webcam

[Gilles Gravier]

Jonathan,

Jonathan Kaye wrote:
> I don't really understand your requirement for Skype. It uses a proprietary
> protocol which, sooner or later, will come back to bite you and there are
> video conferencing systems that work NOW, not a some indeterminate point in
> the future. I know of two and there may well be many others:
> 1. Ekiga
> 2. AMSN
>   
The rest of your mail was factual... but "I don't really understand..." 
you don't NEED this statement.

Everybody has THEIR OWN requirements. Including some of us who have a 
requirement for open source. Some DON'T REALLY UNDERSAND OUR REQUIREMENT 
FOR UNSECURED TOTALLY OPEN SOURCE (I'm voluntarily being sarcastic here, 
I use open source myself, and I work in a company that has turned all 
open source).

And note that AMSN while open source, isn't implementing an open 
protocol... it's open source implementing a reverse engineered closed, 
proprietary protocol...

Nevertheless, there are many reasons to prefer Skype:

1) It just works... through just about any configuration of firewall you 
want (it's IMPOSSIBLE to run Ekiga behind HTTP-only firewalls, when 
Skype works well there)
2) 14 million people use it... so this person probably has some friends 
who only have Skype. That's a very compelling reason to use it, if they, 
for their own reasons, can't move away from it.
3) It has (appart from features like Video) a set of common features for 
all suppored platforms (Windows, PocketPC, Linux, MacOS, Nokia N Series 
phones) that make it very convenient... you just KNOW that the person on 
the other side will be able to use what you want to do with them.
4) It uses quite good encryption so makes it very secure (Neither Ekiga, 
nor AMSN have encryption on voice)...

So... cut the "I don't understand" bulls**t and stay factual.

The guy asked for Video support for Linux on Skype. There is none. None 
is currently planned (including the comming v1.4).

Yes Skype is proprietary. Yes there are alternative (for some of the 
features) that are open source. But leave that choice to the other user. 
Its NONE of your FREAKING business to question and judge his choices.

Gilles.