Skype under Fedora-10

[Kevin Kofler]

Linux Media wrote:
> I just wanted to speak up also and say that I agree that it's a good
> program. I've been telling anyone that wants to use Skype that it's one
> of the easiest, trouble free programs to install and use.
> 
> The people behind Skype clearly went out of their way to create a
> program that works and is easy to understand/use.
> 
> Sheesh.... they even have that very simple "User" called "Test Call" for
> testing that your sound is working correctly. So simple... so
> strait-forward.
> 
> I would have to vote Skype the best Multi-platform program that I've
> used with Linux.

But it's proprietary software.

Quoting from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html :

| Powerful, reliable software can be bad
|
| The idea that we want software to be powerful and reliable comes from the
| supposition that the software is designed to serve its users. If it is
| powerful and reliable, that means it serves them better.
|
| But software can only be said to serve its users if it respects their
| freedom. What if the software is designed to put chains on its users? Then
| powerfulness only means the chains are more constricting, and reliability
| that they are harder to remove. Malicious features, such as spying on the
| users, restricting the users, back doors, and imposed upgrades are common
| in proprietary software, and some open source supporters want to do
| likewise.

(The article then goes on to rant about "Open Source" DRM implementations.)

Skype locks you into their proprietary network/protocol, by using it, you
also force other people into the same lock-in (so you're actively taking
their freedom away), it also abuses clients as tunnel servers ("supernodes")
whenever it feels like it (consuming your bandwidth), it even artificially
disabled features depending on your CPU vendor (not sure if they still do
that, but that was quite outrageous)!

It's also not really portable, it doesn't even have a 64-bit version! So you
have to litter your 64-bit system with 32-bit compatibility multilibs to use
their crap.

        Kevin Kofler