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microsoft and skype

 
author & internet detective
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Today's news says Microsoft is buying Skype. Hmm. Wonder what the impact might be.
 
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MS will make skype extinct, remember what happened to hotmail. A good opportunity for the the competitors.
 
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"Remember what happened to Hotmail?" They took a web-based email client that sucked, bought it for umpteen quintillion dollars making the founders filthy rich, then kept the thing alive for a decade past its expiration date. I'd say that's an inspirational tale, not a warning.

But I agree, nothing good can come of this.
 
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My Hotmail account continues to work just fine, actually.
 
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Microsoft !! Sigh...

Now it will be like:

PROBLEM: Any kind of problem in skype.
SOLUTION: Restart Skype
 
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I am wondering if i should press the uninstall button.
 
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It never ceases to amaze me how much anti-Microsoft sentiment there is. I use a bunch of Microsoft programs, like Live Messenger, Live Mail, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Office and yes I even enjoy Windows Vista. I'm sure for some purposes there are better programs, but I'm used to these, and they are not inherently bad. As a matter of fact, despite the way they 'improved' Messenger in it's latest version, I still prefer it over Skype because I easily lose myself in the Skype UI. Like I said, it may just be that I'm used to what I have now, but maybe all the critics are just used to what they have.

The only really really horrible thing I can think of from the top of my head, is Internet Explorer. IE should be banned by law.
 
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Indeed. I thought Google or Apple were the baddies these days?
 
Robin John
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Stephan van Hulst wrote: It never ceases to amaze me how much anti-Microsoft sentiment there is.


and then...

Stephan van Hulst wrote: IE should be banned by law.






 
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The purchase baffles me. I have never understood a good business model for skpye. Its cool technology, I am glad it exists, but I have never seen a way for them to make money. When eBay bought Skype, I could not see why it was worth so much money. When eBay gave it away, they lost their shirts.

I still don't see any way for Skype to make money. Hence, I see no justification for the price to be in the billions of dollars.

I could see Microsoft using the technology in their Windows Phone 7 System Phone software, but that would really make the cell phone carriers angry -- no more talk minutes. Having the carriers mad at you is not a way to get your mobile OS to be accepted.
 
Paul Sturrock
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Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Today's news says Microsoft is buying Skype. Hmm. Wonder what the impact might be.



My guess is more support on MS hardware (e.g. XBox, Kinnetic), integration with common tools like Outlook and slightly less support (or slower support anyway) on things like Macs and Linux.

I'm more curious how Microsoft make any money out of an (admittedly useful) but free to use service? I can't see them suddenly trying to charge for it. And it was very expensive for Microsoft to buy (the biggest purchase they have ever made I read).
 
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I wonder if they will split Skype into two products. A basic version of Skype, that might be limited in various ways, that M$ gives away. And a "Premium" version of Skype that M$ will sell.
 
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Gtalk is an alternative for Skype. I guess MS will generate revenue through Ads. Lately you guys might have noticed Ads in Skype.
 
Paul Sturrock
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Bob Reardon wrote:I wonder if they will split Skype into two products. A basic version of Skype, that might be limited in various ways, that M$ gives away. And a "Premium" version of Skype that M$ will sell.



Can't really see that. Doing that risks whatever value Microsoft perceive Skype has and just clears the ground for competitors. I'm guessing they might be looking to use it as an inducement to install Windows. But I still can't see how such an inducement is worth $8.5 billion.
 
Bear Bibeault
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Jeanne Boyarsky
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Nice cartoon.

Skype isn't completely free you pay a little for calls to landlines. But I can't imagine they make much money overall.

The ebay buy made more sense to me. I thought ebay was going to enhance it for secure anonymous type calling with the buyer/seller.
 
Bear Bibeault
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Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Skype isn't completely free you pay a little for calls to landlines. But I can't imagine they make much money overall.


The subscription to allow incoming landline calls to a Skype number is more expensive. I have both the incoming and outgoing subscriptions.
 
Bear Bibeault
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Stephan van Hulst wrote:It never ceases to amaze me how much anti-Microsoft sentiment there is.


And so well deserved!
 
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Bear Bibeault wrote:

Stephan van Hulst wrote:It never ceases to amaze me how much anti-Microsoft sentiment there is.


And so well deserved!



Boy howdy! I'm amazed at Stephan's amazement. Isn't Embrace, Extend, Extinguish enough by itself? Or a general policy of function before security? Or being proven a "harmful monopoly" in U.S. federal court? If for nothing else, they deserve undying hatred for Clippy.


Taking another tangent, Skype is already terrible for iPad. What's a good alternative? It has to be compatible with Windows so I can talk to my brother ... or more accurately, my nieces!
 
Pat Farrell
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Greg Charles wrote:Taking another tangent, Skype is already terrible for iPad.


I've also heard, from very reliable sources, that the latest version of Skype for OS-X is a bug farm.

Normally, the Skype folks do a good job with being multi-platform. I've never gotten my Ubuntu box to do video Skype, but I can live without that, the world doesn't need more photos of me. But OS-X is no longer a tiny niche product for desktop use.
 
Stephan van Hulst
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Greg Charles wrote:Boy howdy! I'm amazed at Stephan's amazement. Isn't Embrace, Extend, Extinguish enough by itself? Or a general policy of function before security? Or being proven a "harmful monopoly" in U.S. federal court?



Thanks, very enlightening.
 
Bear Bibeault
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Not to pick on the younger members of our audience, but I've found that a lot of the younger crowd who grew up after Microsoft came to dominance seem to just shrug off the abominations in Windows as "that's just the way things work". Most of us old-timers who grew up around real operating systems like the Unixes and VMS clearly see that calling Windows an "operating system" is a bit of a stretch.

Luckily, even though Windows' market dominance is likely to not plummet anytime soon, with Steve BuffoonBallmer at the helm, Microsoft's influence on the industry has waned considerably. Even 10 years ago the question was "What would Microsoft do?". Now it's pretty much the opposite -- using Microsoft as an example of how not to do it.
 
Stephan van Hulst
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I'm sure I could find plenty of abominations if I googled, but for your personally, what do you consider some of the greatest disasters that are taken for granted these days?
 
Bear Bibeault
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I haven't ever used Windows 7, and I understand that it's considered "better", but off the top of my head, the top things I hated about Windows:
  • The notion that rebooting is an acceptable fix for a problem
  • The notion that reinstalling is an acceptable fix for a problem
  • The very need for anti-virus
  • The Blue Screen of Death
  • Crapware
  • Bloatware
  • Windows telling me when it's going to do things rather than the other way around
  • Things popping up and getting in my way every time I want to do something
  • Microsoft's whole take on the user interface; nothing is every where I expect it, or does what I expect it to do
  • blah blah blah ...


  • And that's just from a user's point of view. I won't even get into all the hair I lost while I was writing software for the danged thing...
     
    Bartender
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    I won't even get into all the hair I lost while I was writing software for the danged thing...





    ok
     
    Bear Bibeault
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    See! Windows did that to me!




     
    Mike Simmons
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    Be grateful. It could have gone after the beard.
     
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    8.5 billion well that's a huge amount ... It will definitely surprise Zuckerberg
     
    Robin John
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    JOKE :

    FOO NEWS: Microsoft bought skype for $8.5 billion.
    GREENHORN VIEWER: Dumb people, they should have downloaded it from the internet for free !!.
     
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    great to hear !
     
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    Bill thinks it was a smart move
     
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