Alternatives to Skype?

[noparlpf]

The last few versions of Skype (Windows 7) have been working incredibly poorly on my computer. It keeps freezing, lagging, &c. I don't know if it's their servers or the program itself (my computer and internet connection are fine otherwise), so are there any alternatives? Some other website/program that can log into the Skype account, or another IM/video chat program entirely (although the latter means converting other people). Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: My current Skype version is 7.2.0.103.

[Flickerdart]

Google Hangouts is quite excellent when it comes to voice/video chat.

[Alent]

Hangouts has already been mentioned, so I'll poke the technical side:


The last few versions of Skype (Windows 7) have been working incredibly poorly on my computer. It keeps freezing, lagging, &c. I don't know if it's their servers or the program itself (my computer and internet connection are fine otherwise)

Perchance have you got a Linux live CD or an AVG rescue disk or something else with Memtest x86 on it that you can use to give your computer a RAM check? I find badly written apps like Skype and Dreamweaver and any other codebase that's been passed between at least three programming houses tend to be pretty vulnerable to RAM problems.

[noparlpf]

Perchance have you got a Linux live CD or an AVG rescue disk or something else with Memtest x86 on it that you can use to give your computer a RAM check? I find badly written apps like Skype and Dreamweaver and any other codebase that's been passed between at least three programming houses tend to be pretty vulnerable to RAM problems.

I'm sure I could find something and write it to a bootable USB drive. I tried running the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool but it doesn't work. Probably because I don't have the original Windows CDs and my OS has been reinstalled several times, not always by the most, ahem, legit tech support.

Anyway, my computer can run everything else fine. I can run two game clients and Firefox at the same time with no problems. So I think my RAM is okay. I'll look for something to test it tomorrow.

[Dodom]

I can think of Miranda and Pidgin, I've tried them both, and both can connect to existing accounts on multiple IM services.
They worked fine, as in, as promised. If it came with a function, it worked. I only found a bug on Pidgin once, and it was on a plugin. The reason I didn't keep them was that they (at least at the time) didn't connect to Skype, and most of my friends had migrated to it. They're also very light and won't slow most computers. If the features they offer suit your needs, I recommend either of them without hesitation.

[Sean Mirrsen]

You could try an earlier version of Skype. It's Microsoft now, a higher version number doesn't necessarily mean it's better. :P

I'm using this.

http://download.skype.com/msi/SkypeSetup_6.21.0.104.msi

It's the last version of Skype to have the "Classic" interface, which I vastly prefer to the "SMS client" mobile-style interface it later adopted. I've been using it without any issues whatsoever for quite a while now.

[Amidus Drexel]

Firefox has video chat capability built into the browser now, though I haven't played around with it any so I can't speak as to how well it works. Might be worth looking into.