Forget Skype, Get Gizmo

[Butterfly]

Anyone tried it yet ?

http://www.gizmoproject.com/download.html

Skype is getting bigger and bigger and not as fast as before. Soon it will be a huge monster.

Time to go another route, the OpenSource route with Gizmo ?

[rainman]

Agreed, Skype calls are not very slow and usually 2-3 second delays on high speed broadband on both ends. Sometimes it dies completely or has a 30 seconds lag (no joke).

[Firefoxx]

Skype calls are heavily dependent on your ISP and general bandwidth quality. I still get very good (better than local call) quality for calling people in Europe and the US. No delays, no drops. I also tried skype on a "home" package from True. The quality was bad, there were delays, and it was even hard to connect.

The thing about Skype is that there is a large user base and it works well (as long as your ISP is good). Open source isn't the answer to everything, if it ain't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.

[yuyi]

...

The thing about Skype is that there is a large user base and it works well (as long as your ISP is good).  Open source isn't the answer to everything, if it ain't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Come on, a little competition is not bad, and will not break Skype!

Usually it results in 2 better products, both better than the 1 before

[stumonster]

is it really open source - can only see reference to open standard

skype works on win , mac , ix and WMobile ( the ability to use skypeout on my handheld is a huge bonus )

though I read an article that murdoch was buying skype for 3 billion USD which could change matters.

and I would also bet that skype is close to being reverse engineered

yes and open source/platform VOIP/video client that works as well as skype would be excellent - but at the moment I am sticking to skype

[The_Other_Mac]

Skype is not principally a software product, it's a service. Oh sure, they make free software which is a great advertisement for their service, and they would suffer a little bit by losing this ability to advertise themselves, to a freeware product. But what is that freeware product going to do, exactly? VoIP? Nothing new there, Yahoo has offered that for ages combined with a much better chat client and wider user base. Trillian too, and if the GAIM developers haven't got it sorted out by now, they should give up and join a project that knows how to manage itself.

Skype is not Kazaa, and if they can't spread by advertising via their own software, they can advertise with Adwords or TV campaigns. It doesn't really matter. What they make their money on is the PC-to-phone calls. (And extras such as voicemail, phone numbers for Skype users, etc.). That needs a physical network of servers in each country, and negotiated deals with the large national telcos. Skype IS a telco, of a new type. So until the opensource community has the sort of cash and self-organisation required to set up a new telco, I don't think Skype is going to feel threatened.

Edit: I imagine the reason Skype service has degraded recently, is that international bandwidth in Thailand has degraded recently. Possibly due to a certain "high speed" ISP.

Edited August 3, 2005 by The_Other_Mac