I love Skype. The concept is nothing new, it is an Internet Telephony application: years have passed with people talking to each other for free over the Internet, and it has always been considered cool. However traditional telephones are on everyone’s desk today as they were three decades ago, despite that most of these desks now feature PCs connected with fat pipes to the Web.Introduction
The problem: Internet Telephony has an hard life in today’s Web. Most connected PCs are cowardly hidden behind firewalls, their ports blocked, and almost every company uses NAT, because IP addresses are a precious good. In short, because of this situation existing Internet Telephony systems do not “Just Work”.
Instead, Skype got almost everything right: I instructed my uncle how to install and use Skype the day after teaching him how to move that curious arrow with the “mouse”; I did not have to implore my megacorp’s Network Administrator to evoke his black magic with the company’s firewalls “just to chat with mummy”; and I did not feel left behind on my Linux box, since Skype runs natively on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
How Skype manages to work flawlessly in almost any situation is roughly explained here: however, despite considering myself a geek, I don’t feel the need to know that anymore: Skype has become a real tool, not one of the many “toys” we use to play with and dissect, none of which survives more than a few days of hype and excitement.
Program characteristics and usage
Skype installation is easy and fast, and you don’t need to answer and endless list of questions to be registered; as soon as you are logged in, you can start adding contacts to your list.
Here you’ll notice that all the fancy user search capabilities of other Instant Messaging platforms are missing: not a big handicap, since Skype does not (yet) aim to be a socialization tool, offering limited (and currently quite disappointing) support for free chat, named “Skype me”. On the contrary, focus is centered on convenient communication with existing contacts, since by default authorization is needed to add buddies to the list, and blocking annoying users is a matter of a couple of clicks. This also eliminates worries about unsolicited messages: think about bots with sexy screen names and avatars mass-ringing everyone, and dictating a link to the usual paysites — what a dream for spammers, what a nightmare for users!
And these sexy spam-voices would be very convincing, too: quality of audio communication is excellent at 128Kbps, and a number of different sound codecs are automatically chosen by the system, so that connections should be possible also with smaller pipes. Amazingly, lag is usually almost unnoticeable, and echo-cancellation algorithms work perfectly. In short, if you are on a DSL or better line, you’ll not miss the traditional telephone.
In addition, all communications between users — voice, instant messages, files — are always encrypted using AES. New skype releases also feature “conferences”, where up to 5 people can be connected simultaneously.
PC-to-PC calls are obviously free, but calls to regular phones are also possible at interesting rates, depending solely on the destination country, by buying SkypeOut credit: this is very convenient for outgoing calls, however, unlike other VoIP products, there’s no way to receive calls from regular phones.
A negative note: Skype does not use the SIP standard, so it can not interoperate with other Internet Telephony systems; this is however largely justified, since most of its advantages come from using a new protocol instead of SIP, which does not work well in firewalled enviroments.
The windows version also supports USB handsets, a very easy to use piece of hardware: it allows to answer and initiate calls just like you would do with a real telephone, offers more privacy than the speakers + mic combo, while being more convenient than traditional “call center operator” headsets.
Clients for Mac OS X and Linux
The Mac OS X and Linux clients are perfectly functional, despite being a bit late with regards to the windows version, still missing some minor features. However, their progress is fast, and the Skype website also hosts dedicated forums, where you can see frequent posts by developers, strictly interacting with the user community.
The Linux client uses the QT toolkit but does not require KDE; it will also take advantage of the freedesktop.org “notification area” standard, thus placing a very useful icon on the GNOME or KDE panel. Being closed-source software, a lot of exciting opportunities, like evolution integration, can not be implemented by the community: however, developers promise an API, probably based on D-BUS, which should allow hackers to easily intagrate Skype with existing software.
This represents a crucial challange for Linux on the desktop, as we have a well-done closed source software with smart developers using the latest of the freedesktop technologies: how well can proprietary applications be integrated in the free desktop enviroments? This is one of the first experiments, let’s wait and see the outcome.
Conclusions
In conclusion, Skype is a pleasure to use, and “just works” in most environments, regardless of firewalls or NAT; moreover interoperability between clients for different platforms seems perfect. What other internet telephony system can boast the same?
Sure, the feature list is not vast like other older and better-known applications, however this is a small price to pay for a system that works so well.
Transmitting voice needs bandwidth, there’s not much to be done about it: unfortunately, dialup users will hardly enjoy Internet Telephony in its full splendour. But if you have a good connection, you really have to give Skype a try; and should you miss a microphone, just plug a couple of ordinary earbuds to speak into instead: they’ll decorously do the job!
About the author:
Alessandro Giusti is a 22 year old graduate student of Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. His main interests are free software and everything about linux on the desktop.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
You forgot skype for pocket pc pda’s. If you have wifi you can call anyone just by finding some hotspot when you’re in the move. Really nice!
Skype is proprietary and full of patents.
How many people at home actually have fast internet?
I’m using skype. It works well for me. I run it on Linux and Windows. I use it for (PC to phone) and (PC to PC).
i’m using skype with linux and windows, and i usually only make phone calls to other pcs.. still haven’t bought skypeout credits
the voice quality is really good comparing to telephone and even other voice chats like in msn messenger…
i just wished they could speed development a bit more on the linux(and mac) side as they still lack some features of the windows version. but all the major stuff is there
Are there any good alternatives to Skype that are free in every sense?
Try gnomemeeting :
http://www.gnomemeeting.org/
I use Skype to talk to my bro in Belgium.
I have 33.6k modem, I’m on pulse dialing old analog phone line, and it is great. It is not perfect, but with huge prices for regular calls Skype is God send. I’ve tried bunch of other apps, but Skype is first one that works.
I don’t care if it’s not libre, gratis is good enough for me. Gnomemeeting doesn’t work for me, Skype does.
For windows: sipps from ahead
For Linux: kPhone, linphone
In the more developed internet countries (North America, Europe, and the Far East), between 20% and 90% of internet users, depending on the country. A significant amount, that is. (it varies hugely by country, and the definition of broadband is pretty hard to pin down…but those numbers will do).
“Skype is proprietary and full of patents.”
So, what’s your point?
In my opinion Skype deserves its popularity because of the unique features (firewall&NAT friendly) and ease of use: unmatched by the alternatives, as far as I can tell.
Also, marking it as evil just because proprietary is a personal matter, on which everyone has its own position – I personally think it is OK.
It is the “locking” in a unknown/undocumented (and maybe patent-encumbered ?) protocol that can raise concern. I agree that if badly managed by the creators, this matter could be a problem.
In this case, if there will be an equally functional and opensource alternative, I’ll be ready to switch and to push buddies to do so.
My biggest problem with Skype is that in addition to my messenger client I need to have a separate application running just for Skype calls.
The fact that Skype is proprietary and not compatible with SIP doesn’t exactly make it any better.
Right now I am using PhoneGaim (www.phonegaim.com) which connects to all IM networks (ICQ, MSN etc) AND lets me call to any SIP or PSTN phone all over the world.
Skype for Linux users seems like a cool little application but very similar to GnomeMeeting. I really don’t like having to install a secondary chat utility just to have VOIP and Webcam support. What I would like to see and I’m sure many Linux users would agree is for chat messengers such as Kopete, Gaim, AMSN to finally include VOIP and Webcam support. Having these features in Kopete and Gaim which run natively on Linux and offer multi-chat capability (MSN, Yahoo, IRC, etc) would be beneficial to all Linux users.
http://gaim-vv.sourceforge.net/
When the author used the word “Problem:” just after the “Introduction” headline, my immediate thought is that ISP put restrictions on the amount of traffic we can download.
That makes any Internet telephony not needed for me. Also any contacts I have are living in the same state as me, and I have the same 3G service as them which allows me to speak with them free for the first 10 minutes any time of the day.
BTW isn’t each skype user a node for each other skype user? How does that work, does skype need to be always running?
“Skype is proprietary and full of patents.”
Well… Beat the open source drum, and don’t use it then.
Hint: All of the totally free alternatives to Skype don’t suck a little… They suck a LOT.
Adam,
Thanks for the link to the forked Gaim-VV project. The great thing about this project is that VOIP and Webcam support is now becoming with in reach of Linux users. Hopefully there will be “.rpm” and “.deb” binary packages for popular distributions available soon.
I tried Skype a while ago, it skips entire syllables as soon as two people starts speaking at the same time. It’s so disturbing that I was searching for an alternative — and found it: FireFly. It works very nicely, and it never skips.
Before applications for VOIP and Webcams on linux maybe we should have DRIVERS for those webcams first? (I know, blame logitech or whoever, but it still doesn’t work…)
Simon, run `make menuconfig` in the Linux kernel source tree and marvel at the numerous drivers available for common webcams. The Logitech webcams are already well-supported.
I saw a review of FireFly in one of the regular mags I read, and they included the latest version on the cover. I thought I would give it a try.
However it crashed on me twice and put my machine into a horrible endless loop after the second time. It took me a good 15 minutes to get the machine shutdown, then I had to remove it from the startup. This may have been a quirk of my box, but I am scared of trying it again.
Also I have not had the syllable problem you are talking about.
I like skype but like others I would like ONE IM/WebCam/WebPhone piece of software. And while gnome-meeting-vw may be great, not all my friends run Linux. We need a simple cross platform solution! I personally would prefer one built on open standard codecs. The SIP protocols I can do without because they are what make it impossible to run through a secured (NAT/firewalls) network.
Splinter, gnome-meeting is compatible with Microsoft Netmeeting. Just tell your Windows friends to install Netmeeting, it’s a free download. gaim-vv will just support the standard video features of AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN! chat. None of this is Linux-specific.
the aim is for it to roll back into the main gaim project when it’s sufficiently mature – it’s a “friendly fork”, not a “competitive fork”. I just wish they’d get their arses in gear and move to gstreamer; seems like this has been the plan for a couple of months now and it’s still not done yet
Ever tried your own advice? Yeah, good luck getting GNOME Meeting talking to Net Meeting. It is not at *all* easy with a big mess of getting this codec trying to talk to that codec, add to that the person who installs the outdated Net Meeting on their modern Windows system will probably end up wrecking they OS and thanking you for it.
I don’t really care about computer-to-computer chatting – that’s not the reason I use Skype. What they do, and do right, is the ability to call any phone, anywhere, at a local rate. Since I live in Japan, and most of my friends and family live in Europe, this is a pretty significant function for me.
My wish is that they will make the proprietary part of Skype a UI-less server app that can talk to any client over D-Bus. THat way, we can all get whatever desktop integration (or lack of it) that we’d want. When you run a slower, older laptop with XFCe, it is a minor pain to have to install even just Qt to have this running.
Someone finally got the point of Skype. The computer-to-computer thing isn’t really their market. Which explains why they don’t charge for it.
But on the other hand, Skype should run a phone interchange SERVICE and make the app open-source. In my opinion. Or at least provide inter-operability.
I use Skype to make PC-PC and PC-landline calls. And it is brilliant. I use it to call my sister who has a dial-up modem in a third world country (I have a broadband link). Skype connection is normally better than old fashioned telephone call. And prices for those old fashioned calls from Oceania to Eastern Europe are not negligible.
I now even use it for all my local calls to people who use Skype.
I first heard of Skype last weekend, and I downloaded it then, but it’s not till I read this review that I decided to give it a shot. I first tested PC-PC and was VERY impressed with the low latency, so I got 10EU worth of credits and tried a PC-landline call to my sister to test it out. Apparently she was hearing static/intereference, but that was possibly just the background noise of my tv. It worked really well, it’s just hard to get used to not having a headset for a phone. The rates are MUCH cheaper than what it would cost me to buy a phone card which is what I was going to do, so I’m quite pleased.
Every user (both open/closed source programs users)
should matter about the patent structure of Skype.
Shall *WE* let Skype do what Microsoft could not with it’s Sender ID? It’s up to us.
From the gnomemeeting web page:
“The main problem is not that the program is not Open Source,
the problem is that Skype is locking users into a proprietary protocol. Would you imagine the Internet with a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol that only a given client could browse? That’s what happens with Skype. Skype also has a great marketing force, some people even think that Skype has a superior audio quality. How could Skype have a superior quality when it is using the same codec (iLBC) than software like GnomeMeeting while introducing more latency by making calls go through a 3rd party? The only real advantage of Skype is that it is easily going through any type of NAT, using a 3rd user to proxy the call. But the day when the Linux kernel NAT will natively support H.323 or SIP, Skype will have lost its only advantage… Skype is hype”
Have you used BigZoo.com’s BigTalk? The prices look similar… how does the phone quality compare?
wansnt this company acquired by microsoft ??
I have no idea at all. First, that seems like some service oriented towards North American users (which I am not); second, I don’t even own a landline here. I have a mobile phone for local stuff, and Skype for the rest. And even if some company offered zero connection cost, using a mobile phone would probably end up being more expensive than Skype.
Again, I agree with others here – I am more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of relinquishing this to a company that is not very good about releasing code or specs. If you want to use Skype on a Linux PDA, or on a powerbook with Linux, or on any other non-mainstream platform, you’re out of luck. If you want integration with Evolution Data Server, you’re out of luck. You want to integrate this with Gaim, or with Gnomemeeting, you’re out of luck. Hey, even if you want keyboard shortcuts for the menus, or a notification area thingy that actually works reliably, or visual call notification, you’re plain out of luck.
Truth is, I will continue to use Skype only while there is no better way to call Europe from here. Once that is resolved – whether by a more open service, or by us moving to Europe again – I will dump it, good quality calls or no.
“The main problem is not that the program is not Open Source,The problem is that Skype is locking users into a proprietary protocol. Would you imagine the Internet with a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol that only a given client could browse?”
It might suck but they are simply doing it BETTER than anyone else at present.
“That’s what happens with Skype. Skype also has a great marketing force, some people even think that Skype has a superior audio quality.”
They DO have far superior audio quality.
“How could Skype have a superior quality when it is using the same codec (iLBC) than software like GnomeMeeting while introducing more latency by making calls go through a 3rd party?”
Perhaps all of the really great programmers in this world are not working on open source projects.
“The only real advantage of Skype is that it is easily going through any type of NAT, using a 3rd user to proxy the call.”
That is one hell of a BIG advantage. Ease of use is killer.
“But the day when the Linux kernel NAT will natively support H.323 or SIP, Skype will have lost its only advantage… Skype is hype”
I can almost see the folks at Skype shaking in their boots waiting for “that day”…… Not.
I (and others I know) tried Skype too, with a SkypeOut account.
Calling to cellulars:
Unusable sound quality, if you repeat each sentence 10 times they can hear what you say.
Calling to land-phones:
Usable, but far from comfortable. You have to repeat each 10th sentence, because of dropouts and bad audio.
I guess the bad audio is caused by Skype calling first over voip (or whatever protocol they use), then to a phone. Phones, and especially cellulars, are already often hard to communicate with because of bad audio.
Clearly, as cellulars are the ‘way to go’ nowadays, we need a system to communicate directly from IP to telephone, not through analog audio like Skype appearantly uses.
Also, if everyone uses Skype instead of an open standard, I clearly see exactly the same problems coming as we have faced with MS-software lately, like it including spyware etc. Skype says it doesn’t, but you’ll have to take their word from it, and that word is coming from the creator of Kazaa…
>> “The main problem is not that the program is not Open >> Source,The problem is that Skype is locking users into a >> proprietary protocol. Would you imagine the Internet with >> a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol that only a >> given client could browse?”
> “It might suck but they are simply doing it BETTER than > anyone else at present.”
I’m not really convinced. What is better? Can you explain?
>> “That’s what happens with Skype. Skype also has a great >> marketing force, some people even think that Skype has a >> superior audio quality.”
> They DO have far superior audio quality.
Sorry, they don’t, I have tried linphone, GnomeMeeting (with video disabled) and Skype with a friend, we don’t hear a difference. If the codec is the same, how could it be better?
Imgaine a world where one could only call phones made by the same company ex. a Motorola phone could not be used to call a Nokia phone. That is exactly the problem with Skype it is not based on any of the two standards H323 or SIP so no one can make a call to a Skype phone form an other phone.
So don’t be fooled with the hype from skype it is no good for you in the long term, think about the problems with .doc files and websites that do not follow stnadard so it dose not work in Mozilla.
We need open standards for Voip over Internet so that any program or phone can talk to each other and Skype is not the answer to that, in fact it is the trap and a very clever way to lock users in.
We have Gnomemeeting on Linux and Myphone on windows try them first.
And yes there are problems with NAT and Voip but that is a configuration issue.
how much to you love it?
Try GnomeMeeting and feel FREE to love it
As much as I dislike Skype for using a proprietary protocol and being totally owned and controlled by one single company (kazaa, anyone?), I have to admit that it’s the only sensible VoIP program I’ve found, and I have tried many of them. The other are either bloated (like kphone or gnomemeeting – I’d hate to be forced to install gnome and/or kde libs. Qt/gtk is quite enough), irritating (kphone) or plain unusable (speakfreely). And I couldn’t get them to cooperate with windows programs. Duh. If I don’t see a viable program soon, I’ll be inclined to write one myself when I have the time.
They could release the protocol’s specs, as they’re making money out of SkypeOut and not the program itself – there are no ads at this time. Perhaps they indend to change that.
Have you tried picophone? http://web.tiscali.it/vitez/picophone.html
GnomeMeeting 1.2 can be compiled with only GTK+ dude.
“Perhaps all of the really great programmers in this world are not working on open source projects.”
What? A previous poster points out that skype uses a widely-available codec that many other projects use (and which is certainly not the best-quality speech codec out there). Your response is…this. How does it even *begin* to be a reply to the point made?
Skype might be good for someone, but i would NEVER trade it with REAL VoIP.
With VoIP i can call normal phones, and they can call me !
And Skype has a BIG problem with accepting creditcard payment from people not living in the same country as their bank.
I come from Denmark and live in Egypt, my transaction was denied over and over again.
But my cards works everywhere else than with skype.
And their online customer supports, was absolutly no good, they said it was because i lived in Egypt. Great except my bank and the creditcard company denied this as the reason.
So absolutly no Skype for me, i want the real thing !
You know how taxing it is to send files to someone via any method that has no computer knowledge? Well, the skype file encrypted file transfer(as long as you’re not using the voice part) is the sweetest thing! Just drag and drop. I know Mac OSX apps such as quicktime that don’t respond to drag and drop. I send files to friends now rather than talking them down as to how to use FTP or having to post a file on webserver and giving them a link.
People act like these guys invented VoIP. If you’re having problems with NAT traversal with VoIP, then check out IAX2 protocol from the Asterisk guys. There’s providers out there that support it (Voicepulse, iaxtel, etc).Speaking of Asterisk, I can intergate VoIP into my _normal_ phone system.
If I can avoid it, I don’t use soft phones. They typically suck. There’s a plethoria of providers out there. Freeworldialup, IAXTel, SIpphone.com. Now, how do I intergrate my office asterisk server to use Skype. Oh yeah – you can’t. This is nothing special. I wish people would quit acting like it is. I find that every _FREE_ services like freeworlddialup over good quality connections. It all boils down to your connections, codecs used, etc. We us multiple free/pay providers for our project: http://www.telephreak.org
“The main problem is not that the program is not Open Source,The problem is that Skype is locking users into a proprietary protocol. Would you imagine the Internet with a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol that only a given client could browse?”
“It might suck but they are simply doing it BETTER than anyone else at present.”
Wow. Tried them all, have you. Thats a nice incorrect broad statement. ”
“That’s what happens with Skype. Skype also has a great marketing force, some people even think that Skype has a superior audio quality.”
“They DO have far superior audio quality.”
Bullshit. Skype has never sounded superior than any of my freaking freeworlddialup calls.
“How could Skype have a superior quality when it is using the same codec (iLBC) than software like GnomeMeeting while introducing more latency by making calls go through a 3rd party?”
“Perhaps all of the really great programmers in this world are not working on open source projects.
The only real advantage of Skype is that it is easily going through any type of NAT, using a 3rd user to proxy the call.”
IAX2 from Asterisk also traverses NAT, and is used by severial providers. Big deal.
“That is one hell of a BIG advantage. Ease of use is killer.”
Agreed. That’s why I use a Cisco VoIP phone. Works just like a normal, good ole fasion phone. I also have VoIP intergrated into my home phone system. That is, traditional phones. I don’t like or use software based phones. Now, how do I hook up Cisco to use Skype? Oh wait. I can’t. Well, I just setup Asterisk to use.. oh wait. I can’t do that either. Yes – Proprietary is fun!
“But the day when the Linux kernel NAT will natively support H.323 or SIP, Skype will have lost its only advantage… Skype is hype”
“I can almost see the folks at Skype shaking in their boots waiting for “that day”…… Not. ”
It’s being addressed. Download iptables and read through the patch-o-matic. Also, didn’t you say “easy of use is the killer”. Wouldn’t this make it easy to use? I guess as your pointing out, Skype has already won and we should pack it up. I feel bad for those Asterisk PBX guys as Skype going to be the future. Riiigghhtt.