[PLUG] open source Skype clients?

Mike Connors mconnors1 at gmail.com
Sat Dec 5 07:19:01 UTC 2009


Andrew Jackman wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:44 PM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> 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...




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