webcam

[Phil Pinkerton]

"PLUNK"

Gilles Gravier wrote:
> 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.
>
>