Skype Software Versions

Skype is advancing very quickly and new releases are frequent for all of Skype's supported platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC, at the time of this writing. Without a doubt, this is good news for you, the Skype user. But, from an author's point of view, it makes the job of keeping the book up-to-date very difficult. Even during the writing of this book, on several occasions, I had to retest hacks already written for compatibility with new releases of Skype. Table P-1 outlines the versions of Skype I was using as the book went to press, together with the minimum system requirements for each platform.

In terms of testing Skype on its respective platforms, I used these operating systems and applications:

Windows

Microsoft Windows XP SP2

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180

Microsoft Office 2002 Professional SP3

Skype Toolbar 0.9 (beta) for Microsoft Internet Explorer

Skype Toolbar 0.9.107 (beta) for Microsoft Outlook

Linux

SuSE 9.3 Pro with the KDE desktop

Mac OS X

Apple OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Skype Widget 1.0.2

Pocket PC

Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

Table Skype's minimum hardware requirements

Windows	Linux	Mac OS X	Pocket PC
Skype 1.4.0.56 (beta)	Skype 1.2.0.11_API	Skype 1.3.0.8	Skype 1.2.0.4 (beta)
2000 or XP	SuSE 9, Fedora Core 3, Mandriva 10.1, Debian 3, or newer	10.3 (Panther) or newer	Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC or newer
400MHz processor	400MHz processor	G3, G4, or G5 processor	400MHz processor
128MB of RAM	128MB of RAM	128MB of RAM	WiFi enabled
15MB of disk space	10MB of disk space	20MB of disk space
Sound-in device	Sound-in device	Sound-in device
Sound-out device	Sound-out device	Sound-out device
Broadband Internet connection, or minimum 33.6 Kbps dial-up	Broadband Internet connection, or minimum 33.6 Kbps dial-up	Broadband Internet connection, or minimum 33.6 Kbps dial-up

I also feel obliged to explain the rationale behind using Skype "betas" on some platforms. Writing a book is a process that necessarily spans several months, and even once the book is written, preparation for production, and production itself, add many more months before the book hits the shelves at bookstores. For many subjects, this is of little consequence. However, when you're writing about something as fast moving as Skype, there is a distinct danger that much of what's written will be out of date by the time it gets into readers' hands. To mitigate this problem I have used beta versions of Skype wherever possible on the assumption that the functionality in those will more closely match the functionality available to this book's readers. This combined with frequent revisions between print runs and timely updates posted to the book's web site should make the book both useful and relevant for a long time to come.

One reason to consider the hardware requirements of Table P-1 as being the absolute bare minimum requirements is that Skype is advancing at a phenomenal rate, with each new release bringing you new features and improvements to existing features. All of this new functionality must surely come at the cost of increased hardware resources.