New Trial Brings Skype to (Some) Browsers

Ars Technica reports that Microsoft has begun giving some users a taste of a new version of Skype, with a big difference compared to previous ones: the new one (tested by users on an invitation basis) is browser based. Rather than using the existing WebRTC standard, though (eschewed as too complex), Microsoft has developed a separate spec called ORTC (Object RTC), which is designed to offer similar capabilities but without mandating this same call setup system. Both Microsoft and Google are contributing to this spec, as are representatives from companies with video conferencing, telephony, and related products. ORTC isn't currently blessed as a W3C project, though the ORTC group has proposed integrating ORTC into WebRTC to create WebRTC 1.1 and including parts of ORTC into WebRTC 1.0. For now at least, video or audio chat therefore requires a plug-in, and requires Internet Explorer 10, or recent Firefox or Chrome browsers, and a current Safari on Mac OS X. Also at TechCrunch, among others, which notes that text chat (though as mentioned, not video or audio) will work with the new Skype under ChromeOS, too.

Comments

Re:Why...

[wile_e8]

The best reason I can think of is portability. Visiting your parents and using their computer? No need to install a native app, just open the web page (hopefully in the future at least, this says you still need to install a plug-in). Want to use it on Linux? No need to wait for Microsoft to update the Linux app (if they ever bother to update it), just use a standard-compatible browser to open the web page. Microsoft wants to add features? No need to make sure it works on a bunch of different OSes and versions, just make sure the web page is still compliant with the standards (you still need to make sure the browsers handle the standards correctly, but this should be an easier target).

Not that this is perfect by any means. But nowadays computers perform well enough that most users won't even notice the problems you mention, and the other advantages more than make up for the problems.

skype as always been horrible

[ruir]

and only getting worse after being bought by Microsoft. Forgive me for not being too enthusiastic about having yet another piece of crap in my browser. I would prefer to make a pact with the devil first. Hell, using software from Microsoft is no better than that.

Microsoft at it again

[davydagger]

I spoke too soon, as soon as they announced they'd open the .NET framework, they immediately pull this shit, an incompatible standard, again. for time like 1 zillion

Re:Microsoft at it again

[Anonymous Coward]

They haven't even "opened" the .NET framework. As usual that was a bunch of misleading bullshit on the part of the editors...and Microsoft, but mostly the editors. Every other article posted on the subject has been more clear, but hey..this is Slashdot, land of product placement and incompetent, troll editors.

Oh, they've opened _part_ of it. The server-side part of it. Which is utterly pointless considering that there's already a server-side implementation of C# that's cross-platform, Mono, the one they'll apparently be "working closely with." Anyone who wants to use server-side C# in Linux is already doing it. The parts that are useful for writing desktop apps and games? Yeah, we're not getting that. They've been very clear about it. From the ZDNet article on the subject:

"Microsoft is not planning to open source the client side .NET stack, which means certain pieces like the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Forms won't be going open source, Somasegar confirmed."

These are the same people who were referring to open source as a "cancer" and "viral" not so long ago. It's a complete non-story and it reeks of the desperation that Microsoft must be under at this point. Hundreds of millions of unsold Surface hardware and Windows phones, the XBONE failing so hard that it was pretty much doomed from the launch (e.g. removing Kinect from the bundle actually doubled sales of the console in some areas). Their little smart watch that apparently "makes you a better human," whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. They've shot themselves in the foot so many times that they've got nothing left below the knees.

Incompatible standards are Microsoft's business. Embrace, extend, extinguish. They've been doing it for decades and they're not going to stop now. If any open source software succeeds, they want it to be -theirs-. If any standard succeeds, they want it to be -theirs-. Makes sense, it's in their best interests. Unfortunately it's not in anyone else's best interests, which is probably why most of their products post-XP have failed so hard that you'd almost feel sorry for them...if it weren't for the military contracts and the monopoly on the private sector.

Though you have to admit, whoever managed to sell the US military on the idea that they should be running Windows on everything must have been the most silvery of silver-tongued bastards who ever walked the earth.