GNU Free Call: A Proposed Free Phone To Skype

[»John«]

But skype actually uses industry standard 256 AES encryption so i hear even US has tough time intercepting it,but iam sure they can do it.

That's what the infamous "independent security audit" says, but the weakest spot of every cipher is key generation - in other words, even the unbreakable cipher is useless if it's deliberately forced to use only a limited set of encryption keys, that are well known to the attacker.
Even if there was nothing wrong with the security audit itself, they could still rig the code after it passed the independent review. That's why people should never believe blobbers until they can have a look at the code themselves.
Skype makers were already caught spying on people and there's absolutely no reason to believe that they're never gonna do anything like that again (to be fair, there's no way to prove the opposite either), but always remember that they're out for money, so they're never gonna stop lying until they're proven guilty.

Considering US is highly sensitive on these issues of security they probably wont allow skype calls into or outside the US without this.I dont know the status of this though.

That's what I'm thinking, but we can never know for sure and doubt is one of their favorite arguments.

[crazycheese]

Will be possible to contact a Skype user via GNU free call? AND (not OR) vice versa? if I do skype calls via facebook can I reach or be reached by a GFC user?

And is it possible to contact SIP/H323 user(ie. normal IP phone) via Skype? No.
All so called "Skype" passthoughs require Skype running in the background and just pass the data to it. There is no difference if you speak via Skype directly or via such passthrough.

If the answer is no... Ekiga .

Ekiga is as popular as 0,001%

P.S. What about IP to non-IP calls?

This is main source of income.

Skype decoding hardware is available to the goverments.
Skype itself is a large p2p bot-net, why do you think its free? Who will notice 1% additional CPU usage? Skype developers were developers of malware infected Kazaa.

[Pickup]

And is it possible to contact SIP/H323 user(ie. normal IP phone) via Skype? No.
All so called "Skype" passthoughs require Skype running in the background and just pass the data to it. There is no difference if you speak via Skype directly or via such passthrough.


Ekiga is as popular as 0,001%


This is main source of income.

Skype decoding hardware is available to the goverments.
Skype itself is a large p2p bot-net, why do you think its free? Who will notice 1% additional CPU usage? Skype developers were developers of malware infected Kazaa.

In other words: you can't get rid of Skype. Skype is the standard de facto because it arrived first on the final user's computer. All the little people out there "know" that the programme to phone through the internet is named "Skype" as well as they "know" that the programmes to write texts and data sheets are named "Word" and "Excel".

Then, this "GNU free call" has a good chance to end up as Ekiga.

(I wonder... maybe GNU people should find something to come first on user's devices?)

[crazycheese]

In other words: you can't get rid of Skype. Skype is the standard de facto because it arrived first on the final user's computer. All the little people out there "know" that the programme to phone through the internet is named "Skype" as well as they "know" that the programmes to write texts and data sheets are named "Word" and "Excel".

Then, this "GNU free call" has a good chance to end up as Ekiga.

(I wonder... maybe GNU people should find something to come first on user's devices?)

No,no,no! The words are different!
People are dumb.
They care about nothing and support crap.
Skype+ICQ+uTorrent+MS Office(+sometimes KAV/NOD 50/50) -> typical desktop of a noob (uTorrent being the most important of all! Ftw!)

I use XMPP and SIP(Ekiga btw) and I do not care, if someone asks me to install Skype. I just throw in a few facts and they either change their point of view on skype and co OR they issue a famous "sheep herd" claim - "Millions of sheep can't mistake about their master, the sausage is made of wheat! In master we trust."

Ekiga is awesome, voip works for me

[renkin]

Ekiga is awesome, voip works for me

What SIP service do you use?

[elanthis]

No doubt they will have a better name when the actual produact is released I hope...

You're kidding me, right?

This the same organization that continues to evangelize "free software" despite that term needing a paragraph after it to make sure people understand what it really means rather than just making the logical assumption that it means freeware and shareware or products like IE or Skype (which are free, you know).

This is also the same organization that wants to slaughter any chance of marketing Linux as a brand name by forcing everyone to prefix it so it becomes GNU/Linux. This doubles the number of syllables in a culture that's heavily prone to shortening already short names. People run "XP" on their "laptops," they do not run "Microsoft Windows XP SP3 x32 Professional" on their "notebook computers."

And this is the same organization that came up with GNU, a word that sounds horrible and is based on a horrifically bad joke.

RMS, FSF, GNU... not a one of them has _any_ clue how to market a product, an idea, or anything else. They only know how to yell very loudly at the small handful of people who happen to pay attention in the first place. Which is mostly made up of people who already agree with them and know about them and don't need to be yelled at.

[Mo6eB]

This is an interesting project, but I and everyone I know use skype simply as an IM client with distributed logs. The "call" part is a novelty and not frequently used. What I want is a p2p im network with conference logs stored at each client node and synchronised whenever I log-in, one that also supports being online in multiple locations. Any attempt to dethrone skype by building a better voip application is doomed to failure, you have to start with a kick-ass im client.

[crazycheese]

This is an interesting project, but I and everyone I know use skype simply as an IM client with distributed logs. The "call" part is a novelty and not frequently used. What I want is a p2p im network with conference logs stored at each client node and synchronised whenever I log-in, one that also supports being online in multiple locations. Any attempt to dethrone skype by building a better voip application is doomed to failure, you have to start with a kick-ass im client.

Skype is malware bot net. Everyone also uses windows and ICQ, if everyone uses crap, should you use it too? It depends on your IQ.

No project ever existed that was final version on first release. Even space craft failed multiple times. Life is a process of constant bug test.

What SIP service do you use?

I registered on ekiga.net as all of my relatives, which is build-in at time of registration.

[crazycheese]

You're kidding me, right?

This the same organization that continues to evangelize "free software" despite that term needing a paragraph after it to make sure people understand what it really means rather than just making the logical assumption that it means freeware and shareware or products like IE or Skype (which are free, you know).

This is also the same organization that wants to slaughter any chance of marketing Linux as a brand name by forcing everyone to prefix it so it becomes GNU/Linux. This doubles the number of syllables in a culture that's heavily prone to shortening already short names. People run "XP" on their "laptops," they do not run "Microsoft Windows XP SP3 x32 Professional" on their "notebook computers."

And this is the same organization that came up with GNU, a word that sounds horrible and is based on a horrifically bad joke.

RMS, FSF, GNU... not a one of them has _any_ clue how to market a product, an idea, or anything else. They only know how to yell very loudly at the small handful of people who happen to pay attention in the first place. Which is mostly made up of people who already agree with them and know about them and don't need to be yelled at.

Free software is software which has all four freedoms. One freedom extra and it is public domain/BSD. Freeware has only one freedom.

GNU toolchain is huge. Its fair to call it GNU/Linux, but it is not good to force it to be called so. The toolchain, licensing and legal support come from GNU. Its fair to be fair. Everyone should name his distribution or software as he prefers. Also, I doubt RMS is that low IQ - he is not a business man, but he is a programmer and a lawyer and he devoted almost all his life to free software and not to making money out of it, so I think he loves his product way more than Bill and Steve "theirs".

[XorEaxEax]

RMS, FSF, GNU... not a one of them has _any_ clue how to market a product, an idea, or anything else.

You seem confused, Richard Stallman (RMS) founded the Free Software Foundation, from which came GNU (GNU's Not Unix) which the name of their OS project consisting of GCC, binutils, glibc etc.
And how are anyone being forced to say GNU/Linux? I sure don't, I run Arch Linux, not Arch GNU/Linux. That they want recognition for their work in this fashion may or may not be a fair request, but as reality shows they are not 'forcing' anyone. Maybe you should tone down a bit on your FSF hatred, because you are coming across as irrational.

As for marketing a product, really? If it's good enough it will be used since in this case it will be free. Doesn't matter if it's open source or proprietary, µTorrent comes to mind (hardly a great name and certainly no marketing, it was much better than the competition and word of mouth did the rest.