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The fact that progress on the Mac and Linux versions of Skype appeared to be hobbling along, compared with their Windows counterpart, has been something of a bone of contention.

So much so, that it has been one of the motivating factors behind Skype's release of its Video Preview.

'We know that you've been waiting... and waiting... and waiting... so we've decided to release video early as a preview version,' reads the Skype blog. 'Now Mac users can make free video calls to anyone else on Skype, no matter where they are in the world, or what kind of computer they're on, Windows or Mac.'

Such is the clamour for a video version of Skype for the Mac that when a test version of the software was leaked onto the Internet in June, the company issued a hurried warning because of the interest it caused. It was described as an 'internal unstable development version, and thus ... extremely buggy. It may and will destroy your contacts and other data. It is completely unsupported

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and if you experience problems due to using this version, you're on your own.'

Not that the preview version released today boasts anything in the way of support either. In fact Skype is more interested in the support you can offer in locating bugs. There are yet a few known bugs remaining in the preview. But from the current list, as long as video calls are not interrupted by the user tweaking settings or controls, video calls should run reasonably smoothly.

What's more, fears that the video version would be exclusive to Intel Macs don't appear to be realised. The preview is billed as a Universal app which will run on G4 800 Mhz processors or faster and on Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer. Suggested webcams include Apple iSight, Philips SPC900NC, or Logitech QuickCam Pro 400.

The video preview is in addition to the beta of version 1.5 of Skype for the Mac, also released today, and differs in no other way apart from the video component.

Version 1.5 boasts a cleaned up interface, all round speed improvements, support for more - mainly European - languages, and the ability to import and call contacts in Apple's Address Book or Microsoft Entourage.

The complete changelog, along with the download for the 1.5 beta is on the Skype website.

Although the announcement has only just been made, there's a palpable collective sigh of relief from Mac Skypers. Comments on the video preview post appear almost exclusively restricted to 'Thank you, thank you, thank you'.