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Microsoft Finalizes Skype Acquisition
suraj.sun sends word that Microsoft's acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion has officially completed. Quoting:
"Skype CEO Tony Bates will be named president of the new Skype Division of Microsoft, and will have to report directly to Steve Ballmer. In a post on the Official Microsoft Blog today, Bates seemed unsurprisingly enthusiastic about the acquisition, describing it as a marriage of two 'disruptive, innovative, software-oriented companies. Microsoft is committed to the ubiquity of the Skype experience – communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus,' Bates wrote. 'And we've only scratched the surface.'"
Blue-screen-of-death feature has now been added
As long as you've paid for a shiny new Skype Endpoint CAL, we don't care what you are skyping from!
Skype's interface just keeps getting more horrible and cluttered. Maybe MS will fix it ;)
I just got a Microsoft phone for free and didn't even pay for it. Damn you prepaying Skype for a year.
Embrace.. Extend.. Extinguish..
Skype is such a poor company which such a poor product that this can only be good news. I struggle to see how Microsoft could make Skype any worse than it already is.
The Windows software just barely works, and frankly the mobile software (e.g. Android, iPhone, etc) is just an absolute joke. It is great software when it works, but that is a rare occasion indeed.
Skype's "support" is actually worse than Google, and Google doesn't really offer any support (except Adwords). Even if you have a Skype subscription and a Skype number, you're shit out of luck if anything goes wrong or you need help. Worse still they just introduced a new techsupport package which costs you an addition $5/month(!) just for the "pleasure" of having them not be able to help you.
If you ask me the ONLY reason why Skype still even exists as a serious competitor is simply because that entire sector is full of broken terrible software made very poorly (e.g. Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Voice). Worse still nobody is really rolling out links into the existing telephone infrastructure (Google seems to have quit).
Honestly, this is an industry that needs a serious kick in the nads. So poor in so many ways....
Hello Tony Bates
Just to tell you, I use Skype under Ubuntu... The very second you start dropping Linux support I'll move to Fring on the iphone. Or something else that simply does Voip.
Regards,
One of the 50% of your user base that can do without you but stays just because of the convenience...
and thanks for all the fish!
Does Microsoft actually make anything anymore, or are they too busy acquiring other companies and charging for patent rights?
By removing it from all my computers.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Maybe they'll fix the piss-poor OSX version. I reverted back to 2.x, and try the 5.x revisions occasionally, but they just have the worst interface ever.
On a side note, it would be nice if someone could crack the skype protocol and, say, add it to something like libpurple, then we wouldn't have to worry about things like that.
-Bucky
Seriously, if Microsoft destroys Skype, what will we use? Someone below mentioned Fring.
And still Linux version is ancient. 2.something beta that is badly outdated compared to Windows version. Sad... :(
I must find something else that I could use instead.
"communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus"
In a video that uses Silverlight...
FAIL!
>communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus,
Waiting for open source version of skype.
I heard the first edict that Tony Bates issued to his employees was that they are now supposed to call him "Master" now instead of "Tony". Get it?
"...communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus".
Notice this is "a primary focus" not "the primary focus". Expanding a little.
"Accumulating a great deal of power and money is our primary focus. We therefore aim for maximum ubiquity while keeping full control of the software/protocol."
If ubiquity were the main goal then they would release their hold on any intellectual property involved. The most powerful and ubiquitous technological solutions which exist today (c, e-mail, html, ...) succeeded largely because they weren't tied down by claims of intellectual property.
Where I work Lync has supplanted Skype for the most part, I fully expect one to absorb the features of the other (can you guess which?)
crazy dynamite monkey
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I just uninstalled skype from my laptop and Droid X. It was fun while it lasted Skype. Sorry to see you go.
Is anyone else like me and thinking:
"Just FOR ONCE, Microsoft, just ONCE, prove us all wrong with our predictions of doom for a platform you take over / decision you make."
If it happened, JUST ONCE, I'd see Microsoft in a different light.
but I'm totally 'meh' on this. A few reasons:
1) I have the Skype 2.x on my linux boxen and the 5.x version on my windows partion. Frankly, beyond a couple "well that's nice" items there's nothing I really am missing and the 2.x works just fine with everything.
2) As I recall Chrome (as I assume by extension Chromium) can do video chat in browser, as can Facebook.
3) The reason the Skype protocol hasn't been cracked is because there hasn't been a reason for it to be cracked. It has a working client on the big three OS plus a number of mobile OSes as well. Remember what happened when Sony locked down the PS3 and removed the other OS option? That is exactly what will happen if the OSX & Linux clients stop working - piss of the coders and watch your product get hacked to bits.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
Wait a sec: how do I get into Sienna Miller's pants again?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
man i thought that the rampant pro-moncler coat bias would have left slashdot with cmdrtaco
Did they get the actual code too?
$8.5 billion for the technology? I don't think Microsoft would have a hard time throwing together a video conferencing app of their own. The user base? Does MS seriously think that users are that loyal to Skype? MS has used it's market share to ram new products up consumers before. I wonder what Skype's patent portfolio looks like.
I run a monthly hobby meeting with people from the US, Canada, and Britain. So when MS screws this up, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can use then?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Which Operating System has the MOST USERS-Market Share out there? Hmmm?? Let me refresh your dull & puny brain: http://www.netmarketshare.com/ So, I suppose the rest of the planet is not as "smart" as you "open sores" wannabes are? Don't make me laugh, and do not overestimate yourselves.
Now, after that, and the rest of you anti-microsoft losers on this page are finished with your stupid unjustified and untruthful rants, have you ever wondered why it is slashdot is losing readers???
I'll tell you why - People are sick of the fud, lies, and bullshit that was spread around here for years by the likes of yourself.
That is why - Nobody respects or likes misinformation being put on unsuspecting readers here is why.
For example, the entire "linux is more secure" bullshit fell apart when ANDROID gained widespread usage on phones and is being torn to shreds on the security front (and yes, it is a Linux, but one that's finally really widely used and thus widely attacked), along with kernel.org being hacked into, numerous MySQL & PHP hacks + vulnerabilities, on top of Apache showing the same. The "lamp freebie game" is "game over", and you all know it.
firstly Linux is more secure than m$. the kernal.org attack was not a linux problem it was someones stolen/broken password, a attack that will work on any system. as for Linux on android that is another story entirely. it is left wide open by the phone manufacturers because they are stupid and afraid it might make people be intimidated of there phones if they made them secure and required root permission to install software, besides it is the Java and JavaScript that is where all the user level stuff that gets hacked is anyway, by they way that is the most insecure part of any computer especially on ms is the Java/JavaScript. besides no matter how secure you make a phone or computer it can still be effed up by a moron happy clicking install on any random app that says free on the Internet. lets compare windows to Linux for security purposes shall we, permissions windows; laughable your average highschooler can circumvent them within 10 minutes god knows i did in highschool. Linux; very customizable lockable permissions. RWE, if you have a 0 on r you can't even know a file exists period. UNIX permissions are a far as system security the last word out side of sandboxed vertualized unix os's on another unix. Linux malaware; total major viruses worms and trogens 43 listed on wikipedia, and all of them are dead because the exploits they used have been patched windows malware; total major viruses worms and trogens to many to count, semantic said in 2008 that there were over a million+ and growing exponentially even if you account for the number of users it is still vastly out of proportion against windows. also while there are less Linux computers they a generally more valuable, beacuse they are used in places like banking stock exchanges, governments secure servers, etc. thus making them higher value targets. pardon my french but why don't you pull your head out of your Ballmer and gets some fresh air.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Known security bugs in Linux's kernel alone (3 remote ones no less) in Linux's kernel alone than there is in nearly all of what MS offers companies, users, and developers to do business with, which is a lot more than an OS kernel (I am talking Windows Server 2008, IIS7, SQLServer 2008, Office 2010, & more, which have less unpatched bugs in them than the Linux kernel alone (which if you put on Apache, MySQL, PHP, plus the rest of what's in a Linux distro alone which has security bugs unpatched too. making it even worse than 4 times the bugs already the kernel alone has versus all of what MS gives you)?
Tell us about the FINE "security" in ANDROID (a Linux itself), won't you?? Truckloads of malware seems to operate there (in an area linux finally was shown it gets used a bit more than most other competitors showing Linux was just getting security by obscurity).
You obviously know zero about security in Windows, because one can do the same types of things in NTFS, registry, or other permissions as you noted in Linux (which bit off of the ACL model via SeLinux MAC copy of it, you dumb ass).
A little newsflash since you mentioned goverments and stock exchanges: NASDAQ has for example been using Windows Server 2003 + SQLServer 2005 for nonstop clustered solid uptime into nearly a decade solid now as their "official trade data dissemination system". While literally only the other day, NYSE running Linux iirc, got floored http://www.californiality.com/2011/10/anonymous-nyse-attack-shocker.html
Now, let's also look at Linux at LSE (London Stock Exchange), which as you know (lol), LINUX FELL FLAT ON ITS FACE 2x the FIRST 2 DAYS IT RAN THERE, and this:
London Stock Exchange Web Site Serving Malware:
http://www.securityweek.com/london-stock-exchange-web-site-serving-malware
(Please, do tell us another one like this from you "firstly Linux is more secure than m$" to make us LAUGH @ YOU SOME MORE please, along with the fact that you're full of it. You can't pay for this kind of humor.)
This data's ALL from a respected source (secunia.com) for known security vulnerabilities unpatched:
---
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft SQL Server 2008: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/21744/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 1 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.x: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/17543/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 6 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/28234/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 0 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/29809/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 3 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/34343/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 1 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.x: (10/11/2011):
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/6436/
Unpatched 0% (0 of 0 Secunia advisories)
Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Office 2010: (10/11/2011)
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/30529/?task=advisories
Unpatched 0
I've never used the paid Skype service and I really don't see the reason to (why else do I have a cellphone?). As long as I can still setup video calls with my friends for free, I really couldn't care less.
Crazy Microsoft, you can download Skype for free...
So, Skype is that program that uses a P2P network (like KaZaA) as a fall-back if one of the two computers chatting don't have world-accessible skype ports, right? This would be a bit like what happens when two people have an argument and tell each other, "I'm not talking to you." -- the people in the middle get to hear all the (encrypted) communications.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Why did you leave in the first place?
If I can just reach out with my words and touch a butthole, just one, it will all be worth it.
It IS last place in terms of PC & Server combined (desktop + server). That was what was stated. Learn to read.
Too bad that guy's name isn't 'Gill'.
communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus
Every platform? Really? Since when does a proprietary protocol implemented by proprietary software constitute a commitment to interoperability across every platform?
Goodbye Skype.... I'll miss you.
Skype are disruptive. Microsoft is to disruption what Maria Carey is to gritty and edgy music.
do you guys think skype will be the same under Microsoft? Centives summarized it pretty well and has a link http://www.centives.net/S/2011/skype%E2%80%99s-future-under-microsoft/