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Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

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Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#51

Post by ignifero »

maqr wrote: post #2

I'll be trying to get my contacts to use Google Talk. It has all the features of Skype, including video conferencing, for free.

Good luck doing a job or phd interview on google talk. My understanding is that skype has patents on a myriad of things related to live audio/video. Plus it works really really well and does screen sharing too (which means you can do presentations online). It's not just the network effect here. It's actually a better-than-the-rest product (and i sure hope MS won't make it a mess). Plus, its not less free than gtalk .

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#53

Post by joshaidan »

Although not cross-platform, FaceTime has one killer feature: it passes the mom test. Skype has passed it too, but not with as many flying colours as FaceTime.

Mom push button, mom video chatting with grand kids. No intervention from grand kids required.

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#54

Post by eropple »

p4bl0 wrote: post #24
Argorak wrote: post #16

Hm, 3 Options, of which one only supports Linux (Empathy) and one only supports Windows & Linux (Ekiga). Only Linphone seems to have platform support that comes close to Skype. So, cut it down to one. Personally, I think Linphone looks kind of dated and their site is full of google adwords. I would hesitate to send a link out to anyone.

Linphone is "just" a SIP client. Your contacts can use it if they want and you can use another SIP client. Just like Google Talk use XMPP and people can use any client to connect to their GTalk account and then talk with anyone using Jabber/XMPP (even not Google Talk). That's why open protocols are good. Because they're open.

But "nobody uses it" makes it bad.

"Don't use Skype! Please!" doesn't really mean much when everybody I'd (or most people) would ever want to talk to thinks that Ekiga is a funny name for a rash.

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#55

Post by eropple »

FrojoS wrote: post #45
sigzero wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone that I know that uses Skype couldn't care about the difference.

How many of those people do you want to video chat with regulary?

Most of them, because I actually work with them.

It may come as a shock to some people, but the overwhelming majority of people--even in the tech would--literally could not care less if their VOIP client is FSF-approved and based on open standards. "Does it work?" is a much more powerful consideration.

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#56

Post by AndrewWarner »

Don't underestimate the blanket coverage that Skype achieved.

I do interviews with people all over the world who have Skype already installed on their computers.

If I shifted to a different program -- even if it was better -- I'd have to spend time helping instal the new app before we could start our conversation.

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#58

Post by pyre »

p4bl0 wrote: post #3

I don't see why people would quit using Skype now. The fact that it has been bought by Microsoft doesn't change that Skype is evil. It already was. It already was a closed source software using a proprietary protocol and doing stuff you don't know with your bandwidth. Don't get me wrong, it's great if people switch from Skype to something free (as in freedom), but not if it's because it has been bought by Microsoft,…

  > doing stuff you don't know with your bandwidth.
But FreeNet is GPL and this pretty well describes it's standard operating procedure... Do you think FreeNet is evil too?

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#59

Post by pyre »

shubble wrote: post #35
steve-howard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? "Evil" just because it's closed-source? Regardless, I'd imagine most Linux Skype users have at least a few Windows users on their contact lists -- and good luck getting them to switch operating systems.

This presentation: http://goo.gl/hgkea [pdf], shows why skype is evil. The protocol and client are both obfuscated at cost to performance and security. Exploits have been found repeatedly for everything from remote code execution to using skype clients like a botnet. Non-NAT'd nodes are forced to carry traffic for NATed nodes. Skype have the ability to intercept your calls, but you guessed that anyway. Also, if every…

  > Skype, and arguably facebook, control their markets.
Facebook users have invested a lot of time forming their social connections, posting photos, tagging photos, etc. On the other hand, most Skype users just have a buddy list and people that they talk to. There is no 'anchor' keeping them from jumping ship to another client/protocol (or even running that client/protocol in parallel with Skype). Skype is not the anti-trust that you are looking for.

Re: Bye Bye Skype, Top 3 Free Replacements

#60

Post by windsurfer »

sigzero wrote: post #41
p4bl0 wrote: post #3

I don't see why people would quit using Skype now. The fact that it has been bought by Microsoft doesn't change that Skype is evil. It already was. It already was a closed source software using a proprietary protocol and doing stuff you don't know with your bandwidth. Don't get me wrong, it's great if people switch from Skype to something free (as in freedom), but not if it's because it has been bought by Microsoft,…

Stop using the word "evil". It doesn't apply.

Evil is a subjective word. It is the author's point of view. It's like saying a product looks bad.
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