If you had read the article, you would know that he was comparing the user experience of Skype in Ubuntu on a Thinkpad to Skype in Mac OS X. This sort of blame-the-user mentality is what's really holding back Linux on the desktop.
comparing the user experience of Skype in Ubuntu on a Thinkpad to Skype in Mac OS X.
But isn't that an issue with Skype? It's a massive nuisance that Linux still doesn't have the hardware and application support of MasOS/OSX and Windows, but there's not much that can be done about that without the cooperation of proprietary vendors, many of whom still treat Linux as a second class citizen.
No. OS-X, Windows, iPhone and Android are sufficiently different that we can tell the Skype developers are putting a decent amount of effort into cross-platform compatibility.
That there is a Linux client shows they are also trying to do that with Linux.
Could they put more effort in and get a polished shiny Linux client? Maybe. Is it Skype's fault that Linux is bad enough to need this while at the same time not good enough to get a large enough userbase to make this worthwhile? Again, no.
I read until the "turns out refit is not seamless on the MacBook". Sorry I did not read through the whole wall of text just to learn that somebody prefers Os X to Linux.