Le blog d'Olivier FAURAX

Désolé, lecteurs français, mais j'ai pas le temps de traduire ce coup-ci.
Last saturday, I published an article about Skype going open source. I didn't found any information on the web about that, so I blogged and twitted about.

Then, I've been retweeted, some comments were added by a Skype official (I didn't know before I saw his nick on the Skype blog), ycombinated and slashdoted. And then Skype answered on his linux blog. Here are some questions and some answers.

Did this information was ready for public release?

Certainly not.
I googled "skype opensource" before blogging, and all I get was forum entry asking for opensource substitute for skype (think of it, Mr Skype). Moreover, the Skype answered that they "can't tell you much more about that right now".

Will the protocole be open?

No.
Berkus commented on my blog and on the Skype Linux blog that they will open the GUI code, and not the library. The most likely outcome is that they will provide a libskype closed binary library that will allow someone to communicate with a GUI.

Will [my favorite jabber client] be able to support Skype also?

Probably, yes.
If they provide a libskype, other client will be able to use the Skype network the same way as the official open source GUI. For example, this will certainly help the Kopete Skype project which is "no longer being developed because of incompatibility issues with Skype".

Why do they don't open the whole thing?

Because they can't.
It appears that they don't own some source code property of their core technology.

So, what's the strategy?

Probably, Skype as a service.
This is coherent with a recent interview on techcrunch. Skype will become a closed source library that will interface with applications. This will permit to sell Skype-out fees from any applications, including open source ones.

However, in the blog, Berkus speak about a "larger offering". So, we might expect more that only a libskype and an open source UI for Linux. I hope they won't forget to include a 64 bits version of the library.

Did you manage to install Skype on your shiny Mandriva 2010?

Thanks for asking.
I took the static tarball and all went fine on my Mandriva 2009 Spring.

Today is the official public release of Mandriva 2010 and you are kindly invited to download it on the Mandriva website (in several hours...).

Lorsque le dernier Skype est sorti, il n'y avait pas de RPM Mandriva et j'ai donc contacté Skype pour essayer d'obtenir un RPM spécifique à Mandriva comme ils l'ont déjà proposé par le passé.

When the last Skype has been released, there was no RPM for Mandriva and I contacted Skype customer support to try to push the idea of a specific RPM for Mandriva, as they provided it some years ago.

Take the Fedora RPM ! / Prenez le RPM Fedora !

[...]
Both the Fedora version and the dynamic static version should work:
[url to download]

Please make sure to install the following packages befor installing
the Fedora version:
[...]

Oui, je le savais. C'est sympa de me donner les dépendances :)
Je réponds en insistant sur 2 besoins utilisateurs. Pour l'utilisateur lambda, s'il n'y a pas le logo Mandriva, ce n'est pas un RPM Mandriva (c'est assez drôle d'invoquer un argument de facilité d'utilisation pour résoudre un problème de geek).
L'autre chose, c'est que les utilisateurs devraient pouvoir avoir un RPM Skype, même closed-source, dans le dépôt « non-free » de Mandriva.

Yes, I know that. It's nice to give dependencies :)
I answered using 2 user needs. For the average user, if there's no Mandriva logo, it's not a Mandriva RPM (it's kind of funny to use ease-of-use justification for a geek problem).
The other thing is that users should be able to install Skype RPM, even closed source, in Mandriva « non-free » repository.

« Part of open source community »

[...]
We are happy about your interest in Skype!

We understand that many users complain that there is no Mandriva
version at present.

We are happy to be able to inform you that Skype will from now on be 
part of the open source community.

Therefore Linux developers wil be enabled to influence the development
of the Skype client for Linux - which will most certainly result in
specific versions for the different distributions.

We understand the concern of the Mandriva users - on the other hand we
can assure that the indicated versions 8Fedora and static) will work
on a Mandriva system.
[...]

Est-ce que j'ai bien lu ? « Part of the open source community » : la formulation n'est pas très claire, et comme je sais que Skype en open source serait un évènement majeur (c'est probablement le 2e logiciel propriétaire le plus utilisé après le plugin flash), j'ai répondu en demandant si Skype allait devenir open source « dans un futur proche ».

Did I read well ? « Part of the open source community » : the wording is not clear, and as I know that Skype in open source would be a major event (it's probably the 2nd most used proprietary software on linux, after flash plugin), I replied asking if Skype would be open source « in a near future ».

« Open source in the nearest future » (dans le plus proche futur)

Hello Olivier,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

Thank you for your answer!

Yes, indeed, the Linux Skype version will become open source in the 
nearest 
future.

Thank you for your interest in Skype!

If you should have any more questions or problems, please do not 
hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,

Skype Customer Support

J'avais demandé « dans un proche futur » et il réponds « dans le plus proche futur ». Comme Skype 2.1 est en version beta, il est possible que la version finale soit en open source (c'est une supposition).
Si c'est le cas, c'est une très bonne nouvelle pour la communauté open source qui pourra intégrer Skype (et son protocole) dans les distributions Linux et des applications libres, mais aussi pour Skype qui doit lutter contre MSN (pour la video) et Ekiga (VoIP SIP).

I asked « in a near future » and he answers « in the nearest future ». As Skype 2.1 is in beta, it is possible that the final version will be open source (it's a guess).
If it's the case, it's a good news for the open source community that will be able to integrate Skype (and its protocole) in Linux distributions and free softwares, but also for Skype that have to compete against MSN (for the video) and Ekiga (VoIP SIP).