After completing five months of testing, Skype has now officially announced the launch of its latest Linux version i.e. Linux 1.4. The most important feature of Linux 1.4 is better sound quality, which was missing in the early version.
The VoIP startup has also patched up other bugs found in Linux 1.3.
Perhaps, Skype is the only VoIP application, which is fully compatible to Mac, Windows and Linux operating system. Of course, it is not so prompt in updating the Linux version in comparison to other operating systems.
Skype 1.4 for Linux is now available for eight distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora 6 and 7, Debian, and MEPIS. System requirements include 256MB RAM, 20MB free disk space, 400MHz processor, Qt 4.2.1, and D-Bus 1.0.0.
Besides ensuring better sound quality, Skype has added two important features:
1. Call Forwarding: It means that Linux users can now forward Skype calls to other phones. This feature is available for Mac and Windows users since long time.
2. Birthday reminders: It’s the cooling feature. You will be automatically updated about the birthdays of your contacts.
The latest version needs following hardware:
1. 400 MHz or faster processor
2. 256MB RAM
3. 20MB free disk space
4. Microphone
5. Speakers or headset
6. Internet connection or Broadband
Skype 1.4 for Linux requires a number of software such as Qt 4.2.1+, DBus 1.0.0, libsigc++ 2.0.2, and libasound2 1.0.12 .
