I understand your skepticism.

Yes, telegram data can be stored in the cloud, but it's not mandatory, it's just a feature to save space on the device. For that purpose I would prefer to use ownCloud client synced with my personal server.

Also, telegram’s servers are protected by the MTProto protocol, while the app offers a secret chat feature that makes it easy to delete messages or schedule a time for them to self-destruct.

It might be a rotten compromise between proprietary software and something that runs on GNU GPL, but for me still it's an alternative worth considering.

"Hey sis, I know you and all your friends use Skype, and you know absolutely nothing about computers, but I want you to use this obscure new service to chat just with me (because no one else from your circle would know about it either). It's easy, all you need to do is setup a server and.. Sis? Sis?"

ok ok, got it! : )

I'm already a weirdo around my friends for just using N9.
- "Wow man, how come you don't have whatsapp?!"

Maybe we should create a petition to Microsoft to leave older clients without support but working as they used to before Skype migration to cloud? I guess it should be easy for them to do that with minimal resources usage. Somebody trying to login from older client? Connection made as it was before. When trying to login from newer clients - connection via cloud. Maybe these two methods would coexist happily. Just a petition and let know on major Windows Phone forums so that numerous WP < 10 users would join too.

Knock yourself out...

Just don't you dare mention maemo whatsoever in any petition to Microsoft concerning skype support...

I and many others are quite enjoying skype still on our nxx0's ...
Microsoft has ignored our little corner...
I don't particularly want my nxx0's to lose skype functionality due to bringing attention to us...

You don't have to mention Maemo, just "older devices" running Skype clients connecting via peer-to-peer not cloud. Otherwise I guess Skype will be dead on all these older devices including Maemo by the beginning of 2017 as announced by M$... Mind you N9 will still have good Google Hangouts client working then.

That's about as much use to me as a warm blanket to a corpse. The number of people in my social circle using hangouts (or anything other than Skype for that matter) is exactly zero.

I am with endso on this. Please do not bring unnecessary attention to Maemo. We may just get lucky again, like we did when they killed Skype on Symbian, but only if we keep a low profile.

Exactly...
There is a possibility ...
however slim....
that skype may continue to work for us through this next disruptive change...

But it is a virtual certainty that Microsoft will never ever comply and throw us a bone...
and again a virtual certainty that once our still functioning corner of skypedom is brought to their attention...
they will do everything possible to tie up loose ends and kill it for us....

Microsoft has been petitioned in the past...
and silence is the answer...

Shouting out our need
will
not
help

So yes...
pichlo is absolutely right.

And here's where we (and other users) will differ. I don't use Skype at all unless I am forced to do so whereas my colleagues use mostly Hangouts mostly.

A bit of commentary, not directed at you, is that we tend to overlook other users when we find stuff that works for us. "I don't use it, so nobody else does"... um. Not the right way to think about software at all.

But it still happens.

With that said... I think silence is the best way to treat this. Going to Microsoft now would be asking for a quicker death sentence.

Microsoft majorly burned their customers. The switch from Windows Mobile 6.5 to Windows Phone 7 completely killed backwards compatibility even though they are based on the same architecture and use the same kernel. The WP7 to WM8 transition completely eliminated any backwards compatibility. WM8 to WM10 was a smaller transition from an architectural standpoint and API but it created a significant compatibility gap that caused several applications to be broken. These transitions were worsened by the lack of upgrades for many devices and high system requirements. These transitions were unnecessary and caused many users to jump ship and caused developers to jump ship due to the extra work required to bridge compatibility with the different platforms. Microsoft screwed up badly.

Windows RT was a mess because it was abandoned with Windows 10 and it was unnecessarily limited to Windows Runtime applications even though Windows RT can br jailbreaked to use Win32 apps.

Microsoft abandoned the Zune Even though the brand could easily be reused. A Zune phone with high storage capacity and slick Zune aesthetics would be an excellent iPhone competitor. Overall the Lumia's didn't have the quality of design the Zunes did.

Windows Mobile pocketpc and Windows CE was an excellent platform which had lots of applications and devices. It was slim and could run much better than Android could on low end hardware. It's similarities to regular Windows made it great for existing developers. It was technically a full Windows system with Win32 and .net though slimmed down.

Pocketpc could have been given a modern revamped interface and used on phones, supporting existing ppc apps with new guidelines for modern apps. Windows CE which is virtually identical to PPC could have been used for arm laptops or for tablets and given a tablet friendly interface.

At every step of the way Microsoft did everything wrong that could be done wrong and I say this as a person that likes Microsoft products.