Facebook Wants To Buy Skype 192
An anonymous reader writes "Remember when we learned that Facebook had resumed talks with Skype? Well, it turns out that Facebook is considering buying Skype outright. 'Skype is reportedly talking to Facebook about some sort of deal. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been involved in internal discussions about buying Skype, while Facebook also reached out to the Luxembourg-based company about forming a joint venture.'"
Google looking too? (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems that Google is looking at buying it too, which I'm hoping for since they're much more likely to open things up.
I'm conflicted (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't have any love for Facebook as a company, but frankly I have such a low opinion of Skype that it couldn't get too much worse, at least I hope. The funny thing is that I pay Skype hundreds of dollars a year for a service which is only borderline passable, but just like the telcos they're the only game in town, so there is no motovation for them to improve.
If Google released a competing product tomorrow I'd switch. And, no, Google Talk is NOT remotely comparable to Skype.
Re:So where's the FLOSS/open codec Skype alternati (Score:4, Interesting)
XMPP video with Pidgin.
Re:So where's the FLOSS/open codec Skype alternati (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Voice your disapproval (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So where's the FLOSS/open codec Skype alternati (Score:4, Interesting)
Really? Are we going to stick with this "change the source yourself" argument?
*sigh*
I tried using Ekiga... couldn't get it to work between a Windows and a Linux client. I wanted to video-chat with my wife and kids while on business trips. Then tried several video chats with no consistent success. Grudgingly tried Skype, and it works great. I now can video chat with my parents across the country as well.
Sorry, but Skype even on Linux just worked.
I have a CS degree (from way back) but I am no longer a programmer. I'm not about to pick it up just to get video chat to work.
If Facebook buys it, it will make me sad because I abhor Facebook.