Skype is #1 IMO, and other thoughts
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Grishnakh Oct 16, 2011 4:33 PM EDT |
First, I think a Skype replacement should be #1 on this list, first because of how popular Skype is, and second because Microbully has bought it up so Linux support will probably go by the wayside. However, the FSF has some extremely wrong ideas from what I read on this list (or maybe it's Michael Larabel, the article author, I can't tell which). Telling people to "just use Ekiga" (or other OSS workalike) will not work. A Skype replacement has to be able to interoperate with genuine Skype clients using the Skype protocol. Very few people are going to change to an alternate protocol. For instance, I work in a company that does mostly WinCE work, and a little Linux work. Everyone uses Skype to communicate (as a large part of the staff works remotely). Telling people here to switch to Ekiga will simply be laughed at; they're not going to change just because of a couple of Linux guys; they'll tell us to set up a VM with Win7 and use Skype there. Google Earth replacement: don't we already have this? It's called "Marble" (part of the KDE project). However, the author again writes some disturbing ideas here, saying that a TurboTax replacement would be better. I think that idea is pure insanity. Tax preparation software is something that absolutely needs to be commercial, not FOSS: if it's a little bit late, then it's absolutely useless!! And it has to be redone every year. Where are you going to get a bunch of volunteers to pore through the tax code every year and write software to make it easy to submit tax forms? I can't imagine a more boring and uninteresting task, and there's no way in h#ll I'd spend my spare time working on that. You can't just get some software geeks together and do that, you absolutely have to have professional tax accountants on hand, and probably lawyers too, to read and understand the laws. And again, it becomes totally obsolete every year. FOSS doesn't work well in markets like this, it works well for software where once it's done, everyone can share it and it doesn't absolutely require constant updating. |
| techiem2 Oct 16, 2011 4:52 PM EDT |
The problem with that (for me anyway) is that I don't WANT a Skype replacement that works on their network.
What with the p2p network setup, their proprietary protocols, their history of network problems, etc. I want a FOSS replacement that does it all better and uses open formats and protocols without the p2p and such. |
| mbaehrlxer Oct 17, 2011 1:52 AM EDT |
and neither does skype. even if you reverse engineer the protocol, i am sure they will make every attempt to block off an alternative client. they killed off the asterisk skype integration just recently too. grishnakh: yes, tax preparation software is something that probably needs to be commercial. i agree about the unlikelyhood of volunteers poring through tax code on their free time and get the software updated in time. however that doesn't stop a commercial entity from releasing the code as Free Software. and given the need for this software by almost anyone, it could still be sold for money. just like redhat does it. (and given their business focus, redhat would probably be the right company to build this too) greetings, eMBee. |
| JaseP Oct 17, 2011 9:01 AM EDT |
Skype replacement = Google Talk or Ekiga. |
| Fettoosh Oct 17, 2011 1:27 PM EDT |
Quoting:Tax preparation software is something that absolutely needs to be commercial, not FOSS: I totally disagree, Tax prep. software should be controlled and maintained by governments and distributed for free or for a nominal fee just to recover the cost. Whether developed by an outsource or not, it should be Open source web based and available on all popular platforms. It can be commercial, but there is no good reason why it absolutely has to be commercial. None. |
| JaseP Oct 17, 2011 1:46 PM EDT |
Online Tax prep (in the USA, anyway) will work just fine in Linux. I use TaxAct Online, and have done so for 6 or so years without problems. I really don't see the need for on-disk tax prep software, unless you are an accountant... You have to be online to E-file anyway. |
| Grishnakh Oct 17, 2011 8:46 PM EDT |
@techiem2: Maybe you don't want a Skype replacement that works on their network, but a lot of us NEED one. I honestly don't care about their history of network problems; that's not a problem for me. If their network goes down, it's no big deal, because then none of my coworkers can use it either, so I'm not the problem. But if I refuse to use it because it's not FOSS, or it doesn't have a Linux client, then I'm the problem. Proprietary protocols aren't a problem; that hasn't stopped people from making FOSS MP3 players, and other reverse-engineered stuff. Maybe you don't care about playing MP3s, but the rest of us do. MP3 is so ubiquitous, that if you want Linux to be a true replacement for proprietary software it must interoperate with various proprietary standards and protocols. I can't go to some random website (such as liveatc.net, which freely streams air traffic control tower radio broadcasts) that has MP3 streams, and demand they add Ogg Vorbis streams, I need to be able to use what they provide. If you want to use a FOSS Skype replacement that doesn't use Skype's protocols and network, it's already there. It's called "Ekiga". There's a few others as well. But that doesn't help me with my work. @Fettoosh: Actually, I completely agree with you there. If the government wants us to pay taxes, it should facilitate that activity by providing the software for free. They save money by you sending in forms electronically, rather than on paper, so if they gave the software away for free, they'd save money by not having to employ armies of people scanning and handling paper forms. However, expecting something like this from the US Government is pure folly; this government is fascist, so anything it can outsource to corporations (and allow those corporations to make a hefty profit, part of which is given back to key politicians in bags under the table), it will. @JaseP: I haven't looked into that. Is it free (gratis)? If not, there's no way I'll use it. Why should I pay so I can make the government's job easier? I'd rather print out the PDF forms for free, send those in the mail, and let them employ armies of people handling all those documents by hand. |
| jdixon Oct 17, 2011 10:04 PM EDT |
> Is it free (gratis)? The basic TaxAct federal form is free, yes, and I believe that includes electronic filing. The state form costs somewhere around $15, from memory. There is an online version and a Windows versions which I'm told works fine under Wine. |
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