[linux-audio-user] fighting skype ...

[Rob]

On Saturday 19 March 2005 00:49, Russell Hanaghan wrote:
> Point of fact, as I have been told from a senior VP, it is in fact
> written by the guys who started Napster. Skype uses our backbone
> for its bandwidth.

He was incorrect. "Skype was created by Niklas Zennström and Janus 
Friis, founders of KaZaA", says Skype themselves.

http://www.skype.com/company/founders.html

> Not sure where all the "land mines" are...  It's free!

It's not free software.  SIP clients like linphone and PhoneGaim are.

> All they
> want to charge for is calls terminating on the PSTN.

All they want to do is own the VOIP market.  It seems disingenuous to 
pretend otherwise.

> No, it's not
> open source....but as I recall, that didn t matter when it was
> being tested for Jamming / collaborating across the net?  Many
> still use windows don't they??

I don't use Windows, and I haven't heard anything about jamming over 
the net with or without free software.  Playing live isn't something 
I'm interested in or would pay attention to, though I hope to come up 
with a nice web-based collaboration tool eventually.

> And when its all said and done...do we really care *that* much
> here?  If the app doesnt do what u want it to do....don't use it.
> If it does and they want bux...oh well. You have a choice.

Sure I do.  I have another choice, too: whether or not to encourage 
the use of free software over shady, secretive proprietary software.  
I'm exercising that choice here.  If enough people use proprietary 
software, eventually (as was the case in the desktop OS market until 
recently) there will effectively be no choice.  Surely even "u" can 
see that.

Rob