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matandked
Asked: 2018-05-10 07:36:57 +0800 CST

How to join Skype for Business meeting on Ubuntu (without Skype for Business account)?

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Following topic describes how I could connect to Skype for Business account under Linux:

Free software to connect to Skype for Business

However, what if I do not have a Skype for Business account?

I received an invitation to the meeting in form of the following URL:

https://meet.lync.com/SomeCompany/SomePerson/SomeID

I do not need to have a Skype for Business account to join such meeting. On my Android phone, I just installed the appropriate application and when I click on the mentioned link, I can join after providing my name.

When I click on the link on the Linux machine, it redirects me to the page where msi file is downloaded.

skype

4 Answers

  1. Here is my latest advice about running Skype4B aka Lync on Linux:

    • It's annoying, but I am almost certain MS will never make Skype4B available on Linux.
      • The software is "Skype" by brand name only, and has nothing to do with regular Skype which already works on Linux.
      • Skype4B was always just a renamed version of the very old Microsoft Lync software which works totally differently to Skype regular (which was originally a separate company later purchased by MS).
      • The other nail in the coffin is that MS will reportedly discontinue Skype4B support in mid 2021.
    • Good news is that MS is replacing Skype4B with MS Teams which has a web and native Linux binary already. But some corporations could be over a decade slow in upgrading (many still use Lync 2007!).
    • For a long time I have used the method below to run MS software. It works 100% fine for me.

    How I use Skype4B on my Linux laptop:

    OK so this is a work-around but it works surprisingly well for me as I very rarely need to share my Linux host screen, or if I do, then its just a MS Office doc which is easy to share within VM. This is also how I use MS office 2016 on Linux.

    All I do is use VirtualBox to create a Windows 10 VM with a little bit of RAM and 2 CPUs and install Skype4B + Office on it and Outlook online to get emails, calendar and links to Skype4B meetings. I pass through my audio and microphone to the VM. Make sure you install the VirtualBox Extension Pack on host and Guest Additions within VM to allow seamless resizing, drag and drop files and shared clipboard with host. This will give you an almost seamless experience on a decent PC.

    Now this sounds like a crap solution but just try it and you might be surprised. Windows 10 boots up very quickly in VM, especially if you remove all bloatware and auto-login. The key is to install the Virtual Box extras mentioned above which allows the VM to works seamlessly with the Linux host OS (window resizing, shared files and clipboard).

    Windows 10 DOES NOT require a license, just get the official ISO from MS website and install without a product key, it works fine but just disables a couple features like change color scheme and desktop background.

    Edit: forgot to mention, if you dont have a Skype4B account, that is fine, just click the link and it will install the web version (msi) and you can join.

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  2. sorry to hear about your problems. There is no way that I know about to do this at the moment, and it is likely deliberate since the regular Skype runs on Linux as well as a web-based Skype version.

    This is on the "roadmap" for Microsoft, but I believe that is likely mostly to drive goodwill.

    In the near future, you may be able to run this via Wine. I checked with Codeweavers in St. Paul, MN and they are working on it; but the status for skype is "garbage" at the moment.

    here is some more information: http://skype4businessinsider.com/skype-for-business/how-to-access-skype-for-business-and-teams-services-on-linux-computers/

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  3. There is a non-free alternative "Sky Linux" from TelRed. This works for me in most cases.

    They have a free (as in beer) trail, but it has a 2 minute limit on each call or screen share.

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  4. Teams and S4B backend is on the way to be joined so intercalls can be organized. With invitation even Skype (for Linux) can connect to S4B calls as long as there is no firewall protection against Skype. (which is the case for most most companies)

    Microsoft Teams can work with Chrome/Linux via https://teams.microsoft.com or have a native Linux client. This seems to be reliably working for me.

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