Microsoft will block older versions of Skype

In recent years, Microsoft has been migrating the Skype infrastructure from the old peering (with superstructures) to the new cloud infrastructure in its Azure cloud. As part of this migration, we have to make some technical compromises, including sacrificing backward compatibility with old P2P versions of client software that cannot work in the cloud mode.

The company announced that from March 1, 2017, support for P2P versions of the program for Windows (7.16 and earlier) and for Mac (from 7.0 to 7.18) will cease . Users of these versions will no longer be able to log in to the program. Apparently, the native client for Linux (4.3) will also cease to function, only the packaged web version will remain on this OS.

According to Microsoft, the refusal to support old P2P versions is a small fee for the advantages that the transition to the cloud infrastructure provides: high-definition video calls, improved sound quality, communication reliability, support for synchronization with mobile devices. Moreover, now it is not necessary to install the native version of the client, Skype for Web works perfectly through the browser.

With the latest upgrade, users are promised new features and various improvements, including:
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• Mobile group video calls
• Transferring video messages in a group
• Saving video messages
• Cloud file sharing (files up to 300 MB)

In addition, Skype in the new version will be "more lightweight and with a minimal response time than ever." As for “record lightness,” Microsoft may have got into a rush, but it would really not hurt to optimize a heavy Skype client. On computers of weak configuration and on mobile phones, this clumsy giant loads for a very long time, takes up a large amount of RAM, eats up a considerable part of CPU resources.

The official Skype for Android is so terrible that users had to massively install a modified version of Skype with xda-developers , otherwise it was almost impossible to use it because of the constant departures.

At the moment, the system requirements of the Skype desktop client for Windows are as follows:

Skype for Windows Desktop
Version	Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 8 Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported), you need IE 11 browser Windows vista Windows XP SP3 (32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported), IE 8 or higher browser
CPU	At least 1 GHz
Ram	At least 512 MB
Additional software	DirectX v9.0 or higher

Users of these outdated versions of Skype are advised to download the update before March 1. After that, the account will be automatically transferred to the new infrastructure.

From the very beginning of its existence, Skype worked on the principle of P2P, that is, it established connections directly between users. The Skype architecture provided for the presence of "super-powers" (supernod), which were users with fairly powerful computers and communication channels. Through them, the traffic of other participants of the P2P network was passed (the ability to disable the supernod on your PC appeared only from Skype 3.0). Since December 2010, Skype has begun posting some of them in the Amazon EC2 cloud.

Buying Skype, Microsoft continued the job. In 2012, it almost completely transferred supernods to its servers, which are hosted in the Azure cloud. Thus, in 2012, an even greater centralization of infrastructure took place: instead of 48+ thousand supernods, the P2P network of Skype began to pass traffic through 10+ thousand mega-supernodos at Microsoft hosting. The company explained that this "has significantly improved the security of the system and the quality of service, given the sharply increased number of users." Each supernod in the old system could serve about 800 users, and the new Microsoft nodes are capable of holding up to 100 thousand connections.

Changes in the Skype infrastructure running by Microsoft - the complete transfer of supernodus to the Azure cloud and their transformation into mega-supernods - have become the most radical change in the Skype infrastructure in the entire history of this service.

In July 2016, it was announced that Skype was completely moving to the cloud. On November 1, 2016, support for Skype for Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows RT and older versions of OS X was discontinued. The new client only works on Mac OS X 10.9 or higher. Other users are recommended to use the web client.

The company admitted then that moving Skype to the cloud requires tremendous technical effort, but it is absolutely necessary to ensure the development of the service in the future.

It is not the first time when Microsoft refuses backward support for previous versions of client software in connection with infrastructure upgrades. The same thing happened in the fall of 2014, when Skype for Windows (6.13 and earlier) and Skype for Mac (6.14 and earlier) clients stopped working.

It rarely happens that the new version of the program becomes more lightweight, less resource-intensive. Therefore, many users are accustomed to living according to the principle “Do not touch what works,” without installing software updates unless absolutely necessary. March 1, 2017, this “urgent need” comes for Skype users.