Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
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 ;)
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....
This is what see reading the blog on Linux. It doesn't bode well for the future of Skype...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
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!
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.
"communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus"
In a video that uses Silverlight...
FAIL!
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.
To be honest I like the current skype version of linux more than the newest windows version. I can video chat, call and write messages. My webcam is supported an works well. ...
Who needs all that facebook connect crap, games,
Skype on windows for me definitely crashed more often than on linux.
I just got a Microsoft phone for free and didn't even pay for it.
You have been referred to the redundant redundancy department.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
That is what Microsoft has always done (OK, once upon a time, they wrote some compilers).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
"...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
c'mon man... even from my POV that meme is dying.
That aside, I can certainly see Skype soon becoming crippled in some way or other on anything that's not Windows 7+
The reason Mr. Bates is so damned happy has less to do with working under Ballmer, and more to do with the contents of his freshly filled bank accounts. As CEO, he likely got one hell of a healthy chunk out of that $8bn. I look for him to pull the D-Ring the moment that the contracts say he can.
(OTOH, maybe he thinks he can take over after Ballmer leaves?)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
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.
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.
$8.5 billion for the technology? I don't think Microsoft would have a hard time throwing together a video conferencing app of their own. The user base? Does MS seriously think that users are that loyal to Skype? MS has used it's market share to ram new products up consumers before. I wonder what Skype's patent portfolio looks like.
I run a monthly hobby meeting with people from the US, Canada, and Britain. So when MS screws this up, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can use then?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Unfortunately, it's not just you. I won't call you out on the rest of your points, but your "The reason .... is" is quite naïve. You're assuming there's one and simple reason, when this is certainly not the case. There are many:
1. As you said, lack of demand. Unfortunately there are users who find that the software "just works" and don't care further, so there's less incentive for a free alternative.
2. It's difficult. The Skype protocol has been made on purpose to be difficult to reverse engineer.
3. A part of the free software community prefers to support an open protocol like SIP or XMPP instead of helping spread Skype even further.
4. It took years for free messengers to support an open protocol (Jingle), some like Kopete don't even have preliminary support for it (it got removed in KDE 4, and it doesn't seem to be koming back)
5. Patent FUD
Facebook (which Microsoft owns a small stake in, btw) partnered with Skype for video calling.
firstly Linux is more secure than m$. 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.
That aside, I can certainly see Skype soon becoming crippled in some way or other on anything that's not Windows 7+
I have it on Mac OSX - I can tell you it is already crippled. Features missing, whole releases missing, insane resource-requirements (firefox'ishly poor resource-requirements)
I have actually had to tell people to not participate in Conference Calls using Skype-out (or whatever) due to severely poor audio-quality.
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...
Believe it or not, there are actually many people who work at Microsoft. Some people are "Business" people. They're the people that pay you to do whatever it is you do and make decisions regarding your company's direction. These people can work to make such decisions as acquiring other companies. Other people are "Engineers". At a software company, they create and maintain software. Because there are MANY people at a big company (more kinds of people than you have fingers!), a company can both create software and purchase other companies at the same time. So, instead of thinking of a company like one person-- you should look at it as a _group_ of people (almost like a small town) who can do many things at once. Working in groups is how people accomplish big things! Think about how in your hometown there are people who sell groceries, people who deliver mail, AND people who fight fires-- but they're not necessarily the same people.
I hope this helps!
Remove Pulseaudio.
Next question.
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.
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?
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/