Skype is the best VoIP IM, but not Open Source, and not Linux friendly
Skype is the best free application for chatting, talking (I mean Voice over IP, aka VoIP) and Video Chats.
You can even call regular phones at any country in the world, with rates that are unbeatable.
Many plugins have been developed that extend Skype’s functionality. For instance, I use Unyte for remote Desktop handling.
What Skype is missing
Skype is the VoIP market leader, and sure does deserve that place. But there are some very important things that Skype is missing:
- It is not open source
- It does not use open standards
- And it doesn’t support video calls in its Linux version
They care much less for its Linux version than for the Windows one. It does make sense from a naive commercial point of view. But they are missing the support of many geeks and Linkerati. That is a big loss.
Competition
They should take in account that, even when they are best, there are lots of bullies
smaller
and popular open source rivals
Please Skype, I love your product; just don’t take lasting success for granted.
Hey nice and small article, and I agree about it.
You did forget to mention gizmo!!!
Ries
April 13th, 2007 at 7:27 amThank you Ries.
But I didn’t forget Gizmo. It’s right there, at the top of the smaller competitors.
April 13th, 2007 at 7:47 amThe one I did forget to mention is Voip Buster:
http://www.voipbuster.com/
Which has better rates than Skype, and many free destinations.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:02 pmWhat about Free World Dialup (FWD)?
Maybe it’s just something for us asterisk geeks…
May 4th, 2007 at 12:09 pmLooks very interesting. I’ll try to give it a test.
May 5th, 2007 at 5:13 pmI also like voipbuster (with ekiga) a bunch, and use wengophone and skype.. but i must say too many people with inferior OS’s use skype.. so the video for linux will be a great addition. cheers
June 21st, 2007 at 4:03 pmIf you like useful services like Unyte, you’ll want to try our new web-based voice recording service, integrated the Skype client. It’s the Evoca Skype Call Recorder. Get set up with our Free account by checking out: http://www.evoca.com/skype.
July 19th, 2007 at 6:28 am