Skype Makes U.S. Retail Debut

JamesAlfaro wrote to mention a C|Net article discussing the U.S. retail debut of Skype. From the article: "More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide on Monday [the 21st] will begin offering the Skype Starter Kit, which includes the software that enables a customer to use Skype's free computer-to-computer telephone service, a headset and 30 minutes of Skype's premium service, with which a user can call a landline or cell phone, company executives said. The move is an attempt by Skype, the world's largest provider of voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to introduce its service to mainstream America."

Comments

Re:Why Skype is Bad

[jrockway]

I didn't read your link, because I don't really care. Yes, skype should be open source. However, a few months ago I trashed my shitty cell phone (and am not buying one until American ones all stop sucking hard... or until I move back to Japan) and replaced it with Skype. Now instead of $40 a month, I pay like $5. That's good, not bad. The real phone compainies (heh) fuck you so hard that any alternative is great. For that reason, I love Skype.

So the next time you think, "skype is really bad" remember that the real phone companies are 5,000 times worse. Closed source, proprietary, and out to get you with their ridiculous pricing, phone crippling, etc. Fuck them.