Skype

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Obsolete information

This information was true as of 2007, but is probably no longer applicable (especially since Microsoft purchased Skype):

• based in Europe, but available in U.S.
• dial-in phone numbers cost €30/year or €10/quarter
• no fixed monthly rate for dial-out ability; pay only for minutes used
• conferencing & group tools
• recently went over to the dark side by partnering with Intel to provide better service on PCs using Intel's chips [1] [2] (2006-03-11 A hacker has now released a patch to defeat this limitation: slashdot)
• additional evilness: one user reports that if you install a button on your site from http://www.skype.com/share/buttons/, the code includes Javascript that detects whether each visitor to your site has skype installed; if not, it spawns a popup window telling them to download it. This fact is not disclosed on the buttons page.

Outlinks

• home page
• Wikipedia
• Skype replacements at LibrePlanet wiki