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.'"
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 $5/month(!) just for the "pleasure" of having them not be able to help you.
If you ask me the ONLY reason why Skype still even exists as a serious competitor is simply because that entire sector is full of broken terrible software made very poorly (e.g. Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Voice). Worse still nobody is really rolling out links into the existing telephone infrastructure (Google seems to have quit).
Honestly, this is an industry that needs a serious kick in the nads. So poor in so many ways....
And still Linux version is ancient. 2.something beta that is badly outdated compared to Windows version. Sad... :(
I must find something else that I could use instead.
To be honest I like the current skype version of linux more than the newest windows version. I can video chat, call and write messages. My webcam is supported an works well. ...
Who needs all that facebook connect crap, games,
Skype on windows for me definitely crashed more often than on linux.
I just got a Microsoft phone for free and didn't even pay for it.
You have been referred to the redundant redundancy department.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
The Skype protocol was recently reverse engineered although I believe Skype has made changes since then to avoid the reverse engineering.
Will Microsoft continue to take steps to thwart reverse engineering now that it owns Skype? Hard to say given that they have not stopped reverse engineering of other Microsoft products (office document formats, Kinect, MSN Messenger).
firstly Linux is more secure than m$. 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.
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.