Thursday, May 12, 2011

Will Microsoft wreck Skype?

One of my top five online communication tools is Skype. I use it all the time for online collaboration and keeping in touch with friends. So it is with a little dismay that I have just heard that Microsoft has bought Skype.

I have no idea what effect this will have on the service that Skype provides. I just hope the service stays free and doesn't get embedded in Microsoft in a way that procludes those of us who do not use Microsoft products.

3 comments:

JoHart said...

Hi Sarah

The cynic in me says that Skype will change beyond recognition! When MS takes control of anything it becomes as enforced as possible on anyone who has MS already and is difficult of access for others.

This is a function of money making corporations and is unfortunately beginning to take over our e-world. You only have to look at the reduced level of response/organisation/efficiency in Ellum since taken over by bb to se an example of this.

Sorry for the gloomy response. This is one reason why I always try to keep everything "down here" or on a website where I have control as well as up in the cloud.

Jo

Jo said...

Hi Sarah

I have a sense of dejavu - I already saw this post and posted thcomment below a couple of days ago - presumably it got lost in the Blogger outage. I have learned my lesson from the past and I had saved it "down here" so was able just to copy and paste :)

The cynic in me says that Skype will change beyond recognition! When MS takes control of anything it becomes as enforced as possible on anyone who has MS already and is difficult of access for others.

This is a function of money making corporations and is unfortunately beginning to take over our e-world. You only have to look at the reduced level of response/organisation/efficiency in Ellum since taken over by bb to se an example of this.

Sorry for the gloomy response. This is one reason why I always try to keep everything "down here" or on a website where I have control as well as up in the cloud.

Jo

Sarah Stewart said...

Yes, that's wierd, Jo. I saw your origional comment but can't find it anywhere now.

Anyway...I agree that Microsoft will ruin Skype evetually. The question is...what will we use as an alternative?