How to Install Skype on Ubuntu

by Ankit on January 31, 2012

Skype is one of the most popular applications that enables you to make telephone calls over internet. Skype is proprietary software that uses decentralized peer-to-peer technology; this means that the calls that you make are not routed through some centralized server but from a distributed server. And in addition to this all the communications are encrypted from end to end. Skype achieves this through its proprietary communication protocol. Skype software is free of cost but is not an open source software.

how to install Skype on Ubuntu

Nowadays Skype is easily available for most of the Windows versions but it is not present in the default repositories for Ubuntu Linux. So, today in this post I will guide you on how to install Skype on Ubuntu.

Installing Skype on Ubuntu – Method 1:

  • First of all you need to make some changes to the /etc/apt/sources.list file from your terminal

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

  • Add the following line to the sources.list file

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

  • Save and close the file
  • Now in the second step you need to install GPG key

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver pgp.mit.edu –recv-keys 0xd66b746e

  • After this, Update the source list files.

sudo aptitude update

  • Now use the following command to install Skype

sudo aptitude install skype

After this, now you are set to receive any future updates in the Skype software.

Installing Skype on Ubuntu

You can run Skype from, Applications>Internet>Skype

Installing Skype on Ubuntu – Method 2:

  • Firstly select the Ubuntu system menu and navigate to Administration > Synaptic package Manager as shown in the below image.
How to Install Skype on Ubuntu synaptic package
  • In Synaptic Manager click on tools > Repositories Menu Option. Here ensure that all the checkboxes are checked. After this close the synaptic Package manager.
Software Sources in Ubuntu
  • Now you have to add the Medibuntu repository. And to install Medibuntu navigate to Ubuntu Applications > Accessories and from there select the Terminal option.
Ubuntu Terminal
  • Assuming that you are on Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn you can use the below mentioned command to install the Medibuntu

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add – && sudo apt-get update

sudo aptitude install skype

  •  If you are using some earlier version of Ubuntu then you can visit the Medibutu homepage to find out suitable command for your version.

After this Skype will be installed and you can access it from Applications>Internet Menu

So, this was how to install Skype on Ubuntu.


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Ankit is the founder of Geek Revealed. He is tech Geek who loves to sit in front of his square headed girlfriend all day long. :D   You can find Ankit on FaceBook or Google Plus

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