Re: So much for Skype.
On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Curt Howland <Howland@priss.com> wrote:
> So Skype has been bought by Microsoft.
>
> I expect the Linux version of Skype to be abolished in short order. Oh
> well, thus the fate of proprietary software. I'm sure St. Ignucious is
> shaking his head with the inevitability of it all.
>
> This aught to re-ignite the effort to develop the alternatives.
>
> And if it doesn't, that will say more than any success could.
>
iirc, microsoft has more investment in more linux products than anyone
else. they also have (or had?) quite a large investment in apple to
stop them from going under in early 2000.
i don't know what they plan to do with skype. maybe roll it into
netmeeting (does that still exist?) or msn messenger. i think the only
thing sure here is that it'll be installed by default on all windows
phones now - something i'm sure the carriers aren't going to like (but
will probably take care of with their bandwidth caps).
as far as igniting anything, i don't know that much needs it. most
people i know that use voip use cisco, the rest use asterisk. now,
don't get me wrong about asterisk, there's as much comercial in that
product as there is free - t1 cards, compression hardware / software,
front ends, etc.
if we're talking straight consumer video meeting software, this hasn't
really taken off yet. sure, most people have skype installed on their
computers. but, when i want to call someone, i still pick up my phone
and use a ten year old 2g network to talk to people. will this get
big? i have no doubt - probably in less than five years. will open
source software work with it? eventually. will open source lead the
way in making it so that when i want to contact with someone, i am
mainly using programs that i can read the source code to? that's
highly doubtful.
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