Ostatic: “Skype has always been proprietary so those that prefer to use only Open Source have relied upon free alternatives. Now with Microsoft’s purchase of Skype, Linux users are already predicting the end for them and are looking for alternatives as well. It turns out that the Free Software Foundation has had “Free software replacement for Skype” on their High-Priority List for a while.
The FSF suggests that folks use one of the free programs available for Linux and help development by sending in bug reports. They cite China’s spying on Skype conversations as a good reason. Does anyone doubt Microsoft is capable of similar? So, even if Microsoft doesn’t give Linux (and Mac) users the kibosh, I wouldn’t trust them and proprietary software with my phone calls.
Quite an extensive list of alternatives is already compiled at the FSF, some of which I’d never heard of before. But several bring a familiar ring – if you’ll pardon the pun.
1. Linphone – Linphone is an internet phone or VoIP much like Skype. It seems the page at the FSF needs a bit of updating, because Linphone 3.4.0 was released in February 2011. “
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