So, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft's history. The Wall Street Journal reports - and it has been confirmed - that Microsoft and Skype will announce today that Redmond will buy Skype for $8.5 billion. That's a lot of money for a company that hasn't ever actually made any profits. Update: and it's official: yay on Skype on the Xbox360 and Windows Phone, and this: "Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms." Let's hope this includes Linux.
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Member since:2009-08-26
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Member since:2010-03-25
Ogg (Vorbis) isn't really intended for live chat, but Xiph's CELT codec is and just recently Skype donated their Silk voice codec to be combined with it to create the IETF Opus codec under royalty free terms. Hopefully that's too far along for Microsoft to kill.
Skype are also the biggest user of VP7 and have recently been championing VP8 as the future, again hopefully Microsoft won't be allowed to alter that.
Member since:2007-09-06
A truly OSS skype alternative would indeed be welcome. What are the chances it would retain the POTS bridges though? I frequently use Skype to call long distance to land line numbers. I could actually reverse that and have a land line number that forwards to my local Skype if I wanted.
I do see an OSS version being able to match or improve on Skype to Skype functions. Here's hoping that OSS project can also manage to make a business of it and provide access to POTS lines. I'd be happy to give them my $2.95 a month instead of Microsoft.
Given Hackerspaces and community projects that have managed to setup and provide local ISP services, it's possible. Come on all you Hackerspaces out there; get coding some voip and see if you can make it happen.
Member since:2010-01-08
I'm sure there are a lot of OSS alternatives to skype. The problems with these alternatives are:
1) Quality - sound and video quality over slow connections made skype so loved. I'm sure though that there are products that offer good quality.
2) Market - Skype is not standard in any way but it is the de facto standard.
The problem with chat and VoIP is that you need a program that is compatible with what your friends are using. And since your friends have other friends and so on, you need to convince a hole market to adopt a new program.
Or at least to convince enough people to try a new chat(VoIP) and have to programs with the same functionality running at the same time.
Edited 2011-05-10 14:54 UTC
Member since:2005-07-11
You don't need to all use the same program. But you do all have to use the same protocols. And you all have to agree on a "central connection point" to find each other. That's where most OSS VoIP/chat systems fall down. And where most user's comprehension falls down ("Do you Skype?" "No, I use Ekiga." "Oh, so I can't talk to you.")
There are lots of OSS VoIP solutions out there. But getting any three of them to talk to each other is the hard part. Especially when you add in "clueless" users.
That's what Skype got right: make it brain-dead (relatively) simple to get an account, install the software, and start chatting with people.
Member since:2010-03-08
Member since:2007-03-04
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2010-03-30
I would say it's high time an OSS alternative to Skype appeared.