skype is getting Microsoft help!

**edubidu** · May 28th, 2011

Hello,

It seems that Skype will going Microsoft. Does someone know an open source that might replace Skype? It is unimaginable for me to keep Microsoft stuff on my Ubuntu. Spy's away!

**ajgreeny** · May 28th, 2011

Whilst it would be good to be able to tell you that there are other voip applications available which can do the same thing, unfortunately everyone I know who uses any voip application uses skype, and nothing but skype can talk with skype users. Therefore if you want to continue to talk with skype users, you have no alternative.

I'm afraid it's a case of having to learn to grin and bear the problem, and hope that skype keeps going for linux.

**hyperzahranism** · May 28th, 2011

Originally Posted by edubidu

Hello,

It seems that Skype will going Microsoft. Does someone know an open source that might replace Skype? It is unimaginable for me to keep Microsoft stuff on my Ubuntu. Spy's away!

I totally agree with you, but I think Microsoft will do their best not to loose Skype users by maintaining Skype to multiple platforms because the idea behind Skype is money and nothing else

**edubidu** · May 30th, 2011

They lost me. I have uninstalled skype. I don't want to loose my linux security and private sphere. No Microsoft spys on my computer is better than every thing else you could do!

**dandnsmith** · May 30th, 2011

That seems to me to be a trifle paranoid.
Microsoft haven't, as far as I know, managed to do the deal yet
- and if they already have it you're lost, as they'll have all the data about you anyway.

There are perfectly good other ways of doing VOIP, but I don't know of a cheap way of doing the video part, only the audio, and even that will cost something per call.

**nogoodnamesleft** · May 30th, 2011

ekiga, empathy

There are others. They don't talk to Skype but they talk to most other things. However Skype users have telephones and those packages can talk to telephones. Well at least Ekiga does. I haven't tried Empathy.

**Leslie Viljoen** · June 7th, 2011

Empathy can do video through Google Talk.

**crispy_420** · June 7th, 2011

Little paranoid? It's not like MS bought Skype from a small GPL shop after all.

Of anything I think it will broaden Skype's presence to new platforms not already in use (think Xbox) and isn't that the point? You could pick something else but it would be like having a Blackberry that could only call other Blackberries.