What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
My wife likes to take pictures of everything. Got any ideas? view!
bestbuy.com - With a Kodak(r) EasyShareTM 3X Zoom, she'll have impressive 10.2-megapixel performance, right at her fingertips
7 Comments
- macjonesnz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think that Ubuntu & Linux in general is very ready for open source applications based on open standards, but Skype is a closed source application, based on proprietary standards.
Skype has not updated their Linux versions for ages. None of this is the fault of Linux or Ubuntu. If Skype was open source I'm sure your bugs would have been fixed before they happened!
By the way I love Skype and use it for business every day on Dapper, and it's rock solid. - dukeinlondon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Skype is not ready for Linux. The issue you seem to face is that Skype in it's current incarnation uses OSS and does it in a bad way check out the linux forum on the skype site.
Skype 2 for windows installs fine in Wine but I don't know how well it works (none of my skype registered friends actually use it !). It'd be a good idea to do Skype for linux on top of Wine. There is only one Wine project but many many distros.
Also, Skype is the dominant name PC2PC voip but not industry standard. SIP is industry standard. More and more people get broadband and phone lines bundles and these mostly use SIP. - raynevandunem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I doubt it.
Why? Because, for one, the release cycle, IMO, is, or would be, too fast for those developers; Debian, while having a slow release cycle, is often seen as a testing ground for third-party app makers (the RPM distro family, including Mandriva, Fedora, and Suse, has a greater amount of attention from third-party SVs) for exactly that same reason: they'll be ensured of a sizable response from users, they won't have to make that many drastic changes to their apps every time an update to their apps is made (except when a new release of the OS is made public), and they don't have to (or won't be forced to, unless the issue of "Why can't I find x app in the repositories?" comes up) release the source for their application in order to allow for it to be installed and used (try doing that with source-based distros, such as Gentoo and Gobolinux).
To put it short, third-party developers will not support a distribution if it requires keeping up with the distribution in development. So no, Ubuntu is unlikely to get support from ISVs at any length.
Instead, I would recommend the "release early, release often" model for OSs which are meant to showcase the latest and greatest that could be done with the OS. Ubuntu (and other .deb distros which are updated on Ubuntu's schedule) is aiming for that goal, while sending "remissions" back into Debian's changelog for whenever Debian releases a new version. Since they're not bound to get any degree of ISV support due to its changelog, thus making development of the entire OS and all applications reliant upon the core developers, Ubuntu, to me, seems like a TPA (or releases like one), as far as its relations with Debian is concerned.
Debian *would* and *could* get more ISV support (both open and closed source), but the Free Software Guidelines that are maintained by the Debian core devs have made it difficult to do so. Instead, the RPM distros usually get more attention, since they're somewhat more lax about that sort of thing. So you can probably count on .deb-spinoff distributions (Ubuntu, Symphony OS, Dreamlinux, Linspire) to bring to Debian Core users what it won't be getting from the majority of ISVs who are just barely-willing to put up with Desktop Linux. - eMpi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2SebastianProoth, you're asking the essential question in your article. Hopefully we'll get a positive answer to it the coming year, and hopefully Ubuntu will kick the third party app developers in their fat butts, end get them working on better apps (support) for Linux... :)
- SebastianProoth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Thanks for the input guys. As a new Linux user I can only offer this. As much as I love to hate Windows, Skype always works perfectly. My knocks was quite forcibly removed the other day when I installed ubuntu, I was shouting with excitment. Yes I'm a geek. It worked perfectly for a while, and has now stopped. I have yet to see if it has changed its "mood" this morning but somehow I doubt it.
Is the open source OS and word of the year, Ubuntu, ready for closed source, revenue making, industry standard programmes like Skype?
At this point I would have to say no, it needs work. Skype should update their Skype build. Skype should add a record button, but thats another argument entirly. - SebastianProoth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0*Changed for Spelling*
Thanks for the input guys. As a new Linux user I can only offer this. As much as I love to hate Windows, Skype always works perfectly. My socks was quite forcibly removed the other day when I installed ubuntu, I was shouting with excitment. Yes I'm a geek. It worked perfectly for a while, and has now stopped. I have yet to see if it has changed its "mood" this morning but somehow I doubt it.
Is the open source OS and word of the year, Ubuntu, ready for closed source, revenue making, industry standard programmes like Skype?
At this point I would have to say no, it needs work. Skype should update their Skype build. Skype should add a record button, but thats another argument entirly. - SebastianProoth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Whoops! It's my article! Thanks Knightwise for digging it. I still have not been able to sort out the problem that this article references. -Sebastian
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is