Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] Website updated

[Wouter Van Hemel <wouter-gnomemeeting fort-knox rave org>]

On Thu, 9 Sep 2004, Damien Sandras wrote:

[some text cut]

> The main problem is not that the program is not Open Source, the problem
> is that Skype is locking users into a proprietary protocol. Would you
> imagine the Internet with a proprietary equivalent to the HTTP protocol
> that only a given client could browse? That's what happens with Skype.

Exactly, when I got my camera a few weeks ago, somebody advised me to look 
into Skype, citing that it works great and has a Linux client... But when 
I read that line that says "proprietary technology that is not compatible 
with other clients" in their faq, I quickly lost interest to even try it out.

However nice it is to think of a Linux client, I don't understand the 
whole point of making a communication tool that can't communicate (same 
for all those closed IM protocols). Very unproductive and backwards.

Still, a good and interoperable client for people who use Windows would 
be a good thing. Is there any free but complete VoIP+webcam client I can 
tell people who use Windows to download?

> Skype also has a great marketing force,

A sickening marketing force, even. Their webpage reads like the part of a 
villian in an old movie, trying to lure and entice unexpecting victims. A 
bit too uncomfortably friendly.

I guess I just don't care too much for marketing.

> some people even think that
> Skype has a superior audio quality. How could Skype have a superior
> quality when it is using the same codec (iLBC) than software like
> GnomeMeeting while introducing more latency by making calls go through a
> 3rd party? The only real advantage of Skype is that it is easily going
> through any type of NAT, using a 3rd user to proxy the call. But the day
> when the Linux kernel NAT will natively support H.323 or SIP, Skype will
> have lost its only advantage... Skype is hype...

Perhaps they will support other, more standard protocols one day. I also 
believe there's a certain limit when you lock yourself in by requiring 
everybody to use your software; either you reach enough users to make it, 
or, at some point, you'll have to add interoperability functions to avoid 
your software from being ignored, either by users or by soft/hardware 
vendors.

Unless you're Microsoft, ofcourse... But even that can and will change. :)