Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Sunday 2 August 2009, 3:25 PM
Why All the Noise About Skype?
While the software involved is indeed central to the Skype application, it is not "irreplaceable", and in fact it actually doesn't work particularly well. It is rather seriously overloaded by the number of registered users Skype has. Clear evidence of this is the ridiculously unreliable "availability status" of Skype contacts. Seasoned Skype users can attest to how often Skype tells them their friends are not available, when you know perfectly well that they are, of it takes hours, days or weeks to deliver a text message to someone who has been online the entire time, and so on.
Andy Abramson has written a good piece about why the technmology in question is important to eBay, but not nearly so important to Skype. It's worth reading.
jw 2/8/2009
PreviousComments on this post
Your most un-favorite VOIP software Jamie!
What I find so freaking hilarious is that eBay stupidly bought the company but NOT the software source! The source code is the only item that makes Skype worth buying at all. That has to be one of the worst business decisions ever in the dotCom universe. Yes there have been others but Wow! When I read that the Skype programmers were still holding the source I must have laughed for 10 minutes. They have eBay by the short hairs for sure.
Here's another example why Open Source is a better idea. eBay has to reverse engineer a product they "own" without the source code and WITHOUT infringing the IP rights of the programmers. They say they are programming a new product with new software. How in the world are they going to be able to convince a judge that they haven't stepped over the Chinese wall? What can they defend themselves with when the Skype programmers sue them for infringement after the new VOIP eBay project comes on-line? I'm assuming that Skype has patents on their "technology".
Even if eBay is going to completely replace the Skype "stacK", they need to hold on to the source to protect themselves, if for no other reason than to provide ongoing support until they can roll-out their new stuff.
eBay does need something new. I'm not sure a Skype-like service is it but I gave up on eBay a long time ago.
I'm going to watch the eBay-Skype debacle as much as possible because it will be incredibly educational and something to laugh at while I morn the passing of my 401K! It will be almost as much fun watching Microsoft get hit with another high-dollar fine.
Xwj - Thanks for reading and commenting, as always. I have often wondered who actually knew that this was happening at the time of the sale. If this actually goes to trial, perhaps we will get enough details about "who knew what and when did they know it" to get a better picture. What particularly fascinates me is, did anyone who remained at Skype see this, and kept their mouth shut about it? In any event, I agree with you, it is absolutely mind boggling to think that a company the size of eBay would have bought Skype, especially considering how much they paid, and not gotten absolute ownership and/or rights. I keep thinking there must be some very red faces in the eBay legal department.
You are certainly right about the difficulty of reverse engineering the code without getting slapped with another infringement suit, and the difficulty of proving that whatever new code they produce is not "tainted". I thought of another issue today, as well... assuming they do succeed with that very difficult code replacement trick, they then have to manage the transition of their users from the old version to the new. Whether you believe their marketing hype about "over 400 million users" or the more realistic estimate that is about 10% of that, it is going to be a major headache to manage the transition.
I agree with you, it is going to be entertaining to watch - but if in the end it all suddenly, magically, gets resolved, replaced, or whatever, don't forget what I said. I still think there is a lot more smoke than fire.
jw 3/8/2009
Sorry to follow up again so soon, but here is a link to a brief, excellent article in the "how in the world did they ever get into this mess" category.
jw
