Everyone in the Gnu/Linux world (or so i think) has been worried by the news about Microsoft buying Skype, the standard de facto about VOIP.
But perhaps there is a hope for a future more open on this software ?
Skype 5.5 beta support now the protocol XMPP, this has been added mainly to talk with facebook, in fact the leader of the social networks uses this protocol for his chat, but this could open a lot of possibility for Skype also for other things.
For example also Google and Jabber use XMPP as protocol for their chat, so this operation could open a lot of interoperability between all of these networks, but we are talking only of the chat side, i really doubt that Microsoft will move to an open standard on the VOIP side, that is the real business of this software.
About Google, Voip and XMPP: Mountain View company has announced plans to migrate part of its structure VOIP to Jingle, a multimedia protocol based on XMPP.
We suggest all clients that interop with Google Talk to switch to using Jingle rather than the old protocol. We will remain backwards compatible with legacy clients by continuing to speak the old protocol as well. If you wish to continue working with legacy clients, such as the Google Talk application for Windows, you may also wish to continue speaking the old protocol. But the future is Jingle, and the old protocol will eventually go away.
And at last, my guess it’s the Google+ could change everything, on social networks, Voip and Chat as we know them today.
Perhaps we could have soon a good alternative, with lot of contacts for a VOIP and Social Network integrated solution ?
References:
XMPP foundation
Skype Journal
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> i really doubt that Microsoft will move to an open standard on the VOIP side
Sure, they are not really open minded… still, since Skype is able to provide termination in real phones (landlines and cellular) worldwide for paying customers, anything that will bring on more call traffic is a net win for them and a better incentive to hold on to their Skype subscriptions.
So, who knows, maybe Microsoft will fall on their collective head and crack it open?
/d
Too bad the jingle video support in Pidgin is haphazard at best. Also, will Google be replacing H264 with webm in their google talk video setup any time soon?
MS will do what it lately has, open some simple parts but forcing people to Windows in practise.
How will Google get customers to its own social network if it can not talk to FB? Like building a new mobile network which can not communicate to other mobile networks. You have to have all the potential user or you have none.