Skype 1.0 For Windows Released, Updated Linux Beta

egjertse writes "Today Skype launches its free Skype for Windows Version 1.0 software, which includes SkypeOut, enabling Skype users to pre-pay and call any phone number in the world at highly competitive local rates. Also included in Skype 1.0 is a new file transfer feature and other software enhancements. New beta versions of Skype for Linux (Previous Slashdot Story) and Skype for Pocket PC with the SkypeOut feature are also available. Here are the release notes."

Comments

Quality

[Klar]

Has anyone tried this? If so, is the sound quality high enough to bother with? Does it ever miss words or anything?

I've had problems with other services like this in the past, but maybe they have gotten better.

Re:Quality

[Sheetrock]

Yes. Sound quality is surprisingly good, but there is an unavoidable delay that comes from the latency of the Internet (which has gotten better over the years -- a ping to ftp.funet.fi gives me a faster round trip time today than a ping to www.yahoo.com gave me two years ago).

In a nutshell, you may irritate the people you're calling, but less so than if you used a cell phone.

The new spyware

[dsbaha]

I can see it now, the new spyware will work like this:

When you make a voice call, the spyware will listen to your conversation, then start producing popups on what you say ..

for example:

Me: "Hi Mom"
Spyware: *incest p0rn popups*

Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC did...

[garcia]

"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype," Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free - it's over. The world will change now inevitably."
Fortune Magazine, 16th February 2004

I don't see a 2/16/2004 edition of Fortune according to their archives but I did find an article on 2/9/2004 which I cannot see in its entirety (see here for more bitching about that topic).

We need an Open Source Skype

[Sanity]

I am amazed that nobody has built an open source VoIP application, perhaps around the Speex codec, which employs simple UDP NAT circumvention to get around the nasty configuration issues which plague most VoIP applications.

Until someone does, Skype, a proprietary closed protocol, but the only "zero configuration" VoIP application I know of, is likely to continue to acquire users.

Re:No OS X version?

[patvan]

Yesterday on macbidouille, they reported on this:

"On June 16, 2004, there was an internal demonstration at Skype of the alpha version of Skype for MacOS. The alpha version worked well and the development team is working towards a beta launch of Skype for Mac. It will likely take about 2-3 months until release. When Skype for Mac is available, an email will be sent to you through Public Mind to let you know. Thanks for your patience."

Re:Malware?

[Dog and Pony]

Not yet, which is the beauty of it all. Friends of mine were all hyped up about this a few months back, but when I saw who was behind it I chose not to go with the flow. There are lots of provisions in licenses and texts that says they are allowed to add third party stuff later on under certain circumstances. They do say you have to agree, but couple that with provisions that say that they don't need to provide you with the next version and that new versions need not be compatible I think we all see where it is heading. Add in the fact that most users simply agree to anything, and we're already there.

I might well be wrong and they've seen the errors of their ways, but I doubt it. I'll just wait and see. It is quite possible I'll not support it simply because they've been *really* bad before and people who behave badly should not get away with it by just starting over.

Re:Malware?

[magefile]

As I understood it, these guys operated a "clean" Kazaa, and the malware only came in when Sharman Networks, or whatever it was called, took over. Am I misinformed?