Linux Format forums

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

Spangwiches — Mon Oct 10, 2011 4:06 pm

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 4:06 pm

I wonder how long it'll be before someone releases a phone without any traditional voice-calling facility at all. Something like Amazon's Whispernet but with VOIP capabilities too (via Skype or whatever).

(I know there are already such 'Skype phones' but they're currently targeted at the low end of the market)

Seems like something Apple would be best equipped to do, with them controlling the hardware and having the muscle to steam-roll the network providers a bit (because they're not going to be keen on everything going data-only).

Maybe MS want to do this (seems unlikely given they have virtually no market share) or maybe they just want to stop Apple from doing it, forcing them to invent their own VOIP tech.

I think google already have a SIP gateway in place with their google-talk/jabber stuff? I vaguely remember them announcing something to do with calling real phone numbers from google talk.

Anyway, I'll be looking at getting Ekiga working I guess.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

Bazza — Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:32 pm

Author: Bazza

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:32 pm

Hi leke...

Business as usual then!?!

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

leke — Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:42 pm

Author: leke

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:42 pm

guy wrote:

My crystal ball just pinged me:

- M$ will give Nokia the impression that they will release a Symbian client, but it will never quite happen.

Here's my take...
Stephen Elop, the new M$ trojan horse CEO of Nokia, will quickly phase out Symbian with Windows OS phones. Nokia does badly. M$ buys Nokia for a very reasonable price. Accuses everyone of using Nokia patents to extort money from any one they can.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

guy — Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:16 pm

Author: guy

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:16 pm

My crystal ball just pinged me:

- M$ will release an iOS client, planning to play for market share until Windows 7 dominates then pull support for iOS.

- M$ will release a buggy Android client, claiming they will fix it but after not very long they will say that the Android ecology makes it impossible to do business and then pull it.

- M$ will give Nokia the impression that they will release a Symbian client, but it will never quite happen.

- Google will release a competitor that plays nicely with Android (i.e. with the big mobile telco's OS of choice) and with BlackBerry and even with iOS.

- M$ will desperately block Google VoIP from Windows 7 and break inter-OS calling but that will just lose W7 market share. Meanwhile Apple will do their own awesomely shiny VoIP thing and desperately block Google VoIP from iOS but because they allow inter-OS calling nobody except a few FOSS diehards will notice.

- Eventually Skype will all but die, just like Bing, and Google VoIP will dominate, in the guise of a thousand different brands.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

leke — Sat Oct 08, 2011 10:07 pm

Author: leke

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 10:07 pm

Dutch_Master wrote:

Yes, but that was pending approval of EU market authorities. They've now approved the deal, so it'll be the end of Skype soon.

Ok, so the EU approval thing was the first time I've heard about it (bloody rock).

I guess the first thing MS will do is make a new version that will suddenly be incompatible with the old linux version -- which MS won't support any more

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

Dutch_Master — Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:41 pm

Author: Dutch_Master

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:41 pm

Yes, but that was pending approval of EU market authorities. They've now approved the deal, so it'll be the end of Skype soon.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype?

heiowge — Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:12 pm

Author: heiowge

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:12 pm

leke wrote:

Looks like a MS skype deal may be well in the works.

Have you been hiding under a rock? M$ bought skype in May for over $8 billion.

Microsoft to buy Skype?

leke — Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:36 pm

Author: leke

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:36 pm

Looks like a MS skype deal may be well in the works. What will this mean for Linux users?

I guess we can forget further development for the Linux platform. I recently got the googleTalk plugin for their chat client, but haven't had a chance to test it yet. I can't see googleTalk taking off unless it becomes an automatic addon to gtalk.