Microsoft Is Buying Out Skype

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Microsoft Is Buying Out Skype

Microsoft is buying out Skype, it's been confirmed, at a price of over $8 billion USD...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTQyNw

[d2kx]

I really wished Google would get the deal, at least then things could improve with Skype and the it might have opened up.

What happens instead is Skype is slowly dying now with Microsoft ruining it surely.

[elanthis]

Someone explain to me again why there isn't already a FOSS application like Skype that uses a distributed/peer-to-peer setup already. A simple GUI, SPEEX, and a federated peering protocol. Where is it?

[Kano]

Most likely MS wanted a real cross-plattform solution as they only support Win right now. But i don't know how much they like the Linux variant, the mobile versions are very important however for a good market share.

[89c51]

Someone explain to me again why there isn't already a FOSS application like Skype that uses a distributed/peer-to-peer setup already. A simple GUI, SPEEX, and a federated peering protocol. Where is it?

because noone cares enough probably

we have xmpp voice/video and is supported also on Gtalk/Android phones (don't know how well this plays with others ie Gtalk to Jabber)

[jakubo]

isnt it a threat having MS in control over a commonly used P2P network? i dont know whether to trust Google more... but still i dont like the idea of my data in the hands of MS.

[timofonic]

because noone cares enough probably

we have xmpp voice/video and is supported also on Gtalk/Android phones (don't know how well this plays with others ie Gtalk to Jabber)

http://planet.gnu.org/gnutelephony/

GNU Free Call...

Will success or another fail like Gnash? Who knows...

[89c51]

http://planet.gnu.org/gnutelephony/

GNU Free Call...

Will success or another fail like Gnash? Who knows...

in order for something to succeed it not only needs to be made -and work flawlessly- but to be sold also.

as long as there is no "advertisement" of projects like that and adoption from distros its bound to fail.

for example i haven't seen canonical saying "hey look you can videochat with your friend who has a Gtalk front camera phone or has gtalk on his mac" or "Hey we have this new telephony solution that will do this and that"

also there is this big obstacle of "i use what i know" that plagues humans n general

[timofonic]

in order for something to succeed it not only needs to be made -and work flawlessly- but to be sold also.

as long as there is no "advertisement" of projects like that and adoption from distros its bound to fail.

for example i haven't seen canonical saying "hey look you can videochat with your friend who has a Gtalk front camera phone or has gtalk on his mac" or "Hey we have this new telephony solution that will do this and that"

also there is this big obstacle of "i use what i know" that plagues humans n general

Uhhh, "sell" is something FSF sometimes may fail. They are too philosophical sometimes and lack of pragmatic power in certain projects. I hope this changes, but they are a too big entity so adapting is slower than specialized ones.

There's also this...

http://jitsi.org

[RealNC]

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