November 3rd, 2009, 12:41AM in Business, Internet by Marc LequimeView Comments
Going with the flow of the fact that pretty much every application available to the Linux Ubuntu operating systems are Open Source – this means the code is free to use and alter under the GNU – Skype seems to be joining the party, or so it seems – at least it means that their UI is becoming free to edit and improve – but Skype still grabs a tight hold over the call protocol.
Skype have responded to this with an official blog post for the Skype Linux blog – saying that they will be ‘Open Sourcing the UI” – but remaining the chat protocol closed, Berkus replied to one user. Some people have reacted with hostility – as if Skype is just looking for a free way to get a community to create their UI for them, rather than supplying the community with a fantastic UI already. It would seem, in the words of Berkus, that they do not really appreciate the fact that Skype has been free, and probably will always be free.
Oh well. It’s still good that a popular chat client will be open-sourcing the UI, for people to adopt and improve. But we really want to have a dig through the chat protocol – but as many people predicted, not yet.
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