On Fri, 4 Dec 2009, Mike Connors wrote:

> Date: Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:19:01 -0800
> From: Mike Connors <[email protected]>
> Reply-To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help;    civil and on-topic"
>     <[email protected]>
> To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help;  civil and on-topic"
>     <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] open source Skype clients?
> 
> Andrew Jackman wrote:
>> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:44 PM, Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> My wife's sister is teaching in at a university in Turkey.  The
>>> sister uses Skype on her windoze computer to talk to her windoze-only
>>> husband, and would like to use it with my wife, too.  I can install
>>> the official linux version of Skype, but would prefer an open source
>>> alternative client at our end.  No, we don't get to change the other
>>> end.  Suggestions?
>>>
>>>
>>
>> As far as I know, there are no OS Skype clients because the protocol
>> remains a trade secret.  I think I recall reading something to this
>> effect on their company FAQ.
>>
>>
> Yes, the protocol is closed so there isn't an OS alternative client
> that you can use to communicate w. Skype clients. Supposedly you can do
> this w. Ekiga and a SIP trunk but it's not free.
>
> However, Skype did saw they were going to OS the client.
>
> "We appreciate our user community's enthusiasm and realize this is
> something they have been wanting for a while. We realize the potential
> of the open source community and believe that making Skype for Linux an
> open source application will help to speed up its development and
> enhance its compatibility with different versions of Linux. While it is
> our goal to make Skype for Linux source code available to the community
> in the nearest future, we are not at a point to disclose an exact
> release date yet.
>
> http://linuxcrunch.com/content/skype-will-be-open-source
>
> I was a big user and proponent of Skype at one point and the people started
> calling it spyware. I never found out if there is more to it than just 
> rumor...

There are a bunch of standards-compliant H323 clients out there for
all platforms:

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Open+Source+VOIP+Software

With so many good choices out there, why do people insist on using the
most crappy one? Marketing is truly evil.

Make the change at the other end.

Carlos
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