended Sidebar' option in the Toolbar that you could use to show History/Recent etc.

This approach would keep all of the current functionality for the general user, and enable those that want it to be able to reduce the overall footprint to a basic contacts list.

Many people here are complaining about the "bloated" look of Skype for Mac, but has anyone actually proposed anything better?

The suggestion above may not suit everyone (or even anyone...!), but it's a starting point for discussion.

Just my 2c worth.

[sumnerlm]

I still use Skype 2.x most of the time and only upgrade to 5.x when I need to use screen sharing on Mac OS 10.7. As soon as im done with the call (screen sharing) I downgrade to 2.x ASAP!

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT THE NEW UI:

I find the "new" UI to be horrible. I work on a laptop and and constenly have many windows open at one time. The fact that new UI takes up so much room makes it very hard for me to us the app. Also having the one window for chat and video/audio calls makes it hard to interact with multiple people at the same time. 

[petrchutny]

I agree with this thread as much as one can agree. The new interface is terrible, the old one is great.

[eatelas69]

I am a Mac user and get this message signing in: Disk I/O error. Quit and restart Skype. If you keep seeing this error, please contact Skype customer support

[alexduncan]

Completely agree with this thread.

I "upgraded" to skype 5 a year ago and instantly downgraded, but after upgrade 2.8 had become broken and continued to get worse and worse so just yesterday I once again upgraded to 5 and was instantly so angry at what they had done.

PLEASE SKYPE TELL US WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO FIX THIS GIANT **bleep** UP.

[Fattango69]

THe old format was sooo much easier and clean. And why did it import ALL my contacts from some email/Facebook account? I didn't ask it to!

[revmachine21]

I am in complete agreement.  I've blogged about the reasons why I love Skype, why it's better than Facebook, why I'm a good paying user, and what I need to be able to upgrade.

In a nutshell, this is what I need:

• Compact contact list view to see as many of my online contacts as possible.  No dead white space.
• In order to achieve a compact view, buttons need to be smaller
• I must have the ability to resize the chat window.  Without the chat drawer, my mandatory chat window size is 7.5 cm wide by 8.5 cm tall, including buttons at top of window and text entry box at bottom of window.
• The call window size must be on par with the chat window and no larger.
• Go ahead and keep the horrible overall GUI, but allow me the ability to keep it running in the background behind other apps while having a call or chat window running in foreground along side another app.