Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

Mazur · 2009-11-02 18:52:46

Hello,
I just came back to home, I opened phoronix.com to read some great news and benchmarks and I was just shoocked because I saw this news:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n … &px=NzY2Mw

As we can see Skype is going Open Source, it is great news for me. What do you think guys?

Thank You,
Mazur

wonder · 2009-11-02 18:53:53

nothing special. only the interface will be opensource not the protocol. is useless

Last edited by wonder (2009-11-02 18:54:06)

Mazur · 2009-11-02 18:56:24

It is not!

Lich · 2009-11-02 18:59:15

Mazur wrote:

It is not!

It is useless without the protocol itself beeing opensourced. Agreed it's better than nothing, but still not something to hyperventilate over.

urandom · 2009-11-02 19:20:52

Not so open source as you think: http://share.skype.com/sites/linux/2009 … ource.html

.:B:. · 2009-11-02 19:39:57

As the others said, it would be quite strange (and unprecedented) to see a succcessful product go open source. Open source is often use as a dumpster for companies that abandon a product. Skype doesn't exactly fit that description.

So yay for the marketing department, but you bought into it. Nothing to see, I'd say. A lot ado about nothing.

R00KIE · 2009-11-02 20:55:11

I have to agree with B, this is just a PR stunt to appease the people that have no compatibility/stability problems and just complain that skype is not open source therefore it is evil when in fact they are not changing anything meaningful.

They are just finding a way to ruin the linux version faster, just like they did with the windows version, the damn thing is huge full of bells and whistles, long gone are the days of a simple window to manage your contacts, a chat window and a video window, clean and efficient.

rsambuca · 2009-11-02 21:00:08

R00KIE wrote:

They are just finding a way to ruin the linux version faster, just like they did with the windows version, the damn thing is huge full of bells and whistles, long gone are the days of a simple window to manage your contacts, a chat window and a video window, clean and efficient.

I think these things you mention are the exact types of things coders will be able to change with an open source client. You may get your wish in that respect.

Mazur · 2009-11-02 22:11:33

When you think about it - Open Source client means plugins for Empathy and Pidgin. It will be awesome to talk and use Skype while using Empathy!

catwell · 2009-11-02 22:28:46

I want my Skype CLI client!

Mazur · 2009-11-02 22:29:39

#catwell
With Video support and Face drawing in ASCII?

dunz0r · 2009-11-02 22:41:32

I wouldn't mind that . Would be quite awesome.

gogi-goji · 2009-11-02 22:49:30

ASCII video would be awesome beyond words.

jac · 2009-11-02 23:11:58

VLC could output ASCII video at some point, so I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to get something else to

.:B:. · 2009-11-02 23:21:27

Mazur wrote:

When you think about it - Open Source client means plugins for Empathy and Pidgin. It will be awesome to talk and use Skype while using Empathy!

Not so sure about that. That's why people here complain the protocol isn't opensourced. Maybe you can get some of the implementation from the opensource client, but then it would just be easier for Skype to have opened that up already. My guess it they just want to 'outsource' the filthy work - maintaining a Linux client - by making it open source. That does not mean you can lay your eyes on their protocol, though. So with no specs, it's hard to reverse-engineer it in a reliable way (look at Broadcom wireless drivers).

Ranguvar · 2009-11-03 01:09:21

I hate poo-pooing seemingly good news for Free Software, but as I said on the Phoronix article, and others have noted:

"It's the protocol that matters, yes. Especially when there's a competing open protocol, and the closed protocol in question is extremely vulnerable to "tapping" (in analog phone lingo) and such.

No thanks, Skype, I'll stick with SIP."

So basically, the problems remaining:

1.) Only the GNU/Linux client will be OSS, and then only the UI? Definitely sounds like marketing fodder to me.
2.) The Chinese government found ways to listen in on Skype, and I'm sure others have too. The protocol is NOT secure.
3.) SIP is an open standard anyone can implement and compete over (same goes for XMPP (aka Jabber)/Jingle)... Skype goes out of their way to make sure no one can make a competing client to theirs.

Acecero · 2009-11-03 01:12:02

gogi-goji wrote:

ASCII video would be awesome beyond words.

Integrate the CLI app with aalib and there you have it.

sokuban · 2009-11-03 01:54:44

When I read the title I was like "YES!!" but then I'm like "oh..."

Well, it's not bad. At least now I can compile it to work with dynamic qt and oss. (If they haven't deprecated oss.)

R00KIE · 2009-11-03 12:16:20

2.) The Chinese government found ways to listen in on Skype, and I'm sure others have too. The protocol is NOT secure.

It may not be the protocol, they have a different skype version, TOM Skype (if I'm not wrong if they try to open the skype page they get redirected there), which bundles or used to bundle an extra program that filtered forbidden words, but this was even before it got transmitted so the protocol doesn't matter (yet).

I guess they have also demanded for a way to eavesdrop on calls so maybe an extra something is added that will allow someone with the right keys to decrypt the communications (I'm thinking about something on the lines of mail encryption, you add the public key of the other person and your own public key so you can decrypt it later, if a third key is somehow added without your knowledge a third party can also decrypt it).

On the rest I have to agree, I'd like to use something that gets more regular updates and can be scrutinized by anyone but ... when you have contacts that use skype that have other contacts that also use skype .... you can't just say from now on I'll use just -insert name here- because skype is not really keeping up and force everyone else to change (even though some contacts don't really care what they use as long as it works well).

gajo · 2009-11-03 13:49:16

i don't use skype myself, but my mother does, and this can't be bad news
even if the protocol is not open source, as long as the interface to it is given (think int connect(string IP);), applications such as pidgin should be able to use it.
and i'm thinking it will be, considering they're giving you a UI that probably has calls to the library, being able to just switch the UI to something else should work

JonathanArcher · 2009-11-03 21:44:19

So, would it be possible that someone makes a new client which has a kind of built-in encryption, so that everything you communicate over the skype protocol could not be potentially read by anyone else than the person you directly adress?
At least that is something I didn't like about skype, since it is closed you don't really know what is sent, so maybe the above could work?

Ranguvar · 2009-11-03 22:22:15

@gajo: I highly doubt this will be possible, but I'm not experienced in this area.
@JonathanArcher: See above

schuay · 2009-11-28 10:52:51

Acecero wrote:

gogi-goji wrote:
ASCII video would be awesome beyond words.
Integrate the CLI app with aalib and there you have it.

Check out hasciicam from the AUR. Read about it today and it works on a current arch system with a little tweaking (see AUR comments). Its pretty awesome

(Found out about it because of this article: http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1632095/, which for some reason mentions the dyne:bolic distro even though the latest news post is from December 2007.)

Last edited by schuay (2009-11-28 10:56:44)

Digit · 2010-11-07 16:19:03

so as for the skype implemented in pidgin (and the like), how's that coming along since the official linux interface was open-sourced...

i tried the skype / pidgin plugin, but no joy yet. anyone else got it working?

Awebb · 2010-11-07 17:04:16

They want users. That's why they do that. They saw how skype on linux got rejected over the years for not integrating well into multimessengers. Smart move, Skype folks.

Another "positive" side effect is how this might rule out real FOSS VoIP protocols. Imagine how many non-techy people use skype. They are the reason we use skype instead of SIP or jabber. They don't know how to use a different protocol, you do. They won't switch to another protocol because you use a different system, you will. Why? Because they are 18 years old hot chicks and you aren't.

Yes, SIP won't get you laid. It's the same thing with facebook, everytime it comes to social interaction, the winner is the simple one wich looks good. It shouldn't be a problem to go to your mothers place to install her a decent VoIP/Videochat client. Different story with that hotty with the urge to show you special things.

The conclusion is as simple as destructive: The sexual revolution of the late 60s and early 70s is the most dangerous natural predator that FOSS will ever encounter.

I really need another job...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-02 18:52:46

Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#2 2009-11-02 18:53:53

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#3 2009-11-02 18:56:24

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#4 2009-11-02 18:59:15

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#5 2009-11-02 19:20:52

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#6 2009-11-02 19:39:57

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#7 2009-11-02 20:55:11

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

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Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

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Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#24 2010-11-07 16:19:03

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

#25 2010-11-07 17:04:16

Re: Skype - is going Open Source! - Shock

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