On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 12:51:48AM +0300, Ilya Konstantinov wrote: > On Tue, May 18, 2004 at 07:01:19PM +0300, Shlomo Solomon wrote: > > Because of your requests through Public Mind, Skype has decided to > > develop a Linux version. It is almost finished and should go into > > testing in the next few weeks. I will advise when it is done and can be > > downloaded. Thanks for your patience. > > Something tells me Skype for Linux is not going to be "Hofshi" in any > way... (judging from their statements on their beloved proprietary > protocol) > > If it's indeed going to be so, I hope you guys won't fall into the > convenience trap. Sure, there is other closed software many of you guys > gotta use: Sun Java, VMWare etc... but Skype is different! Sun doesn't > try to keep Java internals secret to prevent competitors from > implementing their own Java machines. Sun isn't against > interoperatibility, while Skype is firmly against it. > Skype is all about user base lock-in. > > Remember that time when you needed some Windows software cause the > protocol for a piece of hardware or some server was a secret? Help > Skype gain user shape by using their closed Linux version -- and you'd > be helping yet another such company. > > Besides, if their version would have sucky Hebrew support, you couldn't > fix it. If it wouldn't have ALSA support, you couldn't fix it. You'd be > at their mercy, since by then all your buddies use Skype to chat. >
Considering they will have to start making money somehow at some point in order to keep from going under (it looks like the company is going after profit and not fun) they will have to add extra features for pay (such as answering machine, call router, etc.). If they make the protocol open then I don't think they will be able to do this, so I kind of understand why they keep it closed source. As much as I am pro open-source, you need think about their side of things also (they have to eat somehow ;-) > ================================================================= > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command > echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > This Mail Was Scanned By Mail-seCure System > at the Tel-Aviv University CC. > ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
