Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion

[Macskeeball]

In recent days, Skype had been rumored to be in acquisition/partnership talks with the likes of Google and Facebook. Now Kara Swisher of AllThingsD is confirming a WSJ report which said that Microsoft may be the winning bidder. I'm concerned about what that would mean for non-MS platforms, particularly Linux.

What do you think, and if MS wins and kills Skype for Linux what will you switch to? Google Talk? Something else? The problem with switching away from Skype is that the communication software you use has to be compatible with what others use.

Edit: Skip ahead to "It's official."

[areteichi]

You posted a few minutes earlier than I! Hope the mods can delete it.

Yeah, I don't know what the impact of this acquisition would be should this goes through, but it probably won't help what already wasn't too keen on improving its quality on Linux (I mean Skype of course). I wonder if Microsoft would go as far as to discontinue Skype for Linux. To my knowledge, there is not a single product by Microsoft that officially supports Linux.

[Spice Weasel]

I can see them stopping development, but I highly doubt they would waste time crippling older versions of the client.

[Rasa1111]

well..
if skype works good now (i wouldnt know)
expect it to go to rubbish.

[Copper Bezel]

I've already switched to Google Voice from my Gmail box. Honestly, it's slightly more free (as in gratis, not libre,) and I think the call quality is better, as well. (I'm generally calling telephones, though, not other VOIP clients.)

I don't think any software gets to win a compatibility fight with a webapp. = P There are far more Google accounts in the world than Skype accounts, and a little plugin that works with every browser ever is certainly simpler than installing a particular enduser application like Skype.

Edit: MS wouldn't go out of their way to cripple the desktop Linux version, but they could easily make changes to the network protocol and then push out a mandatory update to supported platforms, all for reasons that have little or nothing to do with the eight people using Skype on Linux.

[Rasa1111]

all for reasons that have little or nothing to do with the eight people using Skype on Linux.

Lol!

[weasel fierce]

I actually use it, but purely as a chat interface with a few specific people. That could easily change to something else though

[Joe of loath]

What do you think to mac support, then? A lot of my friends are 'individual' types, so daddy bought them all a mac (They all have a macbook, how individual ). Do you think they'd release a crippled client, like for messenger?

[Grenage]

I doubt Mac support would be affected; the user base is par more prominent than in Linux. That said, I can't see MS destroying Skype, they are ever walking on eggshells to avoid monopoly charges.

[Paqman]

What do you think, and if MS wins and kills Skype for Linux what will you switch to?

Why would they do that? Why spend billions buying something, then deliberately drive some of its customers to a rival product?

Their objective in buying Skype isn't to tackle any potential future threat from Linux on the desktop. It's not part of the strategy. If I was to guess i'd say they were looking to integrate the technology into a future version of Windows. That might mean that eventually the Skype protocol became superseded by something for which there wasn't a Linux client, but I highly doubt they'd cut Linux off right away.