Microsoft Is Buying Out Skype

[accumulator]

or the standard for telephony over the internet: SIP?

A bit of testing using a free account over at ekiga.net shows it works fine with audio+video. And there's no google lock-in (why oh why is the first thing mentioned in this thread a google service/protocol? I thought this was a linux/FOSS site )

[jakubo]

There's also the phone. Also known as telephone.

telefones lack the feature of being free of charge - even abroad

actually i dont care about the program itself but the protocol. Id be happy to see some adoption in empathy and the like soon. there have been some attempts if i remember well, but that might be out of the question now...

[jakubo]

i meant "especially abroad"...

[dgrafenhofer]

What about gtalk? Seems to be based on open standards + there are open source clients.

[locovaca]

telefones lack the feature of being free of charge - even abroad

actually i dont care about the program itself but the protocol. Id be happy to see some adoption in empathy and the like soon. there have been some attempts if i remember well, but that might be out of the question now...

Skype is not free either, unless you're going to assume that having an Internet Connection is "free of charge." TINSTAAFL.

[BlackStar]

If you think about this for a moment, Microsoft buying Skype is not all bad. The outcome for Linux users will be good:
- either development pace picks up and we see more Skype Linux releases (unlikely)
- either development dies completely and:
-- either some enterprising developer hacks the ciphered protocol and builds an open-source client
-- or users are eventually forced to leave skype for something open-source that actually works

All outcomes are win-win for free software. Yeah, it would have been even better if Google had bought Skype and opened up the protocol but even Microsoft is better than a buggy beta-quality release every two years.

[BlackStar]

Skype is not free either, unless you're going to assume that having an Internet Connection is "free of charge." TINSTAAFL.

It's significantly cheaper than abroad phone calls (and free wifi hotspots are available in significant qualities). Not that I care very much, since my phone company offers free abroad calls to half the world - but I'd still like to call anyone for free.

[deanjo]

If you think about this for a moment, Microsoft buying Skype is not all bad. The outcome for Linux users will be good:
- either development pace picks up and we see more Skype Linux releases (unlikely)
- either development dies completely and:
-- either some enterprising developer hacks the ciphered protocol and builds an open-source client
-- or users are eventually forced to leave skype for something open-source that actually works

All outcomes are win-win for free software. Yeah, it would have been even better if Google had bought Skype and opened up the protocol but even Microsoft is better than a buggy beta-quality release every two years.

--- Skype becomes more widely adopted when it becomes part of the MSN product family.

[89c51]

What about gtalk? Seems to be based on open standards + there are open source clients.

afaik its xmpp based and in theory should work with jabber and every app that supports the xmpp protocol

i searched a bit on the internet and haven't found anything that confirms that the latest nexus s update (that implements a/v) can be used with the video/audio xmpp features of the linux distro apps.

[droidhacker]

This is GREAT news. Skype was a destructive force in VoIP telecommunications to begin with. Now that MS has their fangs into it, it is sure to die, leading to greater freedom in VoIP communications and a renewed push for the use of decentralized SIP.

I don't say this often, but THANK YOU MICROSHAFT!